AWW 25th September 2024

Aguas Frias - in the rain

A small group of us posing for the camera before we set off - a bit late as Jan went to the wrong café and there was no signal to contact her, or her us!

Ros, Terry, David, Ken, Jan and Peter, and in the front row Linda with Toby and Bica.  Yours truly behind the camera.

 

So off we set, along the river Arade which had absolutely no water at all in it.  It was extremely humid and we were already sweating.

         

Are we going up that hill?                        Phew, no continue straight on

After a while we turned off the main path to continue through the bamboos along the river and stopped for yet more water.

           

We stopped at Zambujal on the bridge but there was no water to be seen.  Linda and I remembered a previous time we walked here when all the dogs were swimming in the water and there were ladies doing the washing. (I'm sure Geoff will be able to find the original photo!)

             

And then we headed off into the hills on the first of the 2 long hills up that Miriam had promised.  The clouds were beginning to look a little threatening by then.

At the top we stopped for a break and David decided to take the quicker way back down from a comfort break! He was dissuaded from the precipitous route down!

                               

The rain that had threatened duly arrived. Downhill we went and some donned their wet weather gear. Others hadn't brought any so were just going to get wet!

At the top of the second hill it was shades of the Sycamore Gap except it was a Eucalyptus tree that had been partly felled.  By now the mist came in and the rain was fairly heavy and the views fast disappeared.

              

By the time we reached the bottom of the hill having decided it was too wet to stop for lunch, we walked out of the clouds and into the sun. Bica and Toby found a puddle.

So now we headed back to the café for our lunch.  Unfortunately Miriam took a turn too soon and we ended up in a river bed with a very strange deposit.

 Then things went a bit pear-shaped. Linda, Ros and Peter decided to find a short cut back to the café.  Ken found a steep exit out of the river bed to the correct path and took Jan and Terry with him.  David was nowhere to be seen and Miriam went back to find the correct path.

So David emerged safe and sound waving from the bridge.  Ken Terry and Jan climbed up the bank and were also safe.  Miriam strode along the correct path. Linda and Toby found a short cut , but there were no signs of Ros and Peter.  Terry went to see if he could see a way through for them but couldn't.  Eventually after much whistling and shouting, the pair were located heading back up the correct path having also found a path up the river bank.

So then it was a stroll back to the café but passing some very fertile land.  Linda and Miriam found some excellent figs, Jan a bunch of grapes; we couldn't pick the pumpkins or the olives and the sheep looked on.

And so it was back to the café for drinks and biscuits.  As it was Kens birthday the next day, Miriam brought biscuits to share after lunch.

      

Stats:

AWW 18 September 2024....a shortened Montes de Cima

 Montes de Cima....shortened.....18 September 2024

Linda's inaugural walk last week was (relatively) short but hot, so I thought I  had better do a shortened version of the 18km walk we usually do from the Honey Cafe. By cutting out a loop, I guestimated it would be 14kms.....but the last time I guestimated ( back in June) I was a bit wrong and not all walkers were too happy at the resultant 22kms.....

Hence, a 100% recce , 14.6 kms but sweltering with an 0915 start, so new start of 0830, rather than Linda's 0900. The Honey Cafe was closed for the week of the recce, but would be open the following week....what could possibly go wrong?

So, after getting up in the dark and arriving in good time, I  was horrified ( & almost lynched) to find that the Honey Cafe owners had decided to take an extra week's holiday, so here are the Bakers' Dozen posing with their tomgues hanging out for a caffine fix......with Yours Truly behind the lens in Alan's absence in Madeira :

We welcomed two newcomers, Zac and Carl.....both from the USA , both Massachusetts ,but from different parts of the Algarve.

L to R : Zac ( newbie), David, Karen, Stephen, Bruce,Vyv, Martin, Peter, Tim, Carl ( another newbie), Ros and Sue.....Geoff behind lens....and of course, Rafa, back from being a bit poorly last week.

After 10 mins of tarmac, the usual mixture of ups and downs:

With an appointed Rear Marker/Tail-end Charlie bringing up the rear...

The streams had run dry.....there used to be stepping stones here....

But this was all there was now:

A dig through the archives revealed what the crossings were once like....Bica back in February 2022

Someone had a passion for cairns:

Now what did I say about not straggling?????

Anyway, we managed the big hill by 1000, which was the reason for an early start, but the weather was pleasantly warm rather than baking hot and we even had quite a breeze.

Rafa found some water at last:

One more hill to breast on the way back...

...a well earned respite...

...before  walking back to the Honey Cafe where there was a note on back of car....an apology from the cafe that it was shut?....a note to say someone had bonked the car?....fortunately not, Gill & Jim had passed and left some delicious grapes!

Then off to O Tasco , a well earned drink, and splitting up the bountiful supply of grapes. Very many thanks to Gill & Jim.

Thanks to all....with the kitty now at 3€ pp, Mrs Kitty ( Ros) resumed her old job and turned in a 12.4€ profit.....better than the 40 cents it would otherwise have been!

Stats follow....from my recce. Time elapsed on the walk was longer at 4 hours, but we did stop and admire the scenery quite a bit : moving speed probably about the same, but perhaps someone logged it?

Geoff

PS

Two of the water crossings have been bridged over, this is what they were like back in 2016 with one of my Monday  walks, with Sue, Ros and Russell looking a bit younger....

Map and Stats

AWW Walk report – 11 SEPTEMBER 2024 – Pine Forests and Baragems

 8 walkers and 1 x dog. Martin, Russell, Linda, Tim, Gill, Sue, Jim and Geoff (photographer).  Plus, Toby the dog.

We met at the café, which was closed for holidays and then drove 3kms further up the road for the start of the walk. 

 We headed up the cool shady path and Martin kept his jumper on.  Out into the sunshine for the starter photo, not jumper now!

Then it was round the winding paths, stopping along the way to water ourselves and Toby dog.

At the 6-finger junction we took the path which lead down into the valley.

Then it was through a couple of very dried up rivers.

Toby was sniffing to see where the water was in one of them.

Further along the path we joined the road for a 50metre stretch of tarmac and came across the hand made sign for “Happy House”.

We left the tarmac stretch and back onto the dirt tracks, stopping to admire the quaint little church.

Across a bridge over another dry river bed.  Luckily, they had built a newer bridge to replace the original pedestrian one.

 The ducks had come out to say hello, but no Peking duck tonight as Toby was on the lead and behaved impeccably (for a change).

Someone had decided the Happy House was now a “Happy Love House”.  We wondered what this house would look like.

 What a disappointment – tent city in the beautiful countryside!

We admired the decorative cart before heading up out of the valley.

We stopped in the shade by a baragem for some light snacks whilst Toby enjoyed a cool off in the water.

 

Then back up another hill and past another baragem which looked similar to the other one, but no, we hadn’t gone round in circles.

The arrows the leader had laid down on the recci earlier in the week were still almost intact so that gave everyone confidence as it was starting to get quite warm.  I did part of this walk backwards way round so we had the shade of the pine trees later in the morning.  Hence the part recci and the arrows.

We finished the walk before 1pm (as promised) 13.18kms in 3 ½ hours so quite a good pace.

 We drove to the Ourique café for well needed cool drinks and Linda and Russell stayed for lunch there.

Hope you enjoyed the inaugural walk, we did, and it was great to catch up with everyone.  Thanks, Geoff & Martin  for the photos, they gave me something to write about.  

Linda, Russell and Toby dog.