AWW 4 01 2023: The WAGWAW, or Mixing the Old with the New

 

When Jim sent out the notice about the AWWS´ inaugural 2023 walk, he remarked

“A New Year, a New Walk!… at least we think it is a new walk, although there is developing some faint recollections, or is it the mind playing games. If it’s not new then it must be going way back to the land of John hope and glory!”

I took this as both a memory of a walk I had led way back in January 2020, the day after my 80^th birthday, and also as a sort of challenge. So I asked him and Gill if it would be OK for me and some other WAGS (Wednesday Algarve Geriatric Saunterers) could join in for part of the trip. And this is what he replied:....

Well John, for this special AWW occasion, as this week’s Walk Leader, I would like to invite you to guest edit your own blog on your own
blog site, and may I suggest you could include and share with your many
followers, the origins, history and some facts and figures for:
http://hopejandh.blogspot.com

Well, that was me fixed, good and proper. I could hardly back out now.

And so it came to pass that, at 10 am on Wednesday 4^th January 2023, 7 WAGS joined 13 young and super-fit AWWS at the Grupo Desportivo Enxerim.

From the right:-

Yves, John, Martin, Linda, Ros, Miriam, Marian, Geraldine, Gill,  Ness, Hazel, Jim the Leader, Ken, Susan, Maria, Ingrid, Hilke, Rob,  Alan, and JohnH, plus 3 dogs whose names elude me..

And now, in the words of Jeremy Paxman, “fingers on buzzers; here´s your Starter for 10.”  Who in this group is the most senior walker? (Seniority that is, not by age, but by number of years´ association with the AWWS.) 

And in the interests of history, here is the Starter Photo from that January 2020 walk when, glory be, there were 31 of us, nobody got lost, and some of us are still recognisable.

And now here is your eagerly awaited  Leaders Report. Over to Jim.

I have to admit that I am still unaware of the nomenclature, “WAGS” and our own AWW doesn’t lend itself to a strikingly original designation for what is a new caucus. (definition: a grouping who have a lot of influence!)
This meeting was a first coming together of the WAGS and the AWW in a shared walking escapade and hopefully it can become an annual event, let’s call it:

THE WAGWAW!

(On reflection this current designation could easily be mistaken for a Chinese restaurant chain, so alternative suggestions will be welcomed!)

When Geoff sent out our invitation for the AWW walk for Wednesday 04 January, little did we expect that a passing reference to “land of hope and glory” would be picked up by one John Hope, who emailed Gill asking if he and some of the WAGS could join us. Given the pedigree and seniority of the interlocutor, we leapt at the opportunity, such a privilege, such an honour!

We met up in Silves on a beautiful sunny morning, a group of 20, an abundance of happy smiles and joyful reminiscences, an ambience in future to be known simply as WAGWAW! 

AWW unwritten rule no1: don´t start the walk with a hill

We set off as one with an exceptionally high chatter level, lot’s to catch up, and it only began to subside…, a river crossing to negotiate followed by the big yin, a wee hill, big elevation gain!

There´s the big yin

Once upon a time. the big yin used to be Hazel´s favourite hill.......now ???

Patiently waiting for the Geriatrics to catch up

The faint recollection of having come this way before and a John Hope connection proved to have substance. It transpired that the last time we walked on this route was on 15 January 2020, with John Hope leading on his 80th birthday, a different start/finish, encompassing only part of today’s walk and in 2020 in an anti-clockwise direction rather than clockwise today!

The New Year Look

After some (5/6 ?) kms of predominantly stiff uphill climb, John led the WAGS contingent off on their own routing and the AWW continued on and upwards!

"Yes, you go up that way, Jim....."

"....and we´ll go down this way."

The two groups did see each other one more time half an hour later, each on their own ridge and contact was made, hollering and jumping up and down!

And a short time later, the WAGS were to be found lunching in comfort at Café Norinha,

while the AWWS went onward and upward.

The AWWs lunched where we met the Via Algarviana route and returned on it back to Silves with notable events, meeting up with a herd of goats and a flock of butterflies and both indicated a wish to join us for next year’s WAGWAW!

Ken shares his last banana with the rest

Back over the water crossing

Home at last

The AWW walk was 15kms, and by consensus, the bark (the invitation) was worse than the bite! A lovely day out and on behalf of the AWW, we thank the WAGS for your company and the memories!

Lang may your lums reek!

Ciao!
Jim & Gill

Track and Statistics

AWWs Track

WAGs Track

                     AWWS                                   WAGS

Distance        14.68 km                               7.60 km

Total time       4 h 46m                                2 h 57 m

Moving time   3 h 51 m                               2 h 04 m

Av. Speed           3.9 kph (est)                      3.5 kph

Total Ascent       444 metres                        221 metres 

Enough said; thanks to the AWWs for waiting for the Oldies.

The eagle-eyed, regular reader of these blogs will have noticed by now that the Blog title has now been updated from AWW 2016 – 2021 to AWW 2015 -2023, to recognise the passing of the years but also that the very first blog on this site was published in December 2015. This gives me an excuse to drag yet another Starter Picture out of the archive.

Starters Christmas Walk and Lunch 9th December 2015

And the link to that Blog is:-

https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2015/12/aww-9-12-2015-christmas-lunch-at-bistro.html

And More History

When this effort gets published, it will, quite remarkably, be the 240^th blog on the site, thanks to many contributions from leaders over the period and, not least, to Geoff Hill who continues to manage to co-ordinate most things AWW including the blog, excellently well.

Not that that December 2015 was the first AWW blog. Not by any means. If you look at:-

https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2020/04/aww-past-and-present.html 

you will see that it was Paul a Pe (full moniker Paul Akehurst de Vismé) who started the blogs as long ago as 2005. To this date he is still the only one who really understands how it all works. And I suspect that it was he who eventually got fed up with doing it all himself, and that it was he who set up hopejandh.blogspot.com and so passed the parcel to me and the rest of us. It wisna´ me, Jimmie.

The WAGS have their own series of blog and these are less “pedestrian” in content than the typical AWW blog, if only because we WAGS do much less walking, we have done the same walks many times, have nothing much further to say about them and so have to think of other material which very often has nothing whatsoever to do with the walks themselves. For example, during the Covid Lockdown when gatherings of people were discouraged (although it is rumoured that some clandestine walks did take place – I could not possibly comment), the WAGS blogs concentrated on food, e.g. a series called the Guinea Fowl Chronicles.

And one other thing the WAGS have started to do in their Blogs is to end with a piece of music, usually downloading the video from YouTube. One of my favourites this last years came to us because, as is becoming more frequent now a days, we have found access to favourite tracks fenced off. So I will conclude with that piece.

But before I do so, the answer to your  Starter for 10 Question about who the most senior walker was in last Wednesday´s group can be found at:-

https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2020/04/aww-past-and-present.html  

and it is Maria Newton. She recalls walking with the Founder of the AWW, Maurice Clyde, in 1996.

P.S. There were so many good pictures from the walk that, rather than waste the ones I did not put in this blog, I have put them in a Part Two.