AWW Walk REPORT – 28 JANUARY 2026 – PINE TREES AND BARAGEMS

AWW Walk REPORT – 28 JANUARY 2026 – PINE TREES AND BARAGEMS

 

As we had some very heavy rain, gale force winds and reports on the news of flooding and uprooted trees from the previous night’s extreme storm I knew my original planned walk would be impassable.  Geoff contacted me and asked if we could do a different walk.  Therefore, I repeated the walk we did in November as it is at the other side of the road to the rivers, and had no official rivers, plus we could still meet at the café in Rasmalho.

Just 5 brave/crazy souls turned up at the café in Rasmalho, the rest had decided to stay safely at home. (There were some original excuses....trees down...chairs in swimming pool...even glass topped table in the pool...Ed)  We enjoyed a nice warm coffee before we headed up towards the start of the new walk.  We had all seen the gushing river flowing down from Monchique whilst driving to the café.   Julie and Tony had a slower journey than normal due to branches in the roads above Loule.

The 5 walkers: Tony, Linda, Sue, Julie, Geoff (the photographer) and Toby the dog.  Or as Julie suggested: the Enid Blyton famous five and Timmy the dog.

All was looking good as we set off in dry, mild weather with just small streams running down the side of the path.  A bit further along we started to zig zag down the valley, through the pine trees whilst admiring how full the baragems were and how the water level was almost up to the path. 

There were so many new rivers everywhere and even a small waterfall.  Of course these were all filling the small baragems.

Further along we came across our first challenge of the day.  What was a large puddle in November was now a deep flowing river as water tried to escape from the overflowing baragem.

Three of the group just waded through but Linda and Sue decided to paddle barefoot.  Luckily no one fell.

 

Just beyond the orange trees we could see in the distance a fast-flowing river coming down from Alferce.  We didn’t know there was a river there before. 

The sun was starting to come out and we were all in good spirits as we were pleased to be out in the fresh air.  So Geoff decided to take a photo and send it to Ros to show her what she was missing.

Tony took some very nice photos of the flowers.  It looked like Spring was arriving.

We headed down the valley and crossed a bridge over what is usually a trickle of a stream.  It was now a wide raging river. 

We had lunch in the derelict “Happy House”.....

 .........and sat on the dirty seats inside.  Whilst having lunch the leader decided to change the walk as she realised there would now be a river to cross further up the valley and it would be dangerous. 

 

So, after lunch we crossed back over the bridge, past the dodgy campsite and back up the hill, past all the lovely daisies again.  

Then took an alternative route back which was on higher ground with no rivers.  This worked out really well as the paths were all good.

 

Just near the end of the walk Toby the dog decided to go off into the scrubland and we spent around 10 minutes calling him and hoping he hadn’t gone down to the river below.  Luckily, he came bounding back with a happy grin on his face.

The walk was around 14kms and we completed it, including lunch, in 4 hours.

Back to the café for refreshments.

Thank you for joining me today on what turned out to be a great day for a walk.  Also thank you to Geoff and Tony for taking the photos.

Linda