Honey Cafe to Moinha de Rocha 23 Feb 2022

 Honey Cafe  to Moinha de Rocha

Some may have been put off by  last week's scramble, some by my warnings of ploughed tracks, others by the distance or doctor's appointments,  but most because they had flown off to see the Uk battered by Eunice or to inspect the tulip fields. Anyway, 7 of us plus Bica arrived promptly at the Honey Cafe for coffee , though it was rumoured that an almost as large breakaway group of Easterners had gathered Out East for a truncated walk.

The Honey Cafe has a new and enlarged outside sitting are, but L to R :

Bica, Linda, Jim, Sue, Gill, Steve, Tom ( photo by Geoff).

The usual route was recce'ed some weeks ago, and deemed impassable without machetes, so we had 13 mins of tarmac, but along a nice valley in the sun (incredibly warm for Feb) past a stream and an old nora...

Before we got to our first uphill track, and thence to The Hill That Sue Broke Her Wrist On.....but that was going down, now we only go up...

The Hippy Commune had erected new fences, but the paths were all passable, though we wondered what went on there....

Bica found a pond...

We reached Moinha de Roche, went up a different valley, and Bica found some more streams...

The last looking very beautifull in the dappled sunlight...

Rather than do a Jim and climb after lunch, we ascended the next big hill to have lunch at the top, with great views & visibility:

.....and Bica went on her usual post-lunch prowl for leftovers...

The flat section after lunch was , admittedly,. a little uphillish, but Sue's hat was adorned with some flowers from Jim..

I had realised by then that I was whistle-less : having taken off my jumper on the initial hill, I feared it had fallen off and that  I had lost it, but  hoped it could be found on the way back....but in the meantime, it was time to descend...

and more streams for Bica who seemed to climb near vertical cliffs with ease...

One stream to ford, but they were all to quick for the camera, except you-know-who...

We were soon doubling back, when Linda found, not a snake, but my whistle!

and so back to The Honey Cafe for a cold Sagres...

Thanks to all.

Geoff

Elapsed time was just under 5 hours....

Distance

17.3 km

Time spent moving

3:56 h

Ascent

376 m

Descent

420 m

Avg. speed (throughout time spent moving)

4.4 km/h