AWW 15.12. 2010: Christmas Stroll and Lunch

 
Well, it´s now the 24th December and no Leader´s report has come in yet, so I suppose that it is “D.I.Y.” or nothing. Here goes.
 

The Starters
From left to right:
Alex, Hilke, Ingrid, Antje, Dina, JohnO, Hazel, Yves, Chris, Maria, Rod, Myriam, IanW, Paul, JohnH.
Not seen, the dogs were Tiggie and Misty.
The Track

The Statistic.
Distance:9.22 km.
 
Rod the leader, with his customary Field-Marshall efficiency, got the show on the road from Patricia´s at 10 am sharpish. Good weather, pleasant temperatures, mostly dry under foot, as we circled away from the autodrome and up into the foothills. The expectation was that Terry and Jill would catch up with us later, as they usually do, but no, not this time. Phone calls disclosed that Terry was doing his own private reconnaissances along routes not yet well known to the public and, so it seems, not known to him at all, so neither Rusty nor they walked with us this year.
As we moved steadily but not too energetically along, many topics were discussed. Perhaps the most recherché of which was vouchsafed to a select group at the rear by Ingrid, newly returned from her tour round northern Europe visiting her various “properties” ( as your correspondent termed them) - “love nests” (as she insisted on describing them). Five pads at the latest I would guess, with the one in Paris complete with 24/7 maid service and chilled champagne on tap sounding especially intriguing. Ooh la la!

“And as for the one in Amsterdam, well, I tell you….. ”
Up in the hills, the medronho bushes looked particularly attractive as we went which may be why the men kept dashing off into them.

Starting the gentle descent
After a gentle ascent, a gentle descent, to the now-traditional Pause Place, which is where Rod looks at his watch and works out whether we are in good time for the lunch or too early.Too early it was this time, so he led us up a moderate hill and round a few superfluous bends until Ian W., freshly back from altitude training in the Chilean Andes, fairly got the bit between his teeth and led the group smartly back to Patricia´s.

At the Traditional Pause
Back at Patricia´s, the lady walkers transformed themselves into their finery while the men smartened themselves up after a fashion. We then gathered for a welcome mulled wine or two with those friends who preferred not to walk.


 

The Arrival of Donner und Blitzen
 

 Maria takes “Guess My Weight” very seriously
Non-walking Lunchers:
Mike and Jyll, Susan Frew, Andrew and Lindsey,, Terry A and Jill, Diane W, and David and Dinah.
Shortly after Paul had “had his collar felt”, we adjourned for the lunch, which was excellent as always – your food critic personally found the Thai Green Chicken Curry a perfectly acceptable (and probably healthier) alternative to his customary Confit de Canard.
Everyone´s place-setting was embellished with a magentic AWW calendar presented by Yves ( nous vous remercions, notre ami), and the ladies were equally gratified each to receive a jar of Hilke´s finest preserves.

 

 

Is he complaining, or passing his compliments to the chef?

 
 

 

Rod proposed the toast to Absent Friends and then his annual review speech was crisp and to the main point – how well the absent Janet and Tina had organised this event for us and how efficiently Alexandra had stepped into the breach for the final stretch – she knew exactly what everyone had ordered and what they should be eating and (as far as I know) she and her assistant for the afternoon, Ingrid, broke even cash-wise at the end. She had modestly taken on the job in her words as a “Temporary & Extremely Vague Assistant Deputy (Deputy ) Secretary. In fact, with apologies to W.S Gilbert, the Pirates of Penzance patter song could be adapted to go:-
”She excels at spread sheets financial, dietical and meticulous,
She notes exactly who chose what and has no qualms in billing us.
In short, in things both peripatetical and exchequeral,
She´s the perfect model of a Walkers`Secretary-General.”


There was a deserved round of applause for Patricia:

 Myriam took photos of all sorts of things, including the tops of men´s heads ( of which we will no doubt hear or see more later) and of the menus dishes:




Caption competition prizes went to Hilke and Chris:

 
and the winner of a long-odds guessing game about Paul´s weight ( What his weight was at 0800 hrs on 15.12.2010 ) was Susan Frew. Exercising the diplomacy for which these blogs are renowned, we will draw a veil over the answer to that particular quiz.
All in all, a most enjoyable occasion.

May we all have a Happy Christmas and a Healthily Energetic New Year.

AWW 08.12.2010: Porches Patrol, or Perseverance Pays - again.

10 hardy souls, ignoring early morning thunderstorms and electrical disturbances that disrupted mobile and GPS communication at critical junctures, penetrated the remotest fastnesses and pine forests of Northern Porches; and their reward? Most welcome and warming morning coffee from Hilke and Uli, followed by an immaculately recce´d and marshalled walk led by Hilke through territory that, I guess, was unfamiliar to most of us.


The Starters (click to enlarge)

Die Harten

Leader: Hilke
Walkers: Chris and Antje, Rod, Myriam, Maria, Dina, Yves, Célianne, Hazel and John
Dogs: Tiggie, Misty and Harry

Die Statistiken
Total distance: 19.8 kms
Total time: 6 hrs 25 mins
Moving av: 4.6 kmph
Tilley count: Nil


The Track


The Leader´s Report

“Nur die Harten kommen in den Garten
“A rather personal interpretation of that German phrase might be: Only the tough ones will enjoy the footlights.

“Well, the weather had not really invited people to enrol for this walk, it had been raining a lot since Sunday. When the sun came out on Tuesday, though, after a night of heavy rain, I decided to go through with the walk whatever the weather might be like, hoping it would clear up like it did on Tuesday.
”The day did not start very promising at my house, the lights when off as soon as I had got up, went on, went off, in a period of on we got the gates open at least and then I decided to have a shower even at the risk of staying there with the soap on. And that was what happened, but I finally got through the usual procedure alright.
There were some phone calls of the hesitating ones, but I did not call off the walk as they might have expected, to my question of “would you like to cancel” I got the answer of “I don’t believe in cancelling”, very proper, I must say..



”So eleven we were as had booked in for the walk (being all there after we had retrieved some lost souls) to start, in rain gear. But: the sun came out not long after that and the rain came again not long after that and the sun came out not long after that … It seemed a bit like a fashion show, taking our rain off and putting it on again. But after about 1  ½ hours the rain stopped and we had quite good weather with even some sunny spells.



”On our way we passed some orange groves where some of us filled up their supplies with some oranges (they were lucky, there are usually some dogs out at that point, very angry at anybody passing, but not today, perhaps just for the case of justice Rod lost the case for his mobile phone, he retrieved it, though, going back).



Maria´s Law; or three oranges is not scrumping

Nothing much happened on our way towards the coast, only I got a bit worried because we were way behind schedule. I had looked up the tide and knew we would have enough time to pass a certain point, but we were rather late because of all this changing of gear. We finally arrived at the first beach where we wanted to have lunch an hour late. And the landlord of the restaurant was not very friendly, he did not let us have our lunch on his terrace even if we had ordered some drinks each of us . All the worse for him, nobody wanted any drink anyway from him!! We were lucky, though. The sun was shining, we were sitting on some rocks, what more could we want.




“Well, there was me, who wanted more. That is, to move on. I was really getting worried about the next beach. I knew we would have to get around a certain rock. But I saw the sea was much rougher and much higher than it had been on my recce-ing. So I urged people on. And that was what came: the highlight, as Hazel said later.


A Leap in the Dark


Going for it.

“The arch we had to climb through was invaded by water as the waves came in, so we had to be quick on the draw. When the first group had got through, we saw that also the next part of the beach was quite invaded by water and, exactly as I had feared, was being battered by roaring waves. Well, the choice was: go a long way around on tarmac or make it by running. We stood there a bit dumbfounded, knowing we would have to decide quickly, 5 more minutes would have taken the decision from us, one of us chickened out going back, but some decided we would be able to make, and run we did, so the rest had to follow. After the run everybody was happy and chattering about it, well, for me it was something to write about as well. And was I glad as well that we had made it.


Harry leads the charge!



The next stage along the coast line was rather slippery because of the rain , but we managed  all right. We had some very good views of the coast line, but also some very slippery spaces as was to be expected after all the rain.




Cliff-top ouriço

“The way back from the coast was rather uneventful, although much longer than I expected it to be after walking it alone for the recce´ing. I must say I like this part especially as it is rather unspoilt although close to cultivated area.
”So we arrived, tired but in good humour, back at my house for after-walking drinks.”



 

And seldom has the Sagres tasted so good.

AWW 01.12.2010:Chuva da Pedra, or The Walk of the Flail of the Lashing Hail!

Rod billed this walk as something of gentle aspirations. Well, as the Philosopher put it, “Happiness is the absence of pain and anxiety, and once you are no longer burdened by aspiration, you´ve no idea how enjoyable day-to-day life can be.” We certainly agreed with that sentiment once the walk was over. Let´s go straight into the Leader´s Report, poetry and all:
The Leader´s Report

“I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain ,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.”

Shelley: ‘The Cloud’...(of course!)

Present:  Chris and Antje, Myriam and Peter, Dina, John and Hazel, Janet, Celianne.
Dogs:       Misty, Tiggy, Harry.
Leader:    Rod
 


“Blistered heals, stiff legs, bronchitis, exhaustion......such was the string of post RTC excuses for absence, but nevertheless a hard core of survivors set off from José’s Cafe Retiro dos Pescadores into the Serra de Silves on a gloomy morning.  Puddles everywhere as we squelched up a valley floor until we reached high ground. This gave us slightly drier ground and great views of the vast tracts of land cleared for replanting....sadly it seems this is all eucalyptus. We could also see the new route for the power line where pylons had been relocated by helicopters.....if you shout loud enough it seems EDP do listen sometimes.   Then, in brilliant sunshine, down  to the Aguas Belas valley where, much to everyone`s surprise, the numerous stream crossings were still readily fordable.  Leaving there on a new track just past the defunct medronho distillery we wound up to a ridge, now looking more like an open cast copper mine as a result of massive land clearance. By now the sun had given way to ominous black clouds and rumbling thunder and just as we reached the top, in quite the most exposed position, the heavens opened and hailstones driven horizontally battered us almost into submission and forced everyone into virtually non existent shelter.  Such is the stuff that WW’s are made of however, this was made light of and we were soon on our way again. That was really the last of the challenges and we gradually made our way back to José’s café...a bit damp but still smiling.  There to welcome us, basking in a sunny corner, wrapped round the inevitable Bohemia and proudly showing off his RTC blister, was none other than the Chief Blogger Rtd.    For the rest of us Sagres mostly gave way to meias de leite.. some even with a dash of Maçieira... and equilibrium was fast restored.”
 

The Track    (click to enlarge.)




The Statistics
14.29 km
The day in pictures

Early morning arco-iris proved deceptive



“Jumpin´at the Woodside” (Count Basie)

Antje tried to plant a tree but was dissuaded




Janet explains how she expects us to behave while she is away over the next few weeks




“I wish I could shimmy like my sister Kate.” (Armand J. Piron)
Between looking at the camera and trying to control Harry, Celianne executed a perfect shimmy on a wobbly rock but with a little help from Myriam managed to retain her balance, thus depriving the hovering paparazzo of a splashing picture.



Disappointed, outside the defunct medronho distillery



The sculptured hillsides


Hazel is delighted to come across some dióspiros











Antje has a restorative


“What bloody man is that?” (Macbeth, 1.ii.)
“Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.” (King Henry V, 1V.iii.)



“These Boots are Made for Walkin´ –[not]” (Lee Hazlewood – Nancy Sinatra)

STOP PRESS  LATE FINAL

 

Myriam´s pics

 

Straight down the middle

 

I am NOT going down there to get my feet wet!

 

… well, if I have no choice………..

 

It looks like hail

 

It was hail.