AWW 27th February 2008

Stoned Again,

Or, How Many Flowers Can you Paint on a Piece of Algarve Rock?

Present:- Paul, David, Terry M, Vitor, Dina, Ian S, Janet, Hedley, Antje, Sam and John.

Representing Os Caes: Tiggy.

This was the second occasion that David had turned up looking like an odd-job man, but the truth was more mundane. We were going to paint flowers again. Yawn!

Bursting with Enthusiasm - Yea, Dave, Let's Go Paint!

The aim was to walk the section of the Algarve Way from Aljezur to Carrapateira, and that is exactly what we did, with very few problems or hiccups. Perhaps the nearest to disaster we came all day was in deciding how many cars to take to Aljezur at the beginning, and even more taxing, how many to take back to Aljezur at the end. Perhaps the title should read How Many AWWs does it take to work out fours into two (sic).

Leaving the market bar at around 10.00, we marched to the top of the hill, and promptly down again as the short climb to Aljezur Castle was easily undertaken. Then some tarmac bashing to reach the interesting part of the walk, along the broad coastal ridge down to Bordalete.

'90' Now I'll Just Turn it Round

It was on the quite attractive central section of the walk that some WWs suddenly found themselves turning into quarrymen, as waypoint after wayppoint was reached with narry a stone in sight. Hugging giant boulders like Geoff Capes after a heavy session on the beer, they strove to provide the Leader with the wherewithall to plant his precious daisies.

More striking still was Antje's sudden desire to plant them at every available opportunity. No sooner was one left behind than she was on the hunt for the next likely spot. Had all her suggestions been taken up, they would have made a chain long enough to go round a sumo wrestler's neck. (Notice my thing about big stwong men this week? Must contwol myself.)

No, I will not put one on the top of that eucalyptus

Lunch was taken on the outskirts of Monte Novo, and the cavalcade then moved on through the village, noting the rather striking new building on the northern approaches. It was beginning to look as though there would be precious little to talk about in the blog. (You've noticed?) The weather had been beautiful, the going good, navigation errors noticeably absent. We descended to the Carrapateira road and then , Oh Joy! Ian did a detour.

He's Trying to Find Buckinghamshire

Leading the trusting bulk of the party off the road, he strode off into the wilderness betwixt road and sea. Paul and the Leader observed this folly from the safety of the road, and began to think about being first at the bar. Of a sudden, the wanderers were lost in a forest of bamboo, and what precisely happened to them between then and the moment they reapeared outside the bar at Carrapateira may remain a mystery for all time. No one seemed keen to talk about it, much, one assumes, as old soldiers have no wish to talk about a battle. There was not even a photographer to record their trials.

Laugh? I Nearly Bought a Round

There followed the usual junketing and the aforesaid struggle to get the arithmetic right. What is the use of having ex-bankers on the team if they can't do their sums? This and other questions were swirling round the Leader's head as he turned the wrong way out of the village and found himself heading for Vila do Bispo........ Even worse, he has now discovered that he trashed the stats that Paul so carefully wrote down for him, after recording his waymarks on algarveway.com. I think I'll just go and change my library book.

And then this Mongoose Jumped out of the Bamboo

I Cannot Tell a Lie - It was Him

Its the Missing Bit That has me Worried

'So Many Roads, So Many Choices, So Many Detours, So Many Mistakes'

Sarah Jessica Parker

CB's 5 centimos worth:

While I remember them, for John Mottram's sake :- The Stats:

Total Distance:20.6 km.; Moving time: 4 hrs 4 minutes; Total Time: 5 hrs 15 minutes: Moving Average: 4.9 km/hr; Overall Average: 3.9 km/hr: Total Ascent 298 metres: Max Elevation 163 metres.

"Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it." Schweitzer, Albert

(David) "... comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." Millay, Edna St. Vincent