AWW 10.10.2007 Bravura Bravado

A fine sunny morning in the car park at Bravura - the long shadows even at 9 am demonstrate that it should be approaching winter! The dogs certainly look ready to go. But Rod receives a plaintive phone call!! Guess who!



Leader: Rod

Led: Paul, Myriam, Mick W., John, Janet, Terry A., Mike P., Vitor, Dina, David, Lindsey and Mike (?)(on his debut)

Dogs: Oscar, Nandi, Pooky and Shorty.

Stats: Total Distance - 22.2 km; Moving Time - 5 hrs 19 min; Total Time - 6 hrs 19 min.; Moving Average - 4.2 km/hr; Overall Average - 3.5 km/hr; Total Ascent - 679 m.; Max Elev. 254 m.

The route: compiled with great difficulty and Ingenious Interweb Cooperation, between Rod and CB. owing to the GPS Track not having been switched on until 1 hrs 30 minutes into the walk! Click to enlarge.

Here is Rod's report:-

Met at The Recanto de Bravura at 0900.  Beautiful sunny day, 

temperatures in the upper 20´s, touching 30 in the valleys.

The threat of a longish walk caused some mental aberration to

one Ian S who managed to turn up, apparently on time certainly, but at the wrong dam....and too far away, as luck would have it for him, to be rectified, so numbers were cut to a rather ominous 13.
In the event no disastrous bad luck occurred but certain wilting became apparent over the final kilometers.

This had to be investigated, in case Ian had rushed to intercept us. John reported that minor restoration was required, but it asks the question "How do they get cars in remote places like this - and Why?"

We set off round the southern shores of Bravura  with gorgeous view north over the water towards Monchique. This was only slightly  marred by a car that had somehow been recklessly parked upsidedown in a virtually inaccessible part of the mato ( one has to admit it wasn´t necessarily a female driver). This was followed by a gentle climb which took us to the mandatory photo stop at Alamos trig point.

The sun wasn't in the best position for this pic - probably just as well, as the heat was rising and the ascent was long!

The leader had a few perspiration problems!!

"He used to sweat so much that he could keep two fish alive"

I am not sure if the WW Funds will run to a statue of him, but perhaps he can experience the 'Lynx Effect"

If you are baffled see here
(many thanks to Oriana for the special effects!)

From there a few short sharp ascents and descents got the cardio vascular systems working and a plaintive effort by Myriam to get an invitation for a coffee and brandy from the Schroeders, whose house was conveniently below us, fell on stony ground......and so too did we nearly!

A tricky descent

We wound our way round the back of the Serra de Espinhação do Cão and plodded up a long hill up the back of the ridge.  Looming up close to the west is  a new wind turbine which ominously looks as though it may be the first of a whole row along the Espinhação do Cão ridge....a splendid enhancement to the
western Algarve skyline.

The "Lunch Pine"

Lunch, a fairly leisurely affair in the heat of the day, was taken in the shade of an enormous pine tree conveniently located at the high point of the day. The post prandial stretch was a gentle down hill amble followed by a long flat valley. Given it was really quite hot by then this was no bad thing.

Lunch under the pine tree

The leader allowed a fairly generous lunch break by the standard of previous weeks, and it is possible that our Senior Member just drifted off behind those dark glasses!

Over the ridge in the direction of Pincho someone has rather possessively fenced off a rather large tract of land with the very clear intention of keeping something in, or out. In the absence of anyone threatening around, this presented no challenge to WW ingenuity ( although some opted to climb over barbed wire when there was a perfectly good gate!) 

Another property had made an attempt to scare travellers from using what had been a right of way for centuries! On this one the word 'Proibida' had been defaced (not by us!)
This photo leads me nicely in to my weekly Tilley comment. There seems to have been a bit of an 'Anti-Tilley' backlash recently, and they probably require the services of Alistair Campbell in the short term, but it has amazed even me that certain people are prepared to look completely ridiculous in their alternative millinery. What price dignity! Also notice the historic 'blue blob' which Mike is pointing out.
Earlier in the walk we had also encountered one of David's 'Cistus' markers which delineated an alternative part of Via Algarviana.

From there the final few hills seemed a tad higher and further as the 20 k mark came and went.  Everyone got back more or less in one piece and mercifully the bar was open and we were greeted as usual there by the effusively monosyllabic, charmingly expressionless,Dutch couple who run the place.  A good warm up for the RTC which hopefully might not be quite so warm.

Comment: Yes this was a good testing walk, with temperatures as high or even higher than those earlier walks this season which we had abbreviated to pre-lunch and early start. Those that walked rose to the challenge, and generated a higher than usual thirst. Several ran out of water before the end, and this should serve as a reminder that even at this time of year, an adequate supply of water is required. the leader even filched some of his dog water, but fortunately the dogs found plenty of muddy ditches to lark about in.

The welcoming shady verandah of the Recanto.

Apart from Mick who lost his prescription sun glasses above Fonte Santa last week, we have been incredibly fortunate so far. On an earlier walk this season, my new digital camera was extracted from it's pouch on my waist by a vindictive thorn, possibly disappointed at not having managed to snag Mike's paperthin skin. Luckily Antje was about 30m behind and saw the camera hanging on the thorn, and returned it to me, just as I realised it was missing. This week something similar happened to John, and this time Myriam who was close behind saw his camera hanging on a bush. Being Myriam, she said nothing and waited for his dismayed reaction when he noticed. John in his usual phlegmatic way, noticed the loss and he too said nothing (perhaps in case someone said he should go back for it!).
It was not until she started taking pix of him with his own camera in the Recanto, that he twigged and was mightily relieved.

"I had a camera just like that!"

Just remember - Once you are over the hill you begin to pick up speed!!