The Walk in Factoids:
It was a perfect day for walking. Started at 13ºC and finished at about 18ºC. No wind, no rain.
It was the first walk since 8th December of any significant distance;
There was no lunch attached to encourage the purely social walkers
It was advertised as of the order of 20km. to discourage the faint-hearted (and it worked!)
More FWW’s (5) than MWW’s (4) turned up.
National Profiles: German 3; Canine 2; Portuguese 1;French 1; Belgian 1; Chinese 1: Scottish 1; English 1.
Tilley hats; 3 (33.333%)
If Antje had taken the organic produce gathered on the walk and sold it in Harrod’s, we would still be drinking the proceeds in Dona Aldina’s fine establishment.
“The sun also shines on the wicked.” Seneca
Hunters: Paul, Peter, Ian W., Yves.
Gatherers: Antje, Myriam Dina, Ingrid, Hilke
Truffle Hounds: Tiggy, Cybele.
Stats:
Total Distance: 20 km
Total Time: 5 hrs 40 min
Moving Time: 4 hrs 37 min.
Overall Avg.: 3.5 km/hr
Moving Avg.: 4.3 km/hr
Total Ascent: 624 m.
Max Elevation: 386 m.
A very relaxed start saw us leaving Casa Pacheco at about 0940 hrs. having waited for longer than necessary for the CB, whose wife had assured me the day before that he would be walking! Yves and Dina stated for the record that they would happily have picked him up and given him a lift, had he been without transport.
“They went thataway!” Leader attempting to indicate the set for the Start photo
At the top of the warm-up climb, someone spotted a large bird circling at some altitude above. There was much discussion of eagles, as Montinho resident claimed that there had been Golden Eagles seen in his vicinity. I was sceptical and having managed to get a rather poor photograph……..
Notice the short toes!
….. referred it to a Twitcher (NOT Twitter!) friend who pronounced that he couldn’t be sure but it was most likely to have been a short-toed eagle (click for link).
Multi-lingual discussions took place on the long slope towards the Marmelete road, with German, French, Portuguese, Chinese and Chinglish being the most popular.
The preceding damp warm weather had brought out a profusion of mushrooms and early on we spotted an amanita muscaria which was duly photographed and very poisonous……
…. and close by Antje let out a squeal of delight when she identified an edible Amanita Caesarea although to her it was a ‘Kaiser Mushroom.
These were not to be the last mushrooms on this walk!
Just before the descent to the valley, we had to sneak past the bees which had caused so much grief to Tina on the last occasion. Happily they were not so active at this season, but if the warm weather carries on as the flowers bloom, then we will have to take them into consideration.
Peter poses having reached safety past the beehives
There were mutterings about lunch even before the climb to Loiro, but I quelled the indiscipline and made for a better spot at the top of the hill, the highest point of the walk.
Lunch among the eucalyptus.
I had some concerns about the amount of water in the river valley that we normally followed down to Romeiras and attempted an off road route to meet the Marmelete road closer to the turn south towards Tres Figos, but unfortunately as we progressed it seemed that we would have to descend into an alarmingly steep valley, with of course an equally steep climb up the other side. One or two of the volunteers were weakening at this point, not being walk-hardened for one reason or another, so I saved the day by turning it into a leisurely and gastronomically rewarding ‘Chanterelle loop’, Antje having spotted a patch of the gourmet fungi while she was at her post lunch ablutions.
As you can see, it was a lucrative haul, and I was quite happy to delay our progress a little while she gathered with the help of one or two of the others, as I was on for a chanterelle risotto when she got her booty home.
(Note: Antje cooked up the risotto on Thursday, and Myriam and myself assisted with the consumption. It was delicious especially washed down with a bottle of Cloudy Bay!)
Having looped the loop, we had no alternative but to descend the river valley, which showed signs of previous torrents….
…..but the water levels were back to normal and posed no problems in crossing, except to Ingrid, who at last provided some material for the paparazzi as she gracefully slipped when negotiating the river bank!
The water where Dina and Yves were crossing the stream was boot depth, but Myriam managed to cross there on balletic ‘points’ and remained dry of foot.
And so back to Casa Pacheco, which despite the doubters we hit at bang on 20 km. The heavy machinery workshop which we negotiate just before reaching the Romeiras road is showing signs of building a fence across our path at the rear, so I may have to sort out an alternative route for this very nice walk in future.
And finally, Yves contributed this arty shot and suggested it merited a caption competition.
I will start with “Just a sniff of the Barmaid’s apron is not enough for Ian these days!”
“Which is better: to have fun with fungi or to have Idiocy with ideology, to have wars because of words, to have tomorrow's misdeeds out of yesterday's miscreeds?” Huxley, Aldous
Pauladev´s musical talents continue to amaze. And there is still more of that talent to be revealed. But for that,dear Reader, you will have to await the second instalment of "Am I Alone In Thinking..", the JCB´s occasional filler blog for weeks when bad weather prevents any walk.
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