AWW 22.09.2010 Around Arade Amble, or Dam,Dam,Dam.

During this week´s walk, a certain wise man gave me his recipe for a good blog -"Less of the eloquence, my boy, just the facts." So be it - let the truth be told.

Item: the Leader´s joining instructions - to meet at the car park above the dam - were inaccurate. He convened the start at the Obelisk below the car park.............................

The Obelisk

........................while three of us waited patiently at the car park and, if it hadn´t been for Alex asking at 8.25 a.m. "where on earth is everybody?" , we might well still have been waiting there. So the walk didn´t start promptly.

Item: experienced WWs or not, some people are slow to muster for the Starters photo, standing around with their backs to the camera, chuntering, etc.,etc. So the start of the walk was even more delayed.

The Starters (click to enlarge)

Item: so delayed indeed that Field-Marshall Frew finally lost all patience and dashed off across the dam, stick and pack forgotten in his haste; if it hadn´t been for prompt retrieval action by RCB........................

RCB to the rescue

.......the walk would have fallen even further behind schedule.

Item: the notion in last week´s blog that the said RCB´s reason for going to Fatima was to conduct a recce for the world´s favourite Irish airline was but a flight of fancy.

The truth is that he had, of course, gone there to do some geocaching.

Item: Yves turned up by mistake.
Sporting both main and emergency ´chutes, it seems that he had thought he was going skydiving that morning.

Some more facts

Leader: F-M Rod

Contingent: Yves, Ingrid, Alex, Terry M, David, Chris and Antje, Paul and Myriam, Tina, Janet, Colin, JohnH, John O’N, Ian W.

Dogs: Misty, Tiggy and Rosie.

And now the Leader´s Report

"Around Arade Ramble

"This leader has now done two in a row and is running out of steam...verbally and seemingly mentally since he set off without his bag and stick (no further comments required, thank you!) (Irresistible). Anyway we gathered at the Barragem de Arade for a round the damn wander...weather cool and cloudy earlier but warmed up considerably later.

"Since the last time we had been round to the north side of the damn the Iberian Lynx conservation centre has been built and inaugurated....quite what the overall intention is, other than to keep the ‘greens’ and environmentalists in Brussels happy, is unclear. Releasing the luckless animals into the wilds of today’s Algarve, if that is really their intention, would be a tragedy.

The Lynx Centre perimeter

"The border fence of the Reserve comes right down to the old track for some distance but never blocks it, so we reached the bottom of the Funcho Dam without any complications or noteworthy events.


Janet carries a vision on her back

Funcho snack time

"Returning from there without some cardio vascular exercise was not on so we followed the Via Algarviana route up a side valley and then the ascent (146metres) up to the western ridge. A passing quad bike mounted by a couple of most polite Germans gave one or two of the less energetically inclined the temptation of a lift to the top but it was, of course, resisted.

Cadging a lift

A vision in blue !

"Albeit rather strung out, everyone reached the top.....some even without stopping talking! By then it was really getting quite hot so bearing in mind the season was but young and the participants showing signs of being less so, we headed back without any further diversions. There being no suitable watering holes in this area now we were obliged to drive back to Casinhas for post-walk hydration. "

Behind bars

"And did those feet.....?" (By the way, Myriam, whose are they?)

Hang on; where are the statistics and where is the track?, you´ll be saying.

I haven´t forgotten them. You may have noticed RCB´s preoccupation during the walk with a new bit of kit: a smart phone, no less! With this, he was able to track our path, gather the stats, talk to fellow geocachers on UK mobiles, and walk without falling over all at the same time! And then, wonders of wonders, you can see him here,seated at Casinhas, transmitting both stats and map direct to the JCB´s email. Garmin GPS and pencil and paper rendered obsolete at one press of a button.

"Brilliant isn't it!! If you try different views (map, satellite, earth) you can choose the one you want and save as a picture. If you click on the 'Track 6 End' button on the left you get the stats as collected on the phone, which it seems is even more ego-boosting than the old Garmin. I can't remember breaking into a gallop and hitting 10.95 km/hr though!
I will send the one from Garmin/Google Earth as a picture too.
Paul "

No wonder his excitment was unconfined.

These are the stats he sent (only the time of transmission has to be adjusted.)

Total Distance: 16.14 km (10.0 mi)
Total Time: 4:32:47
Moving Time: 3:36:16
Average Speed: 3.55 km/h (2.2 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 4.48 km/h (2.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 10.95 km/h (6.8 mi/h)
Min Elevation: 115 m (376 ft)
Max Elevation: 290 m (952 ft)
Elevation Gain: 617 m (2025 ft)
Max Grade: 0 %
Min Grade: 0 %
Recorded: Wed Sep 22 08:30:16 GMT+01:00 2010

One assumes RCB hit 10.95 km/h when sprinting to catch up with Rod at the start.

And this is his track map, followed by mine for comparison purposes.



Factual enough, o wise man?