Every time you arrive at Malhao, you have to stop and admire the view, unless you have walked up from Zambujal at the end of Ros's walk,, when all you can do is gasp for breath.
Anyway there was 3 of us at the start: Alan, Frank and Martin.
The leader decided to be adventurous and do the walk "back to front" in an anti-clockwise direction.
He missed the correct turning on 2 occasions by turning left too soon, but by luck found the original track both times. It cut out about 2kms so it was not an issue.
However some in our little group did not have complete trust in the leader, so tended to hang back in case he changed his mind again.
It was steep up to the beehives. Two of us stepped gingerly past. However the laggard stopped to take a photo of a Geko running down one of the hives. It must have disturbed them, as the next thing he was running after us with an entourage behind him. As normal you do not have to run very fast to get away from the bear: you just need to run faster than the one at the back.
He got stung twice. we did not get stung.
Then it was up the hill towards the fire watch towers above Malhao.
It was scorching in the mid-day sun but there was no smoke to be seen: thankfully.
The flowers were gorgeous. I have noticed that the predominate colour is yellow. Is it Darwinian that pollinating insects prefer yellow?
By this time the leader was flagging and decided to lead from the rear to ensure that he did not make any more mistakes.
And then the leader did not die, get buried and go to heaven, but we reached the village of Malhao.
But when we sat in the shade and had a cold beer, it just felt like heaven should be.
Frank McEwan
31st May 2020
Well done sounded very hot!
ReplyDeleteThe three Malhaoteers. Congratulations completing in the heat especially with bees after you 🐝 🐝
ReplyDelete