AWW : End of year walk(let) and Lunch, 15 June 2022

 End of year walk(let)  and Lunch, 15 June 2022

11 walkers arrived for coffee and the starter photo , curtesy of Martin , but with Rafa pining at home for missing his weekly outing . Cycling Jim ventured forth from Luz to rejoin us, though not quite sure what the girls thought was so funny...

L to R : Jan, Terry M, Frank, (cycling) Jim, Linda, Geoff, Russell, Sue, Marian, Ros

This walk(let) was going to be quite short, just to wHet the appetite ( did you know Ros used to teach English and she & Sue  had pulled me up on my spelling previously!) It is based on a walk that Monica has done, but with a bit of Geoff improvisation.

Fortunately, it was about 10C cooler than the previous few days, though quite humid. I had promised a flat(ish) walk, but the Zimbreira mountain (all of 197m) began to appear...

Zimbreira....are we going up there?

Ros had recently scaled the heights and reported smelly bags at the top to the GNR : there seemed only the one route up and down, so decided to leave that particular adventure to another day...always  leave something to come back to.

For some reason, the converstion for some turned to particularly exotic ladies shoes made by Loubouton which could cost thousands....bit out of my league! Apparently they have red soles, but who sees  that?

We passed through some pretty hamlets, with some very des-res properties needing total renovation, but I forgot that Alan wasn't there to take pictures, so they will have to remain in your imagination.

We did approach a gypsy camp , usually empty, but now with half a dozen dogs....and as many begging children! Moving swiftly on , we did glance at a young foal....

Coming to Monte Boi though, some decided they needed a rest....

"Where's my seat ?" thought Jim

 "Ah, that's better!

With a car of multi colours...

Monte Boi was a village of two halves : some new expensive villas, but with a pretty street of older properties....

And so back to Casa da Zabel, to meet with those who were only there for the beer and lunch...

Alan had the prize for most exotic shirt...

Ros & Linda made a quick change to greater elegance...

....and Ken & Miriam arrived just in time....

Eileen made her return...

Food preparations were well underway....

The menu was quite large....and cheap!

 And so to eating...though the wine was a bit late in  being served...

I gave a brief resume of the year....45 walks, 13 days of VA, only 3 cancellations ( 2 for rain, 1 for no walkers!) and no less that 15 different leaders. A drink was  raised to our absent treasurer , Sue M , for all her hard work, and to the 26th year of the AWW.

I think all enjoyed it, thanks for coming and your company throughout the year, shame not all could be there, in particular our VA walk Leaders Jim & Gill , ably supported on the reccees by John & Susan.

Lasly, here are the track stats....elapsed time almost 2 h 15 m

Geoff

Ribeira de Algibre, June 8th

 Ribeira Algibre

This week's walk was very well attended, despite late cancellations due to illness, a fall and a vehicle problem. Our dynamic dozen are pictured here outside the cafe with no name in the small hamlet of Ribeira de Algibre, close to the path of the river with the same name.

The river rises in the foothills of the Caldeirao from tributaries around Querenca and Amendoeira, passing through Quinta de Ombra, Tor, westwards towards Paderne, where it turns in a south westerly direction, finally meeting the sea at Vilamoura. There is a good path of about 42 km all the way from the Roman bridge at Tor to the sea. But today's walk was somewhat shorter than that.

From left to right, Terry, Geoff, Sue, Julie, Jan, Tony, Alan, Ken, Yves, Ros, Miriam, Robert, plus of course Bica.

The main challenge for all of us this week was the heat. And our main preoccupation was finding shade and the chance of a breeze. Fortunately the start headed through shaded paths down to the river passing an old head-high irrigation channel.

Walking west with occasional shade, beside the dry river bed.

The first of many stops in the shade and everybody still smiling.

Surely Geoff hasn't had enough already! And where did he find that chair?

The first major hill and Yves seems to be enjoying it.

Come on Ken, head up. There are good views to be had. Or maybe they're not a match for the Himalayas.

Looking west towards Foia.

Time for another shaded stop.

At last, salvation. Provided by the Igreja de Boa Hora. We can sit under the shade of the Plain trees enjoying a gentle breeze while we eat lunch.

Proper seats too. Luxury!

But there's more walking to be done, and the shade is getting a little scarce. We pass through agricultural land on our way to Monte Seco.

Let's head for those trees.

Finally onto the tarmac road up to Monte Seco. Is somebody a fan of Bollywood films, or maybe the Kama Sutra?

But by now most thoughts will be on the climax to our walk. Bolstered by the many colourful flowers along the way, such as these bougainvillea.

At last we're on the final descent to the finish, cheered on by these energetic canines, who sprinted up the hill to lend their encouragement. They knew we'd had a ruff time of it.

So ruff, Julie was desperate enough to try a drink from from an electric well pump. At least I think that's what she's doing!

A final reminder of the agricultural importance of this valley and the water that flows through it. Some of the time.

And despite the heat of the sun, some are already preparing to heat themselves this coming winter.

Enjoying our well-earned rest and rehydration after a hotter than average walk.

Thanks to everyone who managed to make it and to Alan for his pictures.

Some statistics:

15.3 km

350 m of climb

4h 05m walking

25 m lunch stop

Tony and Julie

 

Teetering around the craggy hill of Tôr 

Unfortunately, David had to back down as leader due to Dinah contracting Covid so with no one offering, I decided to step up and offer to lead. Having no time to recce, I decided to walk one of my regular routes and knew that the river crossing would have dried up and easy to cross.

We met at the Cafe Mai 1^st  located in the small hamlet of Funchais in Tor Freguesia.

I believe a few others who would have joined us but had several domestic duties on that day. One had the Mosquito net man making a visit, another had the locksmith man to the house, moving house for another two and, of course a few others were away so ........

Sue M and me, Jan.

We began our walk traipsing through the hamlet of Funchais following the lane of Beco das Nespereiras.

Which way? Beco das Nespereiras.

 We made our way through the back paths of Travessa do Alecrim where we started the first climb out of the hamlet, passing some individual dwellings. We then left civilisation and continued our craggy, rocky hill climb toward the summit (whence the name Tôr is derived), whilst keeping parallel with the Ribeira de Algibre-Tôr road. In the distance, on the opposite hill, the small hamlets of Boa Hora and Parragil were clearly visible.

We eventually came to the top of our climb and, after a breather; we traversed for a couple of kilometres before beginning our descent to the top end of the village of Tôr. In the past, the route took us onto tarmac which met the Loulé-Salir road however I decided to find an off-tarmac route and asked Sue if she minded if we recce’d a way which I had done a few years back on other walks.

We entered into a field which had a faint tractor path and from memory this was the path that I was looking for. Not sure if Sue approved. There was an abundance of prickly yellow plants quite unsuitable for shorts!!!

This finally petered out and we found ourselves on a beautiful, shady path which led us onto a country tarmac road where we turned onto Rua Cementerio. We followed this narrow country road through interesting small hamlets.

This took us down onto a main road which we crossed and headed to the "Roman Bridge" here we crossed the Ribeira de Algibre. The bridge itself is hardly Roman (despite its epithet!) as it was not completed until the Moorish occupancy of Lusitania; although it does form a part of the Roman road which was later to be used as one of the Caminhos de Santiago.

The river was very low which was very different from a few months ago which we failed to cross as it was too deep and fast flowing.

We admired our own Banksy of Satori's artwork on the gable end of a cottage (Satori is a Salir-based arts and entertainment society). It clearly shows a basket of Barrocal country foods of grapes, medronho, nuts, olives, grains, etc. clutched in a hand.

We were now about halfway through our outing and crossed over to the other side of the valley. The tarmac road led us up to our turning at the Quinta da Tôr vineyards.

We were now following the river, passing by more vineyards and a horse stable. Lots of ponies looking very happy with themselves enjoying their space in the fields

What’s going on here?

This led us to a crossroads. Normally, we would take a left here and start to climb towards Soalheira however I had to get my Cinderella back to her house in time to dress for a Jubilee picnic party that afternoon so here we went straight in order to reduce the length of the walk.

.

As we tramped along we came about some interesting natural bark sculptures.....

  

The other crossing I wanted seem to have disappeared so we turned back to the crossroads and took a left crossing over the dried river bed which we then headed up towards the main Tor/Boa Hora road. We crossed here and on towards the end of the walk. Around the corner and there was the cafe but alas it was closed.  So, Sue the oracle of all country cafe’s which serve a glass of wine for €1 to €1.50 glass of wine came up with the idea of driving a few minutes to the Cafe next to the Adega on the Loule road and here we settled down for our post-walk refreshments. And, yes here we paid €1.50!!!!

Thank you Sue making it such a lovely walk.

She did make it to the party!!!!!

Time taken.        A tad under 3 hours (no lunch stop).

Length of walk.  13.5 kms. A galloping speed of 4.5 kms per hour.