When Jim sent out the notice about the AWWS´ inaugural 2023 walk, he remarked
“A New Year, a New Walk!… at least we think it is a new walk, although there is developing some faint recollections, or is it the mind playing games. If it’s not new then it must be going way back to the land of John hope and glory!”
I took this as both a memory of a walk I had led way back in January 2020, the day after my 80th birthday, and also as a sort of challenge. So I asked him and Gill if it would be OK for me and some other WAGS (Wednesday Algarve Geriatric Saunterers) could join in for part of the trip. And this is what he replied:....
Well John, for this special AWW occasion, as this week’s Walk
Leader, I would like to invite you to guest edit your own blog on
your own
blog site, and may I suggest you could include and share
with your many
followers, the origins, history and some facts and
figures for:
http://hopejandh.blogspot.com
Well, that was me fixed, good and proper. I could hardly back out now.
And so it came to pass that, at 10 am on Wednesday 4th January 2023, 7 WAGS joined 13 young and super-fit AWWS at the Grupo Desportivo Enxerim.
From the right:-
Yves, John, Martin, Linda, Ros, Miriam, Marian, Geraldine, Gill, Ness, Hazel, Jim the Leader, Ken, Susan, Maria, Ingrid, Hilke, Rob, Alan, and JohnH, plus 3 dogs whose names elude me..
And now, in the words of Jeremy Paxman, “fingers on buzzers; here´s your Starter for 10.” Who in this group is the most senior walker? (Seniority that is, not by age, but by number of years´ association with the AWWS.)
And in the interests of history, here is the Starter Photo from that January 2020 walk when, glory be, there were 31 of us, nobody got lost, and some of us are still recognisable.
And now here is your eagerly awaited Leaders Report. Over to Jim.
I
have to admit that I am still unaware of the nomenclature, “WAGS”
and our own AWW doesn’t lend itself to a strikingly original
designation for what is a new caucus. (definition: a grouping who
have a lot of influence!)
This meeting was a first coming together
of the WAGS and the AWW in a shared walking escapade and hopefully it
can become an annual event, let’s call it:
THE WAGWAW!
(On
reflection this current designation could easily be mistaken for a
Chinese restaurant chain, so alternative suggestions will be
welcomed!)
When Geoff sent out our invitation for the AWW walk
for Wednesday 04 January, little did we expect that a passing
reference to “land of hope and glory” would be picked up by one
John Hope, who emailed Gill asking if he and some of the WAGS could
join us. Given the pedigree and seniority of the interlocutor, we
leapt at the opportunity, such a privilege, such an honour!
We
met up in Silves on a beautiful sunny morning, a group of 20, an
abundance of happy smiles and joyful reminiscences, an ambience in
future to be known simply as WAGWAW!
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| AWW unwritten rule no1: don´t start the walk with a hill |
We set off as one with an exceptionally high chatter level, lot’s to catch up, and it only began to subside…, a river crossing to negotiate followed by the big yin, a wee hill, big elevation gain!
 |
| There´s the big yin |
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| Once upon a time. the big yin used to be Hazel´s favourite hill.......now ??? |
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| Patiently waiting for the Geriatrics to catch up |
The faint
recollection of having come this way before and a John Hope
connection proved to have substance. It transpired that the last time
we walked on this route was on 15 January 2020, with John Hope
leading on his 80th birthday, a different start/finish, encompassing
only part of today’s walk and in 2020 in an anti-clockwise
direction rather than clockwise today!
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| The New Year Look |
 |
| "Yes, you go up that way, Jim....." |
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| "....and we´ll go down this way." |
And a short time later, the WAGS were to be found lunching in comfort at Café Norinha,
while the AWWS went onward and upward.
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| Ken shares his last banana with the rest |
 |
| Back over the water crossing |
 |
| Home at last |
The AWW walk was
15kms, and by consensus, the bark (the invitation) was worse than the
bite! A lovely day out and on behalf of the AWW, we thank the WAGS
for your company and the memories!
Lang may your lums
reek!
Ciao!
Jim & Gill
Track and Statistics
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| AWWs Track |
 |
| WAGs Track |
AWWS WAGS
Distance 14.68 km 7.60 km
Total time 4 h 46m 2 h 57 m
Moving time 3 h 51 m 2 h 04 m
Av. Speed 3.9 kph (est) 3.5 kph
Total Ascent 444 metres 221 metres
Enough said; thanks to the AWWs for waiting for the Oldies.
The eagle-eyed, regular reader of these blogs will have noticed by now that the Blog title has now been updated from AWW 2016 – 2021 to AWW 2015 -2023, to recognise the passing of the years but also that the very first blog on this site was published in December 2015. This gives me an excuse to drag yet another Starter Picture out of the archive.
 |
| Starters Christmas Walk and Lunch 9th December 2015 |
And the link to that Blog is:-
https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2015/12/aww-9-12-2015-christmas-lunch-at-bistro.html
And More History
When this effort gets published, it will, quite remarkably, be the 240th blog on the site, thanks to many contributions from leaders over the period and, not least, to Geoff Hill who continues to manage to co-ordinate most things AWW including the blog, excellently well.
Not that that December 2015 was the first AWW blog. Not by any means. If you look at:-
https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2020/04/aww-past-and-present.html
you will see that it was Paul a Pe (full moniker Paul Akehurst de VismĂ©) who started the blogs as long ago as 2005. To this date he is still the only one who really understands how it all works. And I suspect that it was he who eventually got fed up with doing it all himself, and that it was he who set up hopejandh.blogspot.com and so passed the parcel to me and the rest of us. It wisna´ me, Jimmie.
The WAGS have their own series of blog and these are less “pedestrian” in content than the typical AWW blog, if only because we WAGS do much less walking, we have done the same walks many times, have nothing much further to say about them and so have to think of other material which very often has nothing whatsoever to do with the walks themselves. For example, during the Covid Lockdown when gatherings of people were discouraged (although it is rumoured that some clandestine walks did take place – I could not possibly comment), the WAGS blogs concentrated on food, e.g. a series called the Guinea Fowl Chronicles.
And
one other thing the WAGS have started to do in their Blogs is to end
with a piece of music, usually downloading the video from YouTube.
One of my favourites this last years came to us because, as is
becoming more frequent now a days, we have found access to favourite
tracks fenced off. So I will conclude with that piece.
But before I do so, the answer to your Starter for 10 Question about who the most senior walker was in last Wednesday´s group can be found at:-
https://hopejandh.blogspot.com/2020/04/aww-past-and-present.html
and it is Maria Newton. She recalls walking with the Founder of the AWW, Maurice Clyde, in 1996.
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