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.
At the risk of appearing carnaptious (one for the CB that!) I was disappointed to miss out on this one, despite the unpredictable weather and the high risk cliff path of which Chris apprised me, as it was that rarest of events - - a start and finish at a Leader's House, with largesse at both ends!! David has pioneered the concept, but there has been an occasion when the start was fine but the end was catered out! Which reminds me - there are 4 Sagres Bohémia Reserva 1835 now available to John's Prize Fund for AWW competitions, donated by me as an incentive to my new weightloss campaign, to the AWW at the Christmas Lunch who can guess my weight at 0800 hrs on 15th December 2010 to the nearest 100 gm. The answer will be sealed in an envelope by Myriam who will attest, and who unfortunately will be barred from participating in the said competition.
ReplyDeleteA tip from the insider: The subject of the competition weighed a good 100 kg. before dieting which started on Nov. 28.
ReplyDeleteWhat else will you be wearing apart from your hiking boots for the weighing?
ReplyDelete