AWW 6.04.2011: Pedralva or Windy Wanderings on the West Coast

Bananas (Musa paradisiaca) were knocked off the No.1 spot this week by other fruit, namely the lemon (Citrus limonum) and the pomelo (Citrus maxima (Burm) Merrril).. Terry A started it all by announcing that he was on a forced diet of lemons. Apparently, Jill had gone out to buy 6 lemons but came back with 6 shopping bags. I said “How come? Lemon and Shopping Bag in Portuguese are totally different.” “No, you clown, 6 shopping bags full of lemons.” Lemon meringue pie and lemon curd sarnies then for Terry. Then, at the end of the walk, Frank distributed lemons and pomelos from his orchard. Many thanks, Frank. But I´m sure bananas will bounce back when Ingrid reappears.
Joint leader, Chris, was far from being the relaxed, laid-back supremo seen at Carrapateira five weeks ago: this week at Aldeia da Pedralva, there he was, chivvying us to get ready for the off, get your coffeee quick, line up for photo, no waiting for late arrivals or any such nonsense. Time and tide…you know.

The Starters
Walkers: Chris and Antje (Leaders), John and Hazel, John 'O, Ian W, Terry A, David L, Frank, Alex and holiday visitor Neil Carruthers ( a devoted follower of Maurice Clyde's Algarve walking guide)
Dogs: Tiggy, Maddie, Rosie, Shelley and Rusty makes five.

The Track
A Statistic or Two:
Distance: 16.97 km.
Total time: 4 hr. 25 min.
The Leaders´Report:
“True to form, weather conditions affected this new West Coast walk which by starting from Pedralva gave us the chance to follow a slightly different and less spoiled route to the coast. Strong winds from the East greeted us on arrival and we were glad that the resort had kindly agreed to open their snack bar  a little earlier than usual for our benefit. The walk started more or less on time at 9.30am and a cracking pace was set in order to beat the unfavourable tide at Muração beach.

Some local residents watched us leave
“Propelled by a strong tail wind we were carried towards Windmill Alley in no time at all. The first bee attack had delayed us slightly, the victim being Alex who may yet invest in the protection offered by a Tilley hat as a result. At this point it was noted that the track followed part of Mike Pease's Don Quixote windmill walk. The furious whirling of the wind turbines gave us a further incentive to keep up the pace, not least when we spotted one recently failed blade that had clearly sheered its connecting bolts.

Nearing Windmill Alley
“After we had crossed the main road, an early detour to Sagres was thankfully avoided by reference to the Almargem map, the leaders expertise with a GPS being questionable to say the least. Due to the gale force winds blowing off the land a decision was taken to avoid the narrow cliff edge path and ´to descend directly to the beach where we arrived in plenty of time to avoid having to wade through the surf in order to reach the gully.

On the road down, Neil observed some local fauna

and flora-wise David noticed an albino mutation of a blue gentian

The road down

Beating the tide at Muração
“ (Some strong hands helped the more decrepit of us up the gully..thanks, guys.) Then, after a stiff climb up the cliff, the Engineer's house was reached where lunch was taken in the lee of the building, whilst the wind howled around all corners.

Most of us sheltered……

……while Captain Whittle braved the upper deck.
“Starting the trek back into the teeth of a gale slowed progress a little but this had the advantage of the wind disrupting the honey bees flight paths which meant that we hardly noticed the hives. Apart that is from JohnO who´, whilst in deep discussion with Alex, sustained a sting on a part of his anatomy which he declined to disclose. His willingness to protect a damsel from further distress is to be applauded.

Was this when JohnO realised his stick was missing?
“His lack of concern when he realised that he had left his faithful blackthorn stick at the lunch spot evoked more sympathy than the aforementioned bee sting, the more so when it became apparent that he was not prepared to battle the same hazards again to retrieve it. One hopes that it will lie there undisturbed until the next RTC walk. (But see below) 

On the road home


Back in Pedralva
“A minor catastrophe was narrowly avoided when we arrived back at the start to find that the entire resort staff had clearly closed up for lunch but, when they had been roused by some spirited hammering on the door, we were all able to enjoy drinks on the sunny protected patio. The impact of tourist prices meant that the kitty barely covered the bill, but that was a small price to pay for the dedicated service and amenities available.”


These are two of Frank´s pomelos. The fruit is also known in English as the shaddock, and in Chinese as the yóuzi; now you know.
What is it about that particular stretch of the West Coast and JohnO´s walking stick? You will remember that on the first day of the RTC 2010 he had to go back for it at one stage. (You can revisit that epic at http://hopejh.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/rtc-2010-24th-and-25th-november/  ). In fact, Hazel had reminded him about that incident during this Wednesday before we went down to the beach, and then it happens again! But once more, the luck of the Irish was with him and all was well that ended well, as his own words tell us:
“Good Morning John. You may be interested in the following:-
BLOG FODDER or TALE OF THE LOST SHILELAIGH
Refreshed and stimulated by a post-walk beer, I advanced on the Engineer's house
to retrieve the lost shilelaigh.
Climbing Everestian heights through virgin undergrowth and after many hours (it seemed),
I came upon the mighty shilelaigh---- there she was perched on the Engineer's window sill
holding court with many Portuguese leprechauns.
After some persuasion and apologies we were eventually re-united.
All the best
John O' ”
(Video will not download, but if you fancy a touch of Irish shilelaigh song, or at least a Bing Crosby version, click on:
http://youtu.be/KNGudsHD_s4)

AWW 30.03.2011: Helioptropic Time or The Search for the Perfect 10

 

It is not often that that the Wednesday Walks test the mind as well as the lungs and limbs to the very limit. But Ian W´s walk managed just that; his sales pitch had said that “We will leave from the Foz at 9.00am (now that the clocks have changed).”  And so it was that at 8.40am Tina, Hedley and I sat coffee-less outside the Foz and puzzled over the logic behind his proposition that because the clocks had ben put forward by one hour we had to start half-an-hour earlier than usual. Even when she had explained that in Einstein´s theories the ideas of absolute time and space were superseded by the notion of space-time in special relativity and by dynamically curved space-time in general relativity, we remained baffled. Clearly, so too had the Foz staff who had failed to open at 8.30am (in Ian W´s space-time, that is). But the Leader was relentless and allowed no time extension for morning coffees. And there was still Heliotropism to come! Read on.
Seekers after knowledge
Leader: Ian W.
Survivors of the previous week´s trek: Dina and Tina.
Others: Val, Hazel, Hedley, Rod, Chris, Antje, Paul, and JohnH.
Dogs: Tiggy and Maddie.

The Track
The Statistics:
Total distance: 15 km
Total Time: 4 hrs 30 min.
Moving time: 3 hrs 40 min
Overall Avg.: 3.3 km/hr
Moving Avg.: 4.1 km/hr
Total Ascent: 511 m.
Max Elevation: 325 m
The Leader´s Report: The Cistus Count
Chapter One – Complaints Corner
“Eleven mostly complaining souls and 2 dogs (not complaining) gathered 
outside the Foz de Banho at shortly after 0900 hours. There was much 
to complain about. First of all, the leader had moved the start time 
forward by half an hour (or 1 1/2 hours in old time) which meant 
getting up earlier than usual. To add insult to injury, the Foz did 
not open until just before we set off and nobody was able to get a 
coffee, there being only time for the ladies to spend a few pennies. 
Nevertheless, there were still a few smiles in the obligatory pre-
start photo.”

The Starters
Chapter Two – The Softening-up Process
“ We moved quickly downhill, crossed the river and along 
the river bank, assailed by the sweet aroma of pig sh##. the first 
hill proved no problem with a number of walkers managing to walk and 
talk at the same time. Along the ridge, down into the valley along a 
new track for us to the first water crossing (in name only). Even Paul 
didn't bother to line up for a photo of somebody falling into the 
water.”

New Water Crossing
Chapter Three – Hilltorture and Horticulture


“We then commenced Killer Hill, which silenced everyone until we 
ran into the cistus ladanifer, which was in full bloom all the way up 
the hill. The game was to find a perfect 10, but as usual we failed. 
Some noticed cistus albiflorus in their hunt -it has no blotches at 
all- and mostly we found the standard 5 petals and blotches. However, 
Paul and Antje discovered a near perfect 9 and had the satisfaction of 
carrying the sticky exudate of fragrant resin with them for the rest 
of the walk. None of us realised at the time that the cistus ladanifer 
diverged from the cistaceae family during the Pleistocene Period 5 
million years ago after the opening of the Straits of Gibraltar, and 
has been decorating the hills of Southern Spain and Portugal ever 
since.”

Hush, botanists at work

Near-perfect Nine

Spot the phoney Tilley

Chapter Four – Along the Ridges and Valleys

“At the top of the hill we had a panoramic view of Foia, Picota 
and the south coast, but with poorer visibility than 2 weeks ago. We 
walked along a ridge and then descended to a stream,which the dogs lay 
in and some of us felt like joining them. We then trudged up a long 
slow hill before having lunch at the top.

It was during this long perambulation that Hedley marvelled at how flowers are heliotropic and, after he had explained what that meant to the less well informed, we 
wondered what the term for people seeking shade would be. Not anti-
heliotropic because we would have to seek shade opposite to the sun, 
not just any old shade. Enough rambling.”

Lunch in the shade
Chapter Five – Val and Chris Go Missing

The Missed Rendezvous – Where are they?
“We had lunch on a side road and then,after a short flat bit, climbed a steep hill to the summit of the 
walk, which John H´s Track describes as Green Hill, leaving Val and Chris 
to find us when we came down. They were not to be seen, but shortly 
afterwards we caught up with them to find that they had been rushing up 
and down the track since we last saw them. We then hot footed it to 
the Foz for a cold drink and a welcome rest.”

Here, Paul told one of his inimitable jokes (I mean, would any one really want to copy him?) and then launched into his Tilley Hat monologue – the Minor Mutiny will be relieved to learn that this time it lasted only 4 1/2 minutes – before he went on to rehearse his second Mastermind Specialist Topic, which is that of the comparative alchoholic strengths of British Midland and southern Portuguese beers. We wish him well in his endeavours in UK this month.
For those of us still puzzled by the failure of Val and Chris (two experienced walkers) to make the rendezvous at the bottom of Green Hill, the following extract may possibly serve to explain why they headed off in the completely opposite direction when they had actually seen us up on the hill top:
  “Just as Einstein's own Relativity Theory led Einstein to reject time, so Feynman’s Sum over Histories theory led him to describe time simply as a direction in space. Feynman’s theory states that the probability of an event is determined by summing together all the possible histories of that event. For example, for a particle moving from point A to B we imagine the particle traveling every possible path, curved paths, oscillating paths, squiggly paths, even backward in time and forward in time paths. Each path has an amplitude, and when summed the vast majority of all these amplitudes add up to zero, and all that remains is the comparably few histories that abide by the laws and forces of nature. Sum over Histories indicates the direction of our ordinary clock time is simply a path in space which is more probable than the more exotic directions time might have taken otherwise.”
Time can indeed be confusing; not so Heliotropism, which is quite simply explained:
“Heliotropic flowers track the sun's motion across the sky from East to West. During the night, the flowers may assume a random orientation, while at dawn they turn again towards the East where the sun rises. The motion is performed by motor cells in a flexible segment just below the flower, called a pulvinus. The motor cells are specialized in pumping potassium ions into nearby tissues, changing their turgor pressure. The segment flexes because the motor cells at the shadow side elongate due to a turgor rise. Heliotropism is a response to blue light.”
I´m very glad of that last quotation because, while rambling on like this, I had been wondering how I could possibly reintroduce a favourite topic in these blogs, that of Bananas. Now the segue is easy because the reason that bananas are good for one is, of course, that they are high in potassium. This blog has been quite a fan of bananas in the past as that mythical creature, the attentive reader, will have noticed. It was sad, therefore, to have read in the news recently that, when a banana was offered to a player in the course of a recent Scotland v. Brazil soccer match, that player took umbrage and accused the Scottish fans of insulting him. Now it is true that, because of security personnel, razor-wire fences and protective moats surrounding present-day football pitches, it is very difficult for a fan actually to present a player with a bit of fruit with due punctilio. No, he has to toss it. But Scottish people do not toss little bits of fruit; they toss cabers. The young Brazilian player may be forgiven for not knowing that. But to me the oddest part of the whole farago was that the Scottish Football Association waded in claiming that the tosser could not possibly have been a Scottish Soccer Fan (SSF) because SSFs are world-renowned for their “impeccable behaviour”.  The SSF may well be renowned, for example, for his good humour – good humour is actually a sine qua non for a SSF because, as the world knows, Scotland hasn´t won a seriously important football match since the world was young -  but for impeccability of manner ! I think not.
Anyway, as our Leader for the day said, enough rambling. What to finish with? Well, since we in the AWW value the banana – we have for example adopted the Ingrid Bonte Scale of Endurance which is based on it – a gesture of support for the fruit as a symbol of goodwill and good health is called for. Luckily, we can call up this bit of music recommended by Yves which manages to combine nutrition (the fruit itself), culture (“Rigoletto” by Verdi) and linguistics (it´s in French)…enough to challenge the intellect, n´est-ce pas?

Juanita Banana

AWW 16.03.2011: Alferce Alfresco

Attentive readers will remember that, a few weeks ago, Terry M made apt reference to the book “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”  a.k.a. a Cock and Bull Story. T.S. is characterised by its “digressive-progressive “ narrative style, which is actually a pretty good description of what an AWW blog should aim at, given the way some of our walks go. Therefore, “It must follow as the night the day” (Hamlet, Act 1, scene 3) that the ideal blogger is a natural with that style when saying a lot about not very much. Please bear that quality in mind when considering who should step up to next season´s JCB post; there is no deadline yet for submitting your nominations. I will return to this theme at a later date – don´t forget to remind me. Meanwhile, let´s on with news of this Wednesday´s Walk.

  The Starters, somewhere between two bars
Leader: Rod
Present: John O'N, David L, Ian W, John and Hazel, Hedley, Dina, Tina, Lindsey, Janet, Yves,  Peter S, Myriam, and Paul (briefly!), and birthday boy Frank.
Dogs: Misty, Rosie, Shelley, Cybele.

The Track
The statistics, provided by Myriam, deputising for Paul, as follows:
Total Dist: 15 km
Total Time: 5hrs 15 min.
Moving Time: 4 hrs 21 min
Moving Avg.: 3.4 km/hr
Overall Avg.: 2.8 km/hr
 
The Leader´s Report:
“We gathered, well were supposed to, at a bar which was on the wrong side of the road but was closed anyway. As it happened there was another one round the corner which was on the right side of the road but was on the left. Despite all that, everyone who had checked in, and some!, turned up.
“Splendid bright morning, clear and cool NE wind...just right for Picota.  
“Before we had achieved 200m (distance that is, not even height!) the RCB suffered engine failure and was forced to retire..there was a lengthy pause for dietary and medical consultation with Myriam while various items of navigational equipment and alimentation were transferred to her capacious backpack..and then on we went, up through the quaintly named village of Alto de Baixo and straight up a dead-end, the first evidence on the day of our leader's failing memory.....well it was several years since we had been there and he claimed it was not a dead-end then!  A long gradual (sic) climb followed, eliciting not a few almost audible wheezings until, after a welcome breather under an Old Oak Tree, we disappeared into the woodlands of Picota´s eastern flanks.

Old Oak Tree
(At this point, we had climbed 202 metres up from Alferce, virtually without pause.)

“A curious but memorable outcrop of granite proved we were on the right track  and so we carried on up ever wilder paths....so wild indeed that one which in times past was just navigable had disappeared under the brambles.

Leader says no way through
 

“ By now we were on top of the long Picota ridge with its splendid views in all directions but our leader determined that further exercise was needed and descended on the northern side on an experimental track, hitherto never traversed nor recce'd.  Needless to say this descended further than he anticipated and he was forced to retrace steps......as it happened, upon checking Google Earth later, he found that he was not so wrong; had we advanced another 50 m we would have joined the upward path!  In the event we ascended through a nascent eucalyptus grove back to the ridge and joined a narrow path along the top.  This led us eventually to better known parts at the foot of the final ascent to Picota itself.

Picota in view
“A minor mutiny threatened but she eventually conceded and came up the final few metres!  This was well worth it for the horizon was unusually clear ..the views were amazing and even Sagres and The Cape were just visible.
(From the Old Oak Tree to the Picota trig point, we had climbed a further 236 metres.)

“The clearest day up here that I can remember” the Leader was quite clear about that.
 
 Panorama from Monchique to the North and the East

and to the South and West


(While we relaxed and soaked in the views, Myriam risked life and limb all for the sake of the paparazza´s art)


Her aerial view

The Odelouca barragem from Picota
“After a lengthy lunch on the sheltered lee side of the peak, which even the minor mutiny appreciated, we wandered off downwards...via a different route. This took us through the lush and fertile valleys of Corte Grande on the southern slopes of Picota and indeed right past the front doors of two farms whose somewhat startled owners and even more startled dogs actually, after a brief chat, gave us quite a warm welcome. And so back to our start point and back to the bar on the left.
“This turned into quite a party...two birthdays and St. Patrick proved a good enough reason for a party. First, JohnO filled the girls´glasses with ample slugs of Carolans, an Irish whiskey concoction, in celebration of the Saint´s day....then,Yves, doubtless ashamed of the French  victory over Ireland (even if they couldn't repeat it against the Italians) produced from nowhere an endless supply of Guinness and two cakes, baked by himself, and covered in a hectic shade of green.

A view from the bar
“Even the sleepy village of Alferce was woken into some sort of activity and a few of the younger population turned out to get their slice of cake...it all ended in uproar when the dogs joined in and upended a table loaded with bottles, glasses and cake......will we ever be welcomed in Alferce again.?”

Just before the crash

Lindsey rescues a Guinness




Cakes and Ale.
Thanks, guys, but does that mean that Ian W and JohnH will have to provide haggis and Drambuie on Wednesday 30th November 2011 (St Andrew´s Day)?