Inagural Walk September 2022, mishaps and all

 Inagural Walk September 2022, mishaps and all

In days of yore, when Men were Men and Women were Women ( and not Birthing People ) the AWW used to walk in the rain (see below)  and blogs were a lot more erudite than they are today , meandering-on about such esoteric topics as Angels dancing on pinheads and the suchlike : the walk barely got a mention at all. With this week's walk leader declaring UDI on writing blogs, your co-ordinator has stepped into the breach, and this blog is thus likely to follow that pattern, as I am a thousand miles away in the UK.However   Alan  kindly sent photos and some  walk details.  And so to begin.....

There was a great reluctance to lead on the inaugural walk of 14 September, so Ros kindly volunteered at the last moment, albeit with a caveat on the weather. The day before the walk, most forecasts  foretold rain : as there were only 2 others coming , the walk was cancelled.  This prompted young John H, now a WAGS, to comment that rain never caused AWW walk cancellations back in his days of yore, supplying photographic evidence ( from  2010 ):

When the AWW walked in the rain....

Mark you, ***'s law decreed that the weather turned out to be better than expected , though a couple of heavy showers would have made the trio wet.

Sue M  was  thus the leader  for the revised Inaugural Walk on 21 September, though the gremlins  had got to work and changed that to 21 October, Trafalgar Day in the email that went out. Upon realising this error, a correction was issued, but John H must have a lot of time on his hands as he kindly pointed out that 21 September was the anniversary of the Battle of Preston Pans, the highpoint of the 1745 Jacobite  Rebellion, saying : "  In it the Jacobites beat a Hanoverian Army whose commander was General Sir John Cope. The battle lasted less than half an hour and is still remembered in Scotland via the song “Hey, Johnnie Cope, are ye wauking (waking) yet” because the story is that Cope was still in bed when the battle began. "

Perhaps best not to mention Culloden....but wasn't it an English army, albeit with  an Hanovarian contingent?

Anyway, mishap 3 was the return by the " Email Administrator "  of many of the correction emails I had sent out : problem  was, they were only returned on Wednesday afternoon, too late to tell anybody. I just had to hope that enough of the correcting emails got through, or that walkers were savvy enough to realise that 21 Septembe was meant, not 21 October.

It was with some relief then to see the starter photo, showing 10 walkers and 2 dogs:

L to R : Alan, Ros, Miriam, Lee, Ken, SueM, Karen, Roger, Jan, Martin....and Bica and Rafa

It was good to see Roger back walking ( memo : must  now ask him to lead sometime!).

Having met at Fonte Filipe they walked up to Quarenca , about 6kms, which looked mainly uphill:

Quarenca church

A well desreved coffee break

 Unfortunately, there were a number of quad bikes parked and consequently there was a queue for drinks:

Before off again:

On the walk back to the Fonte, they  had to wait by the roadside as a large group of bikers (30+) drove by with a few trikes amongst them.

 As  they  headed back, Bica found a large bone by the path and guarded it carefully : they  rather hoped it wasn't a human femur but, in any case, she devoured it in short order:

Lunch

When they  got back to Fonte Filipe the humidity was intense after a night of heavy rainfall and storms so the Wimps of Ken, Miriam, Alan, Roger and Lee decided to end there . The Rambos of  Sue , Karen, Jan, Ros and Martin ( note, no Oxford comma, for grammar pedantics!) continued for another 8km loop.

Geoff