End of Term Lunch...and A Corking Little Pre-Lunch Stroll.....and nostalgia from Round the Corner

 End of Term Lunch...and A Corking Little Pre-Lunch Stroll.....and nostalgia from Round the Corner

In the total spirit of co-operation,  Ros organised the prelunch walk, Susan the lunch so I volunteered to do the blog.

 One of these days I will learn to add at least 15 minutes to whatever time I agree with Sue to leave for a walk....as a result of hunting for sunglasses ( in her bag all the time, which I found ) we were too late at Sarnadas for a pre-walk coffee, being the last to arrive. 

Without Alan and his self-timer gizmo, here is a starter photo :

L to R approx,...Kim, Steve, Susan, Jan, Julie B, Rafa, Martin, Claire, Terry M, Peter, Ros, Margaret, Sue, Frank , John....with yours truly behind the lens.

We duly set off on a short walk led by Ros, who couldn't quite forget she was once a teacher, so set us impossible questions on Portuguese Cork every time we dared rest in the shade:

Frank, with a photographic memory of a visit to the Cork Museum, seemed to know the answers to  obscure facts and was eventually banned from answering. For those who are fascinated by such trivia, the questions were....with answers at the end of the blog....

We had the usual AWW ups and downs , with a rainbow house being a bit different;'

Then past a derelict primary school...

 No blog would be without a view of walkers' backsides , an Alan specialiaty, but he was absent today :

We passed Picota, not the one near Foia, the other one where there was a near mutiny on a Ros walk when she threatened to walk up it....but we did  see 2 float planes, which are apparently for dealing with fires:

Unfortunately, they were too fast for your photographer....but there was a  lovely azure sky...

Only 1 puddle ,but Rafa was in-and-out before the camera was...

And so, back to the  cars,  just over 2 hours , and thence to O Folklore in Alte...but have you ever seen a hasher drink a beer from a glass?...

Ros duly awarded Frank with his prize for  knowing too much about cork.....

Would have been called sex-on-the-hash had it been Monday...

This is a better one to show Phil...

We seemed to be waiting a long time, but eventually wine, doradas, wine,  chicken, wine, javali, wine all came....along with Dinah, Eileen and Margaret who didn't walk...

A great lunch....David announced a Sparrowfart in  late July :

And Geoff thanked all who came, the leaders, the newcomers and hoped the newbies might become leaders ( though, after Peter's recent hash , perhaps when we are in the UK!).....and Susan for organising the walk and Sue M as Treasureer ( & Ros & Jan for deputising).....well, should have done, if didn't...

Jan's eyes were too ig for her stomach, so she thought she would give Otter a treat:

What else to say ?  Lovely views...though these three got in the way....

Occasional braying from Balthazaar....

The end of a great season of walking , thanks to all for company , we start again officially in September. Have a great summer.....oh, the answers to the cork questions :

And finally...Steve and Margaret spotted this photo on a wall in a restaurant in Sagres ....the 10th anniversary of Round the Corner :

How many AWW do you recognise from 12 years ago?....at least...Miriam L, Terry M,  Val, Dina, Rod, Antje, Paul, Maria, Lyndsey, Hazel, Yves, Terry A, John H....plus seven   more that I am afraid I don't recognise/know.... the lady to the right of Hazel is the owner of the place. She sends  kisses to everyone.  The same lady is in this photo with Margaret, 12 years later.

And the track:

Geoff.

P.S.

Since I have the original of the Round The Corner photograph (taken 30.11.2011), please allow me to add a postscript to Geoff´s Blog.

RTCs were two day affairs and we would spend the night in the Hotel Navigador in Sagres. The best it could do in the way of refreshment was a kettle and some tea or coffee in the bedrooms; it did not even run to a bar. So for breakfast the next morning we would make our way to the Café Baia where the owners would come up with a quite reasonable bacon and eggs and toast.

This is the archive picture, with the owner´s wife to the right of Myriam Lo, not Hazel:-

And, in close-up:-

from the left:

The Café Proprietor, Chris Whittle, Myriam Lo, the Proprietor´s wife, Ian Wilson, Terry Mace, Val Albaster, Andrew Henley-Welch, John O´Neil (probably shouting the Irish for Cheese), Dina Peres, Rod Frew. Antje Whittle, Paul Vismé, Maria Newton, Diane Wilson, Lindsey Henley-Welch, Hazel Hope, Ian Scott, Yves Ferrer, Terry Ames, Ian Scott´s faithful hound Maddie, and JohnH 

JohnH

The Solution: 90 in any 180

Goldilocks had suggested that it might be too hot, or too wet, or too long, or too steep. However 3 bears and Goldilocks met in Arrifana, where the weather was just right.

The leader was having all sorts of problems with these phones in cameras and was getting ready to tear it apart with his teeth. The surroundings were much preferrable

We set off down to the beach. It was all very easy: And there was no soft sand

But the walk was to prove a little bit harder as we climbed up off the beach to the cliffs at the south.

But the views were grand.

At the top we surveyed the view and caught our breath. They still all looked happy.

We had a drink and moved off south along the edge of the cliffs. We came in sight of the seastack at Pedra da Agulha. Below us was an inflatable boat, and as we waved, all the occupants jumped into the water and started to swim for shore.

We made our way down to Praia do Canal, where we met the swimmers who had just reached the shore. I spoke to one of them whose name was Marian, without an accent, in English. She told me that they had approached a Group Travel Agent that she knew, to get them into Portugal and the EU, without getting their passports stamped. They had been caught up in this BREXIT nonsense. She and the others had houses here in the Algarve and wanted to be out in the sun for more than 90 days in any 180. They had left Southampton on a small coaster, and then transferred to the fast boat to get closer to the coast. However, the Albanian coxwain refused to land on the beach, as promised. He had seen strange people up on the cliffs, watching them through binolulars and waving. He thought that they might be immigration oficials. So they had swam for it. She advised that at the end of the summer the Travel Agent had advised that if they got to Calais, then he would arrange another fast boat to get them back across the channel (or at least out of French waters) to the UK. He could even arrange for hotel accomodation for at least a couple of months back in the UK. For FREE. We said our goodbyes and saw them trudge damply up the path towards the road. We took the easy route along the beach beside the cliffs. The leader had tried this walk along the beach for about 2 years, but each time the waves had been up to the cliffs. Today we had timed it for a low low tide.

At Praia do Penedo, we stopped. Bruce suggested we try stone skipping as there were so many pebbles on the beach. Geoff thought it would be better to play golf on Pebble Beach.

We scambled over the boulder field and started the ascent up to the headland, when SUDDENLY: there was an aparition: on the skyline LOOKING DOWN on us weary travellers was the Wicker Man.

No it was just Bruce, who had skipped over the boulders and up the hill just like the Flash. We moved inland and stopped in a shady location with grand seating for lunch. It had taken us 3 hrs 20 min to do 9.8km. But they were real AWW kms of up/down/clambering over boulders, etc.

We took our time over lunch and then circled north and west back towards Arrifana. We stopped at the Praia do Canal Nature Resort, which is a high end Eco resort in the middle of the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vincentina. You can only get there on an unmade road or foot. The cost for a room for one night this weekend is Euro 498.00. We just stood outside for a photo.

We arrived back in Arrifana. Passed the house which looks as if it is sliding into the valley and which the leader was by now too tired to take a photo. The cafe did not sell Sprite so we had home made lemonade, which burst the bank. But we deserved it.

This was a "proper" AWW walk It was 18.2km

And then as we left and got into our cars, the heavens opened and the rain came crashing down in torrents. A great day Frank M 8th June 2023