FIGUERAS AND THE VALLEY OF POI – WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2021

 

FIGUERAS AND THE VALLEY OF POI – WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2021

 

Thirteen walkers and 1 x dog.  Alan, Martin, Julie, Russell, Jan, Sue, Beala, Barry Gill, Frank, Ros, Tony and Raffa the dog.  (Welcome to Barry and Beaula our new walkers).

 After a quick coffee for some in the village we headed into the woods, past the orange groves and out past the motorway.  We paused to enjoy the artwork on the wall of a farmhouse, Bora Bora which translates “let’s go”.

 We crossed empty streams and took a short cut around an empty farmhouse.  This resulted in a scramble back down to the track.

It looked as if we were in the wild west of the Mexican desert as we waited for the horses to pass by.

 

We eventually came to the gradual hill climb. 

As we climbed up through the valley, we enjoyed the beautiful view of the baragem.  Some thought it was a Scottish Loch.

At the top of the ridge Ros shared her stash of Dutch sweeties whilst we enjoyed the views up to Monchique.

Raffa decided he wasn’t waiting around whilst we enjoyed the sweeties so we had to move on and follow our new leader.

Not everyone spotted the arrows from the recci.

 

 

Then it was down through the petrified forest of pine trees.  The result of the fire in July this year.

 

 

Lunch stop at the deserted farm house where some of us enjoyed the shade and Raffa enjoyed a few tasters from the selection of different sandwiches.  Barry had kindly brought some home made South African meatballs for the walkers to sample.

We headed down to the bottom of the valley onto mostly flat tracks and were impressed with the fly screen on the donkey. Russell doesn’t rate its chances in the Derby wearing that.

We joined the levada on our way back to Figueira.

Raffa seemed to know where he was headed so we all followed.

 

Back to the Social Club in Figueira for the post walk drinks.  Sue says they have been relinquished to 2^nd cheapest in the Algarve as Tor is the new number one.  Gill shared some cuttings from her Lemon Grass plants for all the ladies to take home.

I managed to reduce the distance down to just over 17kms with all the shortcuts in place and we completed the walk, including lunch in 4 hours and 20 minutes.

 

Thank you to those who joined us and made this a very enjoyable walk.  Also to Alan and Tony for the lovely photos.  See you soon.  

Linda and Russell