All kinds of Everything

 AWW Wednesday 17th January 2024

Having experienced a huge storm the night before, but buoyed by the weather forecast of sunshine and showers, 12 of us set off from Armendoeira on what was to be a very memorable walk.

Left to Right: Martin, Tim, Peter, Julie, Linda, Geoff, Kim, Miriam, Steve, Karen, Tony; Ken was the photographer and dogs, Rafa, Toby and Bica

Geoff brought 2 new walkers along, Tim and Kim.  What an introduction to the AWW.

We set off in overcast skies along a narrow stony path until we reached the road where we headed upwards. At this point the rain started so it was a quick break to put on raingear

          

We then crossed over to descend the steepish stony path down to the main road for a short while before making our way uphill again.  The sun had come out now so it was disrobing time  (again!)

From dark skies to blue skies we continued on our way down towards the river and to a lovely house where the owners were living the dream.  Unfortunately they didn't fence their property, and Toby spotted some tasty ducks wandering around and decided he'd like to bring one for Linda.  Shock horror, the owner spots Toby with said duck and screams obscenities at Toby and shouts to his wife to fetch the shotgun. At which point Bica and Rafa decided it was probably best not to join Toby and we all moved swiftly down the lane just in case. The man at that point had grabbed a very large pick axe and was waving it at Toby to get him to drop the duck. Linda apologised of course but the owners were not listening and continued to scream abuse at Linda.  So we all decided it was best to move down the lane and regroup.

Newly named by Steve "The Dog and Duck"

All looking the other way just in case!! Ken had left Bica's lead at the last stop so had to go back for it while we all waited in trepidation.

A very upset Linda joined us and we continued walking along the cycle path, on towards Fonte da Esparrela where the water was rushing in a torrent and was the face of things to come.

The duck owners land rover came past us and we all looked away just in case.

                          

Up we went again and on towards Querenca where we decided to stop for a coffee.  Some of the group decided it was lunch time but we had to continue as there was still some way to go.

The rain decided to come again just as we had thought it was gone as the sun was out and there was a rainbow over our heads.

                                          You can just make out the rainbow if you look hard enough!

Leaving Querenca, we made our way through the hamlets, past dozens of barking dogs but fortunately no more ducks or chickens, ( only the metal ones and the remains of another animal)

Miriam took a wrong turn at one point but found the path and we made our way past the lavanderia towards Corte Garcia. It was at this point that we came across a wall which Miriam decided would be a drier place for lunch than sitting on the ground. 

       

All sitting in a row for lunch, except Linda and Toby who must have felt they needed to be separated for bad behaviour!

It was all going so well.  Miriam and Ken had recced the walk 10 days earlier and had reported " a couple of water crossings but nothing difficult and good stepping stones".

What they hadn't reckoned on was a big storm with torrential rain the night before which left all the streams raging torrents and the water crossings tricky to say the least!

So we now had to ford at least 5 water crossings which seemed to get progressively more difficult. Linda and Martin claimed to be the only ones with dry feet at the end of the walk.  Ken had waterproof socks so he had dry feet but not boots. The rest of us had varying degrees of wetness.

Here's a selection of photos to show how difficult it was to navigate.

      

      

    

We reached Fonte Felipe eventually and those that knew the area well decided to take us on an alternative route back to Armendoieira.  There was an extra water crossing and a fenced off field followed by some rather large pigs standing in our way.

Reaching the leaders original path, it was on back towards the Cafe Mateus for an extremely welcome sit down and drink.  It was lovely to see Sue Minnis who joined us for a drink.  Several of us bought locally made honey and we were given honey almond sweets by the owner.  No-one could speak now so we upped and left, I'm afraid I forgot to take any photos of the cafe finish.

Stats:  Distance 16.7

Stats:   

Distance:  16.74 km

Elevation:  428m

Average speed:  4.3km/hr

Moving Time:  3 hr 55 min

Total time:  4 hr 59 min

PS....I couldn't resist the challenge of getting Tim's video onto the blog....I am sure others also took many. Anyway...(Geoff)