AWW 24.10.2007 Romeiras Rediscovered!

The only grey day for a month - the skies had opened overnight in Lagos, the forecast was for rain from lunchtime on -it looked like The Rainmaker had struck again. We arrived at Casa Pacheco in Romeiras for a cup of Dona Aldina's finest coffee, and the skies looked threatening. It hadn't discouraged the shorts wearers, as those that had been here before (see link) expected waist high grass and cistus, and thought it better to get their legs wet than their trousers! Last time, we had an outbreak of gaiters, but either poor planning or disenchantment with their performance meant there were less sets of gaiters than Tilley hats (1)

Rod deftly points out Ian's new 'NZ' hat at the start at Corgo da Fonte.

Hilke introduced two friends, Barbara and Volker on holiday from Stuttgart (I hope this wasn't to be the highlight) who were experienced walkers. Volker is a Doctor, and proved to be a useful man to have around as we continued on our walk in various states of physical well being! It was good to see Terry A. being able to take a rare Wednesday off to join us, and show that he could still 'cut it'.

Three potential 'customers' for Volker!
A stout rose between two mighty thorns!

The track of the walk - click to enlarge

Stats: Total distance: 19.9 km; Moving time: 4 hrs 24 min.;Total Time: 5 hrs 13 min.:
Moving Average: 4.5 km/hr; Overall Average: 3.8 km/hr Total Ascent: 687 m.; Max Elev. 352m.

Leader: Paul
Present: Myriam, Rod, Ian S. Lindsey, Andrew, David, Mick, Terry A., Hilke, Barbara, Volker.
Canines: Pooky, Shorty, Maddy.

After a warming coffee in Romeiras we drove to the start at Corgo da Fonte, where Ian proudly revealed his new 'All Black' Hat. Who says visiting New Zealanders don't have a sense of humour? At first the track is wide, but most were anticipating a lot of growth in the river valley heading north because of the rains since our last visit in February. However they did not know that as a conscientious leader I had arranged for José the JCB man to sweep ahead of us and ream out a three metre wide, flat earth path all the way to the top near the Marmalete Road!!! The amount of clearing on this side of the road is phenomenal, and whether the paths were for firebreaks or for replanting and using up EU Farming subsidies I can't comment. On one section however, Carlos the Caterpillar driver was operating very near the edge of a new terrace high above our path, and there were one or two anxious upward glances, and a discussion as to tactics should any more massive boulders be dislodged!

A 'nice' new path!!

Nevertheless, it made our progress on the 5km long uphill slog much easier, although there were the usual navigational considerations as to whether the JCB driver had followed the exact path I intended. As we averaged over 5km/hr on this section, I was wondering whether I would have to throw in a 'loop' so that we didn't reach the lunch spot too early!

A much changed landscape and a truck removing the evidence.

A short stretch of tarmac at the top, and some very black clouds hastened us to the turn down to Loiros where we were disappointed to find no 'Blondes'! The rain held off, and we again picked up speed on the wide track along the valley towards Azenhas and Zebro.
Shortly we were accosted by a local gentleman on his phut-phut motorcycle, who had left his house hastily in pursuit of us, evidenced by his unlaced boots and lack of hosiery!

Myriam - Negotiator!

Myriam took charge of the inquiry, as it appeared that Shorty, Mick's dog was identical with one belonging to a friend of his, that had recently gone missing, and he was asking whether we had found Shorty in the neighbourhood on our ramble. Myriam averted an International incident by reassuring him that Shorty was indeed known to us for a long period, and Mick hadn't abducted him while the owner was enjoying dinner in a nearby restaurant without engaging a dog-sitter! The old man was so taken with Myriam's elegant explanations that he offered her a lift down the hill on his trusty moped!

"A bicycle built for two!"

Who remembers that? I must have heard it from my Great Grandmother!

Daisy, Daisy!! Give me your answer true.
I'm half crazy - all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage - I can't afford a carriage,
But you'll look sweet - upon the seat

(All join in...) Of a Bicycle built for Two!

I digress: We carried on down the valley, reaching a point which was about half a kilometre from our final destination at Casa Pacheco, but I forgot to mention that, in case the faint-hearted might take the easy option. Besides we had only done about 10 km at this point - so we struck off up a rise towards Malhão and suddenly the views to Foia opened up. Again José the JCB had done a great job, and opened up our complete route - in fact he was still working on part of it as we shuffled along the newly cleared ridge towards Tojeiro.

The descent towards the lunch spot at Tojeiro

For the last and steepest path he must have gone for lunch too, as we had to contend with a minor amount of cistus and some slippery shale. Andrew reenacted a moment of drama for the photographer!

Ian makes it look easy while Andrew 'hams' for the camera!

And so to cries of 'About time too!' we settled for lunch near a small group of ruins at the bottom of the hill.

The lunch spot

Lunch in the 'shade'

The sun had broken through by this time, despite the pessimism of the forecasters, and a few of us migrated to one of the few trees left standing in the area. The ladies had to range far and wide for privacy for their 'ablutions'.
After lunch we did manage to find a few paths which had been untouched by machinery, and conquered several gentle 'undulations' but I spared the group the loop up Cabeço da Égua, as Mick was beginning to suffer a little from Walkers Gloom. I had envisaged visiting the former lunch spot on the Romeiras Ramble (see here ) from the earliest days of blogging, and famous for Stan having left a treasured Leki pole at the lunch spot and failed to recover it, despite going back with Elaine - whose fault it obviously had been! However, this proved to be unnecessary as I was confident of getting close to my predicted 20km without embellishment, and Mick had rallied slightly and didn't require a Field Procedure from Volker.
At 1430 hrs Portuguese time and 1530 hrs in France, the appointed hour for Ian Clark-Simpson's funeral we reached what had been a Five-Way junction and was now an Eight Way junction, and I called a halt to read Pam's tribute to Ian. After, we reflected in silence for a minute on what he had meant to each of us that knew him. (See Blog Epitaph here )

Reading the Tribute

From here it was a straightforward, mostly downhill path to Romeiras and hence Casa Pacheco. Once there we raised a glass to Absent Friends' and warmed down after an invigorating walk.

To 'Absent Friends'

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow;
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead;
Walk beside me and just be my friend."
(Albert Camus)