Adventures at Rasmalhao....5 April 2023

  Adventures at Rasmalhao

The Starters : 10 walkers and 2 dogs. Ken, Bruce, Ros, Jan, Marian, Frank, Sue, David, Miriam..... Linda the photographer. Plus Bica and Toby dogs.

A quick coffee at the cafe in Rasmalho before we car shared to the starting point.  I assured Marian that I had come prepared with a compass, whistle and two phones to track the walk,  and a sniffer dog.

Then we headed out into the wilderness between Rasmalho and Monchique. 

A nice gentle start, then we headed down the valley.  At the bottom I realised my tracker dog Toby was not with us. Lots of calling and whistling were to no avail. I assured the group he would find us.  At our first water crossing we waited and the group offered to go back to look for him.  I said he would be fine and would find his way back to the car.

We began our gradual long climb up the valley, further into oblivion.  One eye on the path and one eye looking for Toby. 

Then it was down into a small valley with more water crossings before the killer zig zag hill before lunch.

We became a bit spread out with some rushing to get the climb over and avoid the bees from the nearby hives.

There was another hiking group sat in the shade of a large tree by the hunting lodge. David had a chat with them. They had come a different route to us but had seen Toby the dog further down the valley. He had followed them for 10 minutes but then went back.  David gave them his phone number in case they saw him again. This gave me hope we would see him on our way back.

Miriam and Sue were the last to arrive for lunch and Sue had struggled with the hill and the increasing heat. She was huddled into the shade and given hydrating drinks. As luck would have it, a soon to be "Knight in shinning armour" came driving along the dirt track. Ros made use of her Portuguese lessons and persuaded him to give her and Sue a lift to the nearest main road which was Monchique.  Frank said he would drive up and pick them up after the walk.

 It was a long lunch for some so David entertained Bruce with stories of previous AWW mishaps.

The depleting group of 8 and one dog headed back down the valley. I made the mistake of following the path the other group had gone back on. It was not my planned route but was a very good path with no hills. Apart from the small part where I tried to get us back to my original route. Hence dirty bottoms down the short steep bit. All agreed to keep to the new path.

Near the end I took a detour to try and find Toby.  Bruce came with me. The main group found Toby sat by the cars and phoned to advise me.  What a relief ! Bruce and I were half an hour from the cars so I suggested they try and get him in Ken's car so they could all get to the cafe.  Five people and 2 dogs got to the cafe first. Then Frank and Sue, followed by Ros after picking up her car on route.  Finally Linda and Bruce.

Well deserved drinks at the cafe and all pleased to see Sue looking more refreshed after her long rest at the cafe in Monchique.

Some did 12 kms, the main group 18kms and Linda and Bruce 20kms. Not sure how many Toby did but he was very hungry.

The long route...

The shorter route....

Thank you all for joining me on this adventure.

Linda