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