1 April 2026 – (Cistus Valley) April Fool’s Day

 

AWW Walk report – 1 April 2026 – (Cistus Valley) April Fool’s Day

We all enjoyed a good catchup and drinks at the very nice café Trigo Bom in Figueira.  Big welcome to Debbie and Francesca on their inaugural Wednesday walk. Then we car shared to the starting point.

13 walkers and 2 x dogs.  Bruce, Dan, Linda, Trudy, Maura, Ros, Mike, Debbie, Tim, Karen, Francesca, Richard and Martin (photographer) plus the dogs Raffa and Toby.

We took a short cut through a field to join a nice wide track.  The farmer was just letting his sheep and goats onto the track; our dogs got a warning from his sheep dogs to keep away.

 

Then came our first water crossing but we all managed it safely.  Someone had kindly laid a plank across and some large stepping stones.

Then we cut into the hidden valley and joined the narrow paths between the cistus bushes.  

The bees were buzzing around in the air so some of us adorned our new head protectors.  These black veils are becoming popular with the walking group since the incident last Spring. 

We headed up the one main hill of the day, enjoying the views from the top, looking down onto the baragem below.

We passed the hover craft track with its two barking terriers yapping at us then headed down the valley, over two more river crossings.  Lots of pole sharing going on.

We passed another baragem and the dogs had another good cool off.  The only person we saw today was a guy tending his crops in a field. 

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

Another water crossing after lunch which Ros crossed three times as she had misplaced her black veil.  Very important!

Then lots more narrow paths and cistus bushes, plus two more river crossings and another baragem for the dogs to cool off.  Ros decided to have a paddle at one water crossing.  Luckily the goats and sheep dogs had gone back home so we had a stress-free walk back to the cars.

Then we drove back down to Figueira and enjoyed nice cool drinks at the café.  Thanks, Ros for organising the drinks.

The walk was 14.08 kms and took 4 1/4 hours, including lunch stop.  No-one got stung and we all enjoyed a very scenic walk under the nice blue skies.  Thanks to Martin and Trudy for some of the photos.

Linda.