AWW Walk report – 20 MARCH 2024 – Ribeiro Da Amieira (Cistus Valley) 

12 walkers and 2 x dogs. Peter, David, Anthony (our son), Jill, Ness, Miriam, Russell, Fiona, Bruce, Ken, Kieran, Linda the photographer, plus Bicca and Toby the dogs. 

We met at Café Trigo Bom in Figueira. Then we car shared 2kms further up the road and started the walk under the motorway bridge.

 We headed out on wide paths on country roads past a few barking dogs.

 Now took a left turn to leave civilization behind and head out into the hidden valley with its vast array of wild flowers. 

We walked through all the cistus bushes and David suggested we have a competition to find the most spots on a cistus flower. The result was 7. 

The dogs loved the river crossings, I lost count it was either 6 or 7, maybe more. 

Now the paths became narrower and we could hear the bees humming.

 More varieties of wild flowers. 

It was good to see the small baragems so full of water. 

Another water crossings but someone had kindly inserted stepping stones for us. 

We found a nice grassy area to relax and enjoy our picnic lunches and listen to the gushing stream nearby. 

A surprise river crossing so no stepping stones. 

Up the hill to enjoy the views towards the Portimao race track. 

We finally found some fenced in land which was enclosing a hover craft course. 

 In the distance the clouds were starting to form, we hoped we would get back before the rains came.

 Down the valley and under and over the hurdles. Russell and I spent 45 minutes clearing a path through the dead tree branches when we did the recci but some were too heavy to move. 

A bit further along and Toby ran off to chase some Grouse, he finally came minus his harness and tracker. I put the tracker to good use and Anthony retrieved the tracker from some bushes. Toby must have got trapped and managed to free himself with the harness still fastened. I now know the tracker works! 

We got back to the village café just before the rain started so we sat inside to enjoy our refreshments.

 Thank you for joining me in this lovely part of the Algarve. See you all soon. 

PS....17.3km

Linda, Russell, Anthony and Toby.