AWW 26-10-22   SARNADAS

11 walkers met at Sarnadas - a one street, one cafe, one restaurant village just north of Alte - on a lovely sunny/cloudy/breezy morning. Perfect weather for HILL walking ! 

Line-up with John, Gill, Terry, Sue, Jan, Frank, Martin, Susan, Ros, Jim and Alan.

This is where we were heading for - a lovely long ridge walk high above Sarnadas. Of course in order to get there we first had to climb some HILLS ! 

Up to the trig point Azinhal where Alan as the youngest in the group quickly hopped up to do the honours. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at having reached the top  - little did they know ......

Down the hill

and up another hill to the deserted renovated windmill with granny flat beside it.

Down again but just look ahead.. Terry preferred not to !

and this is why 

Lunch spot with a fantastic view was waiting at the top - but deemed too windy 

 so another steep descent was made before we found a sheltered bit of track

followed by a long descent to the valley 

Susan kept asking if there were any more 'sneaky hills ' . The short, steep hill up into the hamlet of Joao Andrea is particularly sneaky and catches us off guard.

No pot of gold but to VAers he's worth his weight in gold !

An easy valley stroll brought us back to Sarnadas for well earned drinks .

 Well done everyone, it's quite a tough HILLY walk .

Many thanks to Martin for recceing and Alan for photos

NB. there was an option to add another loop including the trig point on the top of Picota but the answer was a resounding, unanimous NO !! You wait, next time ....!

The route

     

AWW 19.10.22 Paderne revisited

13 intrepid walkers arrived at the Panoramica cafe, Boliquieme,  suitably attired in wet weather gear ready to brave the elements.  The weather forecast was for light rain all day, but once Alan had discarded several layers and Sue, (Ros' cousin), had changed from UK wet weather gear to shorts we were off.

Left to right: Alan, Ken, Tony, Jan, Miriam (sitting on Jan's knees!), Frank, Julie, gill, Linda, Martin, Jim, Ros, Sue (Ros' cousin) plus Rafa. Toby and Bica.

This was spotted in someone's garden.  Odd thing to have but ....

The river was absolutely bone dry but we saw an old well along the way - also with no water.

Note Ken now has his stick ... which he left at the well!!!   Then we had a view of the castle in the distance.  And still no rain.

         

Jim negotiates the rock climb and Ros and Sue wonder which way to tackle it.

It was time for the last stop before tackling the hill to the castle for lunch.  But Ros thought we'd been there before so ought to move on.

This was the only hill of the day, up to Paderne castle.

Various options for lunch spots were chosen in the castle.

Did anyone spot the lizard lurking in the bushes?

 Leaving the castle we climbed up on to the ridge above the Rio da Quarteira.

 

There were no goji berries this week, but Tony took Jan to a sumac bush. Apparently according to Wikipedia, it is any of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera in the cashew family. It is used as a spice, as a dye and in medicine.

Gill wondered if the Sofa would fit into the back of their car.

And so through the hamlets back to Boliquieme. We had quite a nasty incident along the way where a chained up dog escaped and headed for Rafa snarling and snapping in a ferocious way. It got a large boot up its backside for its trouble.

Just as we got into Boliquieme, the heavens opened and we all ran to the café for cover!

Map Stats:

AWW Paderne Circuit October 12th 2022

 AWW Paderne Circuit October 12th 2022

On a beautiful autumnal morning we met at the main car park in Paderne and found at least two coffee shops open to encourage our start. Impressively all 9 attendees and two dogs arrived in plenty of time to allow an earlier than planned start of 9:25am!

Ready to go were (from left): Miriam, Jill, John, Martin, Jim, Ros, Susan, Ken and Alan. Showing off his bum was Rafa and hiding behind was Bica.

We set of directly up the hill beside the cemetery on a loop towards Paderne castle.

This loop continued winding its way south west until we crossed under the A22 bridge and stopped for a water break.

We then turned right along the Quarteira River riverbed and crossed the dry bed passing an old quinta which many of the hashers will remember used to be a holiday centre. 

We then started a long narrow trail down the riverbed to an old bridge and a good stop for a group photo.

Retracing our trail but now on the other side of the riverbed we slowly started the climb up to Paderne Castle.

After another deserved water break we started a slow dusty climb back towards the east side of Paderne crossing over the A22 this time.

Skirting the east side of Paderne we finally turned north off the tarmac to find some nice views over the surrounding hills and valleys.

Time now to find a shaded spot for some lunch:

Ros used the opportunity for a bit of social media catch-up:

Following lunch we climbed to the highest point of the overall walk along some dusty trails.

With a temperature of 27C our two smart dogs used all available shade opportunities:

Now turning south and downhill we walked through some lovely farmland.

Along the way we came across an interesting local known scientifically as Sphodromantis viridis or more generally as the European Mantis.

Now turning back towards Paderne we passed a Goji Berry farm well fenced and protected by cameras. For the record (courtesy of Wikipedia): 

Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry (Chinese: 枸杞; pinyin: gǒuqǐ) is the fruit of either Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense, two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae.[1] L. barbarum and L. chinense fruits are similar but can be distinguished by differences in taste and sugar content.

Both of these species are native to Asia and have been long used in traditional Asian cuisine.

The fruit has also been an ingredient in traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese medicine since at least the 3rd century AD. In pharmacopeias, the fruit of the plant is called by the Latin name lycii fructus and the leaves are called herba lycii.

Since about 2000, goji berry and derived products have become common in developed countries as health foods or alternative medicine remedies, extending from exaggerated and unproven claims about their health benefits.

We finally reached Paderne and a very welcome cold beer:

Walk summary:

Total distance 15.9KM

Net ascent: 219m (Ros are you seeing this!)

Youtube link to 3D Visualisation of walk: Paderne aww 16km Oct2022 • Hiking Route » outdooractive.com

Thanks to Alan for the photos, Ros for the sweets and everyone else for the company and chat.

Martin