End of Term Walk and Lunch : 8 December 2022.....or, To Walk, or Not to Walk, that was the Question.

 End of Term Walk and Lunch : 8 December 2022.....or, To Walk, or Not to Walk, that was the Question.

The forecasts were looking grim,most saying 90%+ rain in morning, yellow warnings abounded : as the day approached, they got worse....but accuweather shone a beacon of light ; a window in the morning of only 8% chance of rain. Like Ike on 5 June, one dithered, but with the advance columns from east of Loule leaving at 0815, an early decision was needed...let's go for it!

Ros had declared last week that "...I promise to walk quietly at the back next week and not feature at all in the blog" ....so, true to her word, decided to stay at home in the warm ( Ros doesn't do hot walks either), but the rest of the 21 walkers all arrived eagerly at the Casa de Vinha.....apart from Karen who had a lift mix-up with our treasurer over lifts. Menu options chosen, we assembled inside due to the rain...

L to R : Linda, Ken, Miriam, Martin, Sue M, Julie, Lee, Jan, Terry M, Sue H, Cycling John, Alan, Russell, Geoff, Tony, Frank, Eileen, Steve

Margaret wisely decided against walking so took the photo instead, and 18 of us set off....the stair-rods having reduced to a drizzle : the wimpy option of the shorter Menhir walk was abandoned, onwards to the barragem! It was good to see Eileen and John back.

We soon began to straggle...

....especially up the hills and down the slippery ones...John and Eileen wisely decided that enough was enough, and retreated back for another coffee...but we kept smiling...

.....Miriam and Russell took tumbles........

.... but eventually we were on the flat...

.....and the rain stopped!....

...for a while anyway...

....and a quick walk back through the village to find an immaculately dressed Ros, with never a " told you so " within earshot.

Lee wanted a quick warm...

David and Dinah joined us for lunch, along with Noreen who had waited patiently all morning. The Casa de Vinha  is now back with Maria, and all enjoyed javoli, doradas, chicken legs...oh, and a fair bit of wine!

Many had polished their antlers, though Miriam's earrings had lost their lights...

and Frank sported his Christmas tie. ( remember those?)...

....and the waitress wore her festive  headband too...

or did she borrow Ken's ???

Ros, yes that girl again, gave a speech paising Ken for his Himalayan odyssey, and to Sue H for completing the 630 miles of the  SWCP....

Geoff thanked all who came, for those completing the VA in the 26th year of the AWW, for David and his colleagues for the way-marking cistus signs that had withstood the test of time and toasted the  ongoing health of the AWW....he meant to give thanks to Sue M , our hardworking treasurer too....(sorry Sue, blame the  wine!)...

Thanks to all for another good  and eventful year ( not completely over, 2 more walks left!) and to Alan  for most of photos.....oh, the walk was just over 11kms.

Geoff

AWW Walk report Wednesday 30 November 2022 : Goldra

 

AWW Walk report Wednesday 30 November 2022 : Goldra

14 walkers, 3 dogs and Alan all turned up at the Cafe os Tres Cantos near Goldra  for an early coffee, though some hadn't taken on board the directions of "  park on left at disused shops,cafe is uphill on right.The cafe will be open,however please don’t park outside!"

Sue M had kindly volunteered to do this walk, as Susan and John had to go back to Eire earlier than planned : Alan popped into deliver a photo ( see later) so took the starter photo:

L to R : Terry M, Jan, Martin, Ros, Miriam, Ness, Geoff, Sue M, Gill,Julie, Linda, Karen, Ken, Tony...plus Rafa, Toby & Bica

It was good to have some new blood, Gil's friend Ness coming to try us out.

We set off down hill, and were soon in the countryside....

....where we met a lady who seemed about to ride a goat:

Ros and Gill pondered if they should follow suit...

but decided the horns looked a bit dangerous....so it was up and up till we reached the canil, where Ros pondered which puppy to take home...

...but settled on a calendar instead:

the others claimed they never heard the call of " Wait for Ros" and went charging on...

Ros ( yes, it's that girl  again) has this thing about trig points so has to be photographed by them...

or even half way up them...

What goes up must come down, but this seat was handy before a VERY steep decline...

The vanguard waiting ....and waiting...for the laggards to catch up...

The views from the windmill were magnificant...

Even if there was minimal agreement on whether the views were of Faro, Olhao, Vilamoura or....

The football stadium did give rather a big clue!

Thence on to Sue's lovely house and lovely homemade soup which she had generously made:

Apart from Ros finding more trig points, the walk back was uneventful...

...so back for a beer, coffee , whatever...

Whilst on the VA , we had presented Jim & Gill a photo of us all in some recognition of all the hard work they had done ; I was mortified when Ros pointed out she wasn't on it though.....it was taken at Cachapo , so Martin was , although he didn't complete all the stages. I had said  we had  considerd photoshopping Ros' head onto Martin's body, but we  decided on a different photo instead, which met with general approval this time.

Tracking on 30 Nov 2022 09:27:29

 Hiking route · Algarve

Distance

14.4 km

Time spent moving

3:28 h

Ascent

299 m

Descent

290 m

Avg. speed (throughout time spent moving)

4.2 km/h

Thanks again to Sue for leading at short notice....will excuse the amount of tarmac on this occassion....i have done the blog and photos as Sue has personal exemption from such trivia!

Geoff

AWW walk report 23 November 2022....Rasmalhio

 AWW walk report 23 November 2022....Rasmalhio

There were 12 walkers and 2 x dogs.  

Starters, L to R : Julie, Ken, Linda, Karen, Tony, Gill, Frank, Geoff, Ros, Sue H , Sue M, Alan...and Toby...and Bica somewhere

 The walk was different than planned due to a wrong turning not far from the start. This meant we would not have time to climb up the valley to the hunting lodge.  As everyone was happy strolling along flat paths and chatting away I decided to continue the walk on the tracks in the lower part of the valley.  Unfortunately, this entailed walking past a number of very active bee hives.  Sue got stung but the ladies rallied round with medication.

When we stopped for lunch Ros curiously asked where the big hill and hunting Lodge were.  I came clean and told the group about the missed turn and the walk had now been changed.  

Not being one to disappoint too much I said I would provide a couple of water crossings and an uphill section in the afternoon and try and keep to the advertised distance of 18.5kms and water for dogs etc.

After lunch we headed round the valley bottom to two water crossings.  The water levels were not too high so we managed the crossings without incidence.  Ken and Tony competing to find the biggest stepping stones.  

We then headed up a steep track which ended up in an off-piste ramble.....(getting like a David walk  I thought....lost, off-piste all we now need is to loose a dog...Ed).

  I found a way back down to the wide tracks and assured everyone I knew where I was, although I could see a few worried faces.  

We did not see any other sign of life apart from the horse Alan managed to photo and a curious sign Tony spotted.

We continued on wide tracks and reached the cars at 3pm.  Then it was a short drive back to the cafe for refreshments.  Thank you to Alan for the photos and to everyone in the group for putting up with the re-routing.  ( A guy at the cafe, enquiring about our walk, did wonder how all the ladies got there first to bag a chair and a drink...ed).

We completed the 18.5kms in just over 5 hours.