THE ALTERNATIVE AWW - DOWN THE RIO SECO

A Record of the day rather than a blog.

Due to a mid afternoon GP appointment, I had to decline Geoff's invitation to meet up at the Honey Cafe and decided to return to one of my lockdown bubble walks which I loved. So, I asked Julie and Tony if they would like to join me. Then there were three.  A few days later David joined then there were four... thought that I was creeping up on Geoff's numbers. Yet anothet, our dear Sue M who had been suffering with badly bruised ribs decided to join and eventually Rachel came along, too. All in all, having a threesome to wander the hills eventually finished with 6 of us!! 

David, Rachel, Jan, Tony, Julie and Sue M. No furry, four-legged friends.

Photo by Rayner Otter.

After a 10.00 meet at Alagoas, a small hamlet outside Salir we headed off to our first river crossing. No water!!!  When I did this walk in the spring we crossed this meandering river 9 times ending up with very wet feet. 

It was a cool start but shortly after we began to derobe. We gently climbed but the good news was what went up must come down. But not such good news for Julie and Sue. Thankfully, Martin M was missing which Sue gave a sigh of relief !!!

Yes, a breather......

Are we really going up there???  Just joking but we are going down here!!!

A few helping words from Tony gave Sue confidence whilst we waited in the shade.....

As I mentioned earlier we crossed the meandering Rio Seco 9 times in the Spring which was very different today. As of now, we had fairly dry feet and avoided the need for water crossing shoes. but where is the water???? Definitely Rio Seco.  

Alas....

We found some but easy to cross with the well stones.

Does that one wobble, David? 

Another crossing....  Sue gingerly gets there. No hurry, Sue, Martin M is not behind you.

I didn't wander lonely but, hey around the corner .... a host of Burmuda buttercups.

Olive grafting at it's best..... amazing. 
. 

A little respite. Apres walk drinks in a little cafe on the 124 a few kms from the start point. We really did appreciate Sue M's patience with the owner. Slow, slow and sloth slow!!! But we were watered or something like that eventually.

RECORD

Length:                Not a real AWW in old money - 9.78 kms.

Elevation Gain:   318

Calories:              676. (Most important)

Crossing:             9 but mostly dry.