AWW 2015-24: MWAWW - 11th November - Carrapateira to Pedralva

This week the Most Westerly Algarve Wednesday Walkers decided to do what is known as “Jim’s walk from Carrapateira to Pedralva”. Not only is it a beautiful and varied walk but it also has a great picnic spot. Nancy and Steve seemed to think that Margaret could remember the walk from last time despite her protestations.

We met at the Os Amigos Bar and fortified ourselves with a coffee. The five this week were Steve, Margaret, Nancy with guests:- another Margaret and Davey who took the photographs including the socially distanced, Covid-protected team photo at the beginning.

Margaret remembered that the start was across the road taking the right hand turn signposted Amado. The track was in good condition, well laid and slightly uphill. Towards the top we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the Amado beach.

The track turned inland and soon reached the N125, where we turned left then almost immediately turned right following a sign to Vilarinha. The track took us through a wooded area then opened out onto a panoramic view where we could see signs of areas that were destroyed by fire.

We knew we had to take a turn to the right somewhere. Fortunately it was signposted Pedralva 5Km. This proved to be a long 5 Km. The footpath became narrow and slippy then started to climb and climb with a few hairpin bends until we reached the top where we paused for a drink.

What greeted us was haunting; like a scene from a science fiction movie. All we could see for miles was burnt trees from the fire in June 2020; the fire that had been started by accident when a strimmer overheated. We could still smell the burnt wood. But as we descended a rather tricky path there were signs of new growth starting.

New hope.

We decided to follow the footpath signs so we didn’t get lost.

We then reached a better track where we passed the hippy camp, (this time with no outside loo) and the house with the amazing treehouse. This was where the signs of a blazing fire stopped and we were back in the greenery again. We passed another camp where we could hear some children and the signs concurred.

The path was then straightforward to Pedralva where we stopped for lunch, filled our bottles with water from the tap and had a look around. Margaret (the guest) had never been to Pedralva before and was fascinated by its history. (We told her Ros’s version).

Refreshed by lunch we returned from whence we came but this time we continued on the path to Vilarinha where a new loo appeared.

We crossed the river 6 times but most of the crossings were dry despite the recent rain. We only needed to use two of the special crossings.

We then turned left up the hill. Heads down, count the steps until we could see the trig point. We looked out across the sea and saw a strange shape, too rectangular to be a new island, far too big for a ship. Any ideas?

None us could climb the trig point so we decided that the insect was the youngest member of the group and he was quite happy to climb it.