Fatburner Mark 2 : 24 November 2021

 

BENSAFRIM FAT BURN 

We all gathered on a damp wet morning at the cafe near the market for our early morning 

Slurp of coffee . We welcomed some new walkers that had brought the damp wet weather all the way from Ireland , guests of John and Susan !

All gathered are :

Tony ,John, Steve, Sue, Brid ,Susan, Julie, Mairead ( at the back ), Martin ,Jan ,Linda, Geoff ,Rosarie, 

Sue M, Gill ,Jim, and 2 South African can not remember names (tut tut, Barry & Beulah, Ed) ! And  Raffa four legged friend . 

We were off ! Thankfully the rain went and the sun came out . 

4 km on flattish road then a stop for a strip off........ 

......then came our 1st. hill and the fat burn began:

Great vistas of the surrounding area and a 007 type house down below:

We were up then we were down and yes you guessed up again then down a nice flattish path to our lunch spot , some one said it was the finest lunch stop they have ever had on a AWW walk !  

The clouds gathered and the rain came again, luckily we were still in our fabulous lunch location and was able to shelter and keep dry ( the luck of them Irish) ha 

Jim found a beer tap hooray  but sadly it was not connected 🙁

Onwards and upward , Tony found a unique shower hanging from a tree ............(fortunately, empty!)....

 ......then we came across Quinta da Esccocia Jim being Scottish had to stop for a wee photo ....

More ups and downs and finally to the windmill :

Raffa is smiling !

....and the beautiful site of the village below , and down we went with a slurp of beer in our minds ! 

All home and dry and the beer order in ( thanks Sue M) all we’re happy walkers. 

Thank you to all of you for coming and apologies for the late blog , thank you Alan for 

the photos . 

19 .4 km
548 Elevation gain
Speed touch over 4 km a hour

Gill 

Caminho das Caldas – Picota Walk :L Susan and John’s walk 3rd November 2021

 

Caminho das Caldas – Picota Walk

Susan and John’s walk 3^rd November 2021

Starter photo left to right

Sue H, Jim, Manuela, Frank, Susan, Gill, Theo, Tony, Julie, Barry, Beulah, Sue M, Ros, Geoff, Martin, Rafa, John

Thanks to Alan for being our photographer. He sent us 37 brilliant photos out of over 140 images.

This circular walk with lots of hills started near the chapel of Caldas with 17 walkers plus our canine friend Rafa.  15 brave participants completed the challenge unfortunately 2 walkers left due to a leg injury. We hope they made it home safely and that Manuela is feeling better. The walk was lengthened by 300 metres due to a slight leading error (mea culpa). The views and good cheer of all compensated for the difficulty of the walk.

The merry crew anxiously look for their missing leader. My co-leader is too busy chatting to notice. We still set off at the appointed hour of 9.30am.

A fun moment between Martin and Julie.

We decided to omit Picota from our walk as we felt it may have been a climb too many. This is the second highest mountain in the Algarve. Well worth doing it some other time especially on a clear day.

At last a very welcome lunch break

 

The wrong way at the 14 km mark. Glad you recced the walk with us Gill as I had a senior moment which was shared by my co-leader (he denies this).

 

A William Tell re-enactment

Into Monchique to escape from the rain. Where did it come from? At least it gave Ros a chance to have a well earned first coffee

Off we go again for the final hurrah

Back to Foz de Banho for a well deserved drink. Thanks to Sue Minnis for organising these refreshments.

Walk stats: Distance: 19.88 km, Time 5:37, Pace 16:57 min/km, Total ascent 829m

We used the PR2 (Pequena rota- regional path) map for this walk and followed the red and yellow signs. Thanks to Jim, Gill and Linda for reccying this walk with us. Further gratitude to Jim for giving us the PR2 map.

Thanks to you all for joining our walk. We hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.  

Susan & John 

 

 

 

VA Day 4

 At 8.30 am a 5 car convoy left Alcoutim and headed into the mist. Arriving at Vaqueiros about an hour later we were relieved to hear from Jim there were few if any hills that day. And the hills were low, with gentle slopes. ( Never buy a used car from Jim!) The sun was now breaking through.  What could possibly go wrong?

Firstly Ros discovered she had left her walking shoes and pole in her car at Cachopo and she had also left the car unlocked! A frantic search was organised and spare shoes/ socks and a pole were found and we were ready to go.  No not quite.  Marian raced back to get her rucksack which she’d left in the toilet nearby .

From left to right: Brenda, Ken, Frank, Marian, Alan, Ros, Jim, Jan, Geoff, Sue, Gill, Elisabete, Bica and Miriam.

So off we trudged followed by our own private rescue service thanks to Otter.

The way post told us it was 14.5 km

We soon started trudging up the first, second, third, fourth etc of the non existent hills.  Jim smiled sweetly and assured us, after each hill that was it, no more hills. He lied!

We marched on in brilliant sunshine.

Enjoying wonderful views and brilliant scenery, Alan discovered an old Hillman Minx.

We met, passed and were passed by a young Dutch girl striding out on her own.

Lunch was a welcome, albeit brief 19 minutes break and rest.

At 12.35 the walk was halted by the repeated 3 blasts of a whistle.  The accepted sound of an emergency/ problem.  No one remembered to answer the whistle with the same, but Jim and Ken walked back to the end of the group. The emergency? Jan had her socks on inside out! ( actually it was blister repairs!)

We continued and then the leaders requested silence. 3 small goats were standing on a woodpile watching us and it was a great photo opportunity.

Only 3.6 kms to go

Poor Otter was redundant as mountain rescue. ( thank goodness )

Onwards and upwards again we marched resolutely towards the finish line.

And there we saw Cahcopo in the distance.

And so the end of 4 days of the VA , 76 kms in total, lots of sore feet and legs, but all proud to have achieved it. It was lovely to sit in the cafe and enjoy a well earned drink in the company of friends and fellow walkers.

A big thank you to Gill and Jim (plus John and Susan) for doing the recce and to Geoff for all the organisation. Thanks too to Alan for all the photos.

Until the next stage …..

Ken & Miriam

Map from Ros....+ 2k 'cos she forgot to start recording in Vaquieros ( something to do with no shoes, no socks, no pole !).....but then i forgot to turn my recording off at the end till i got home...(Geoff)

More Meanderings along the Funcho

                                           More Meanderings along the Funcho : 17 November 2021

This walk wasn't plan A , but time precluded a proper recce so it had to suffice : it was a repeat of 28 February 2020, back in pre-covid days. We had more walkers then...nostalgia buffs might like to check it out at :

https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-meander-along-funchoandor-arade.html

Susan brought some Irish friends with her, who were spotted doing pre-walk exercises in the carpark . By the time my camera was out, all I could get was Susan instructing Sue :

So  it was time for the starter photo:

But one of our more observant members realised we were one short...

So once Ros deigned to join us ( L to R ) : Ros Sue M, Sue H, Gill, Karen, Ann, Iggy and Susan we set off......without any four legged friends. Back in the day, we used to count how many Tilleys there were : now we count how many Sue's/Su's/Susan's/Susanna's..... We detoured to see Visigoth graves, which the new walkers hadn't seen.

I had said there was a short off-piste section.....nothing in the David league, but a little treacherous:

Anyway, safely on a proper track ( a feather bed after the rock of VA last week) we made good progress on a delightful sunny day, the chill having burnt off. The Arade looked very scenic:

and then past the Lynx farm, which looked  as if it had been enlarged, but unfortunately the observation post and information boards, burnt in the fires, had not been replaced:

No sign of lynx....only Cycling John has the cudos of photographing one ( a challenge for Alan?)

Lunch was taken overlooking the Funcho: some liking it hot...

.....others the shade...

A lot of lollipop pines had been planted in terraces: some thought for wood ( but surely taller Scots pines would be better?) and some for pine nut harvesting ( but labour costs would be astronomical?). Any more ideas?

There was an option of an extra 4km, but this was declined. En route we were chased by a friendly dog in a blanket....unfortunately, the blanket fell off by the time the camera came out...

....so back to Silva for a refreshing tippler.

Many thanks to all who came . Some stats :

Distance : 18.1km

Time : 3h 55m

Elapsed time : 4h 36m

Ascent :227m

highest Point : 196m

Uphill: 32%

Downhill :34%

Flat :33%

Speed : 4.6kmh 9 4.5 uphill, 4,7 on flat/downhill)

Geoff