VA from Castelao to Barranco do Velho. Wed 18 May. Day
12
Dear All
(I am not much of a blogger, to be precise this is my first ever
so please be patient with me and you will eventually get to hear and see
everything you were meant to - except of course the redacted bits of which last
week there were many.)
Today the 11 keen walkers and Bica were determined to leave early
to hopefully avoid some of the searing heat that we experienced during the
afternoon of the previous day. We drove to Castelao and headed off after Alan
our pro-photographer had created a stand for his camera built out of Ikea
drawers found at the side of the road and he snapped us.
I knew IKEA drawers would be useful for something.....
In the very first hamlet of
the day, Geoff’s eye was caught by this brightly painted yellow cottage. I had
to smile at his comment - ‘I wonder what the neighbours think’.
,,,,,,,,though neighbour's is same colour?......
Anyway onwards and upwards we
walked through the most stunning scenery, very occasionally we headed downhill.
We arrived at a river, name unknown, with some precarious looking stepping
stones. Jim thought they looked rather like his teeth. Being polite I disagreed
of course.
Jim's teeth?
......but here is our intrepid Dear Leader stepping on his teeth on the
recce...
A short distance on we found
a very shallow river-crossing which we didn’t need to cross. But Susan and Bica
still enjoyed a paddle.
Les girls paddling....
Whereas on the recce, Jim & Gill did the full monty, sort of...
On we trudged up hill.
In my case, I never have any
idea where I am and even sign-posts like these don’t help me much. I am on the
Via Algarviana, but who knows where?
The Thinker...
Soon we came across a tiny
time-warp of a café run by an elderly lady who must have thought Xmas had
arrived. Jan managed to order water and coffee for us all which was much
appreciated. Here is a pic of our trusty photographer Alan as evidence that he
did indeed walk with us and another of three happy walkers including Jim, the
boss.
The photographer photographed...
Onwards and upwards we
continued. We slowly trekked but still managed to miss a very important AWW
sign. It was one of the original markers with the cistus flower painted on it
by David Littlewood or Maurice and his gang.
The AW cistus
(Note from David : Just for the record, the symbol painter was Terry A, the stencil was prepared by Dinah, and I did the note-taking re GPS, landmarks and ´direction from here´.The original route is now available again on my website, in the same format as my walks, but without all the additional information.)
The flowers were gorgeous and
often in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Here’s a pretty pic of Jim amongst
the flowers.
After this, the walk seemed
to be more uphill and we started to wilt and feel our ages. How did they know
we would be walking this way?
‘Uphill Jim’, as he was now
known, managed to find a shady lunch-spot having dragged us up another wee
hill. He became less and less accurate about the number of hills we still faced
but luckily there were still lots of shady breaks for us to rest and recover.
There was an attempt at
poetry. Uphill Jim stopped us from chatting to listen to a babbling brook –
very poetic, another of his many talents, counting hills not being one of them.
Quote of the day – ‘this wee hill isn’t a hill’.
When is a hill not a hill?......when the Dear Leader had forgotten about it
Yes, ‘only mad dogs and
Englishmen go out in the midday sun’ –surely they meant Scotsmen and Irishmen
too?
A lovely day which was
apparently a mere 16.8 kms.
So finally, our last evening
in Tia Bia arrived.
Jim and Gill were given two bottles of delicious (and expensive!!)
wine for a massive thank you for all their hard work recce-ing the walk.
Sue
delivered a beautifully rhyming poem to commemorate the occasion and Geoff and
Sue received a hopefully inspiring cookery book for their patient
organisational skills. In all we had a hot but enjoyable fun adventure with a
delicious meal in Tia Bia to round it off.
Just one more day of heat and hills
to face.
(Well done Marian....words are hers, photos are Alan's and mine, captions are mine...Geoff)
Marian
And here is Sue's ode...
Ode to Jim and Gill
At these functions it seems the mode
For me to go and write an ode.
This one’s for Jim and Gill
Who’ve walked up and down many a hill.
This has been for all of us
Which they’ve done without any fuss.
To let us know what we’re in for:
I don’t think they’ve found it too much of a chore.
Thank you both for the preparation
Which you’ve done without any hesitation.
Now, with the VA almost done,
Where next? Wherever, I'm sure we'll have fun!
Sue
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