AWW VA Day 17 : Barao de Sao Joao to Raposeira

 

Wednesday 16th November.  VA Day 17 .  Barao de Sao Joao to Raposeira.

After an interrupted night of either dogs barking or a cockerel crowing, eight slightly weary walkers met up for an excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs and good strong coffee which revived us all and off we set from Vila do Bispo confidently heading in completely the wrong direction. 

Luckily Jim realised in the nick of time and we managed to reverse all 4 cars backwards round a roundabout - not massively easy or popular! Concentrating on the route we continued to Raposeira, where we left a couple of cars, met up with Miriam and Ken (with their keys safely locked in Miriam’s charge) plus Alan before heading off to the start of our walk to  Barao de Sao Joao.

Alan didn't need to set his fancy self timer on his camera, as there was a willing local to do the honours . The same winning eleven as yesterday, with Bica actually facing the camera  ( as, indeed, so was I ).

What a village, full of wonderfully weird art. Susan actually felt the village was ‘out of control’ having noticed a mural of a sexy damsel scantily dressed and perched provocatively on a window ledge :

 

.....but coming or going?....

"Oh what pity, this oven barely made a panito, so small"

....and as for what was going-on on the roof...

The market place had some interesting models too, including one of a wobbly chap - possibly Alan who tripped and fell right there – we were more worried about the camera than Alan! 

In fact, Alan's camera was damaged , but hopefully the following pictures are OK!

Then on we walked past a series of tree-huggers....

and a very picturesque animal drinking-trough. There was no end to this village’s artistic talent. What a thrilling start to our day. We continued on a very attractive trail through woodland and enjoyed perfect walking conditions. 

Ros had to have a photo-opportunity at a trig point, to add to her tally...

and we had  a banana stop at a slightly hippy ?German School in the middle of nowhere.....

 where we met a couple of VAers from ?Holland who had set off that morning from Bensafrim! Very hearty. The local artwork was a little strange...

We continued on woodland tracks which took us up a couple of serious climbs. Ros led the way, onwards and upwards.

How does she manage to talk whilst climbing almost verticals slopes? We stumbled across yet more art on this stretch with firstly a picture of a fig-picking lady. Figs as you know were an important indigenous crop providing a good local income. 

Then there was also a picture of a chap with his donkey, probably better known as a travelling salesman today! 

Yet more excitement when we passed through ‘turbine territory’, to quote Gill, where repairs were being made.

Gill looks upon turbines as ‘engineering masterpieces’. For both Gill and Jim wind turbines are clearly their ‘specialist subject’. Jim felt the nearest wind turbine was being fixed by the ‘wind turbine hospital’ because of the red bandages stuck to the sails!? Not quite sure about that analysis. 

Geoff had a feeling of deja-vu around here, recalling an AWW walk from long ago, led by Miriam (Lo)....with a lot of phone guidance from Paul

Fame at last for Bica, a street named after her ……

Lunch was after 11 kms of walking, so just over halfway. 

After lunch a short cut obviously appealed to a few weary walkers which I wouldn’t dare call cheating ……..

The afternoon felt rather long, damp and dull as the weather worsened and raincoats were taken off then put back on. After such an exciting start to the day but rather dreary afternoon we were ready to get back, finishing our 20.6 kms for the day late in the afternoon.

Our evening  ‘reception drinks’ to quote Geoff, were particularly special as we opened some very delicious red and white wine kindly left for us by Frank. Thank you Frank, you were missed but we enjoyed your wine. 

Others kindly contributed beers and wine too and supper later was excellent, thanks very much to Lena and her staff at the Palheiro, who opened up especially for us again and cooked some lovely javali. The wines were good too....so geood, we'd drunk most of her stock the prevoius night. She kindly made us some fresh, hot, chestnuts too!

And thanks to Vanessa at the Pure Fonte Velha B&B for organising the restaurant.

Marian....with thanks to Alan and Geoff for photos