Ambles and Altercations Around Paderne.

 AWW. Wednesday, 6th March 2024.

Ambles and Altercations Around Paderne.

With the Spring exodus of walkers already begun, I was not expecting a great host for this outing. After all, Geoff and Sue were in the UK, enjoying the rain, Alan was killing coloured roundels again, Martin was in the Land of the Free (!) and we continue to have a cast of walking wounded, including Jan, Ros and Frank (better health for all of the latter). Still, 14 presented themselves at the appointed time and place, so the group itself is obviously still flourishing.

Those attending: Ken, Miriam, Julie, Tony, Keiran, Fiona, John, Susan, Linda, Karen, Steve, Peter, Paul (`Always Late`) Price, and Meself.. Blame your Hasher mates for that one, Paul! Here they all are minus Paul, together with Toby, Bica and Ziggy - oh, and the silent bandsman hiding away in the background.

Coffee`d. clad and accoutred, we set off up the hill from the back of the sports field in fine fettle. The day was sunny and already warming up - according to the forecast, ´t would be the last fine day for a little while.

                Behold the stride, the determination, the enthusiasm!

Not long before the first halt, however!

                                                    By Gum, that were Steep!

All was going well, the path clear, the birds singing, then suddenly, a fence! - across the path!! A way was quickly found to reach the tarmac road ahead, but our success was challenged by a bloke with a loud voice and a big alsatian, claiming that we were trespassing on his land, in spite of the fact that no such state of affairs exists in Portugal. Half of the group was already on the road but the other half, hearing man and dog, decided to try to find an alternative route, and disappeared from view. They had quite a scramble by the looks of it, but they did find a rather attractive windmill. Tony took these pics.

There followed a heated exchange of views, supplemented by a lady who reversed her car up the road and joined in on the side of our loud friend. We eventually extricated ourselves and proceeded down the road in search of the Alternatives. Phone calls and shouting soon had us reunited, but the whole episode must have taken up 25 minutes of precious walking time.

We walked down to the valley and under the motorway viaduct below Paderne Castle without further incident, and then climbed the hill, bypassing the castle itself (nowt worth seein`), to begin the long steady ascent on a rough track towards Malhao (yes, another Malhao). All day long we were passing evidence of the early spring, with flowers that should not yet be showing side by side with others already bloomed and fading.

Dog Rose

Gentian

Orchid.

Reaching the tarmac at Malhao, we paused for breath and then walked up to Millionaire´s Row on the hill, with fantastic views right down to the sea. All these mansions, now seem to have been painted in traditional blue and white - very smart. 

                                                              On the Way to Malhao

Then it was down into a very pretty valley and steeply up the other side to Malhardais and another bit of tarmac. That concluded almost all of the climbing for the day. Down we went on the long trek to the Quarteira River, deep in its gorge. Arriving there, we found what was probably the only deepish pond remaining on the whole length of the river, and sat down thankfully for lunch. By this time the perfect blue of the sky was beginning to haze over, presaging the rain forecast for the coming days.

Le Toute Ensemble

The Lone Luncher

Toby Waiting His Turn.

Trying to Tempt Ziggy into the Water.

Refreshed, we embarked upon the long and winding footpath in the gorge, beside the inevitably dry river bed.

                 The old well and nora  - really should be fenced off. Water level extremely low.

More Flowers.

Poppies at least a month early

Don´t know what these are called.

The gorge walk, with the three crossings of the river bed, went surprisingly quickly, and we soon arrived at the weir and the old mill cottage. The little wooden bridge over the mill race has almost completely disintegrated now. We did pause for a photo at the Roman Bridge near the castle.

Now, if you all lean really far back.........

Next we tackled the cruellest climb of the day, out of the valley and up to the bridge over the motorway. And then it was the final trek across the broad valley, walking dry-shod through the ford with its very dangerous looking stepping stones, and onto the tarmac plod back to Paderne. 

We chose the nearer of the two available cafes, which turned out to be ´velly cheep´ much to Julie´s delight. The breeze made it quite cool and draughty, but the chat was good, as ever. 

Boa Viagem to those leaving us for a while. And to borrow a phrase, On! On! to the next time.

We covered just over 17k in a little over 5 hours - would have been less without the stupid interruption.