AWW 23.04.2008 Bensafrim (almost) Unblogged

You just can't get good help these days!! The CB, undergoing an enforced mercy mission in UK was relying on the DCB or the ADCB to continue the long tradition of telling it like it is during his absence. DCB then decided to flee from his responsibilities on the flimsiest of pretexts, and the ADCB was apparently overcome by indolence or apathy, and failed to attend the scene of the most recent exciting perambulation through the tricky topography of Bensafrim.
It is only thanks to the dedication and sense of responsibility of the designated leader, Rod, that you are now reading what might have been a blank page, or worse, an exotic fantasy based on nothing but lewd imagination from the depths of Warwickshire!
Rod duly submitted the walk report and a meagre selection of photos, to flesh out the bones of this issue, and despite entreaties to the GPS Operatives, Andrew and Vitor, I have yet to receive any stats!
So here it is - and feel free to comment if you Walked the Walk, and are aggrieved that your satirical comments or heroic actions went unrecognised. I am unable to add to the story.

Here we go - start at Bensafrim market

Leader: Rod
Present: Tina W, Mike P, Lindsey & Andrew, Alex, Peter, Alfredo, Dina &
Vitor, Ian W, Janet
Hounds: Pookie, Nandi & Cibele

Technical Details: apply Gps Carriers, Mike P.and Andrew
Distance approx 19.8 km. Elapsed time including lengthy interludes, 5.5 hrs.

Focus on the blue blob!

From there we continued, without excessive exertion, through spring flower strewn countryside, away from the AWW track and up to the first main ridge. From there we had a splendid view of the current re-forestation programme....some alfarrobas and pines but mostly wind turbines, stretching almost uninterruptedly along the skyline from the Mata Nacional in the south to the top of Espinhaçao do Cão
in the north. After feasting our eyes on that for a while we carried on up past Corte Pero Jaques ( whoever he was) to the densest part of the wind turbine forest until we eventually happened upon the hotel high on the main ridge but now virtually enveloped by technological cultivates, and now neighboured by a prominent, but at least green-painted, water treatment plant belonging to Aguas do Algarve. Once, in more primeval days, we had stopped at this hostelry for a beer, but, not tempted this time, we started our descent and once away from the turbines we entered the domain of David Fry. He purports to be developing a carriage (equine)driving tourist
facility...its a bit difficult to judge at first sight whether everything is in a state of creation or decay however, although we did come across a few horses and a sheep. Just as we were about to sneak away a bearded biped emerged from a stone dwelling and engaged our leader in earnest conversation for a while. Mr Fry himself! Business was not easy he confided...with which it did not seem difficult to agree. Part of his tourist programme, according to local rumour, included naked rides, sort of Lady Godiva like, around the countryside but despite a lengthy anticipatory interlude nothing, sadly, emerged to corroborate this.

Colourful flowers!

After this relative excitement it was clearly time for lunch. Some fallen sobreiros provided seating facilities.

Ladies who lunch!

From there we followed a little used but pleasant track which wound its way gradually down towards the main road north of Bensafrim. We passed through another equine
tourist facility, Feiteira, which never materialised and occupied now only
by a lonely but certainly healthy looking burro. And so back over a final
ridge and on to the Football Club bar.

The Munch Bunch

Regrettably, the narrative ended here. Not one of the popular post walk photos, not even an Ian S. story to add a frisson to the saga. The lunch photos seem particularly dispirited, and I can only conclude that despite the good natured complaints about Myriam's papparazzi techniques and constant bullying to pose, she was sorely missed.
Rumour has it that Lindsey and Andrew are leading next week, and I, (as I am sure all our readers do) look forward to some exciting colour commentary, some technically perfect photos from Andrew's state of the art cinematic equipment, and extremely accurate stats from his top end GPS system! Perhaps David L. will be stirred from his torpor to once again invigorate us with purple prose and incisive political comment.
It is that, or a fly on the wall documentary of our latest geocaching exploits, photos of Myriam's new groundbreaking high speed footwear, and numerous pix of me gorging on pies pasties and pints of ale! The choice is yours!

I believe the true function of age is memory. I'm recording as fast as I can. Brown, Rita Mae

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought. Wimsey, Lord Peter

AWW 16.04.2008 Picota Panoply

Picota Panoply or a Walk of Two Halves

Group at start at Foz do Banho. Usual suspects under the 'bushel'

Another huge turnout at 23 walkers and 3 dogs, with many of the starters declaring that they might have to leave at the halfway point because of assignations/injuries/apathy/lack of fitness etc. The walk was billed by Ian W. as "just over 6 hours and has a get out after 3 hours" which inevitably led to the grand attendance! Augmented by Myriam and myself on a 4 day stopover in between filial duties in UK, the weather looked promising and it was anticipated that the full course would near 1000 metres in total ascent - a record since records began. Myriam would also attempt to catch up on gossip since we went back to UK in mid-March, and update everyone on goings on - a tall order in only 6 hours!!
As both Deputy and Assistant Chief Blogger had taken advantage of my temporary return to the Algarve to absent themselves, I had to place the leader Ian W. under some pressure to submit his walk report before Thursday evening as we were flying out early Friday. He failed as his extensive social obligations precluded his journalistic commitment.
I loaded maps, stats and pix in preparation for his prose, and flew out hoping that my dialup connection would not be overcome by a learned and lengthy exposition and analysis of the walk. I need not have lost sleep, but the delight was that as the walk itself, the report came in two halves, both from the Leader and the Director of Traffic. There may be some duplication, as I had anticipated some comments in my preambles, but you can detect the varying contributions by the colours of the text!

The track - pink for the whole route and green for where the part-timers opted out and returned directly to the Foz

Leader: Ian W ; Soft option: Diane W.

Present: Full walk: Janet, Tina, Hilke, Dina, Myriam, Terry, John O' , Thyl, Paul
Sampler Walk: Rod, Peter, Roger, Pamela (guests of Peter), Ian S., Brian, Antje, Stan, Elaine, Vitor,
Lost Patrol: Chris
Disappointed Dogs (only half a walk) Tiggy, Maddy, Pooky

Stats:
Short Course Total Distance 12.73 km (others unknown!)
Full whack: Total Distance 19.7 km: Moving Time 5 hrs 15 min.: Total Time: 6 hrs 37 min
Moving Average: 3.7 km/hr: Overall Average 3.0 km/hr
Total Ascent: 953 m. Max Elevation 783 m. Start Elevation 197 m.
Tilley Count (by popular demand): 6

In the event we missed the 1000 m. climb by only 47 m and were 300 m short of the 20km. Ian W. is going to recce a 'loop' to augment the stats next time he does this walk - if he can find anyone to go with him!!
There were several comments that "that was the longest 20 km I have ever done!"

Peter 'forgot' his boots, and nearly fell over trying to conceal his sturdy alternatives from ace papparazzi Myriam

Terry's tribute to Maurice!

He wore the boots and carried the rucsac bequeathed him by Maurice when he went back to UK. They seemed to work very well! And now to the field reports from our joint leaders:

Sex, mobiles and the walk leader´s wife - apparently too much of all three. Arrival at the Foz was greeted by an overbearing W.L.´s W. who directed all to park around the corner so as not clutter up the forecourt, thereby generating the ire of the restaurateur around the corner. She begs your pardon. With fourteen men, nine ladies and three dogs there was undoubtedly too much sex. Mobiles will be revealed in time.

On the rocks! wending up Picota. Note the dead trees from the fires a few years ago.

Start was delayed by the inevitable to-ing and fro-ing to cars parked around the corner and the compulsory photo, so a punishing pace was set climbing the first incline, the top of which afforded a good view of bright orange cranes towering over Longevity. It would be a long time before we saw them again. Slashing through undergrowth past the walk leader´s house we emerged back on tarmac for a few metres before beginning the proper assent of Picota.

John O' demonstrating that it is not as easy as falling off a log!

Progress with so many bodies, often in single file, skirting boulders, negotiating trail bike ramps and scaling fallen mimosa was slow but the cry on, on from Ian W. at the front and Ian S. at the back encouraged us to spend less energy on conversation and more on physical exertion. The advance guard reached the summit within the allotted 2 hours.

The rocky path to the summit. Slopes of Foia in the background.

Obligatory Trig Point Photo. (873m)

This was taken by Thyl, who had worked out that the best way to avoid being in the group pix was to borrow the camera and take them himself!

Some, mistaking this for the lunch break sat down. A record photo and we set off at a bruising pace - well, some toes were bruised. At this point, as the line of walkers became long and straggly a mobile phone rang and the owner stepped off the path to answer. A call to his wife 15 minutes later confirmed he was lost having missed a turn but as all paths led down he was confident of finding his way back to the Foz. This delay along with a hard fall by one of the more seasoned walkers resulted in a later than expected regrouping on the lower road.

On the way down - group is strung out

Over (and under) the sticks!

Lunch among the spring flowers

Here the sheep were separated from the goats and we thirteen bleaters took the shorter route back to the Foz led by Ian S´s raging thirst.

(I take no responsibility for the above, written by the Traffic Warden)

Soon after lunch it was time for the parting of the ways. Diane led the sheep to the bottom of the hill, while the goats followed Ian over a succession of ever increasing undulations!

Looking fondly back from whence we came

Heading off down the tarmac road towards Fornalha, 10 stalwarts stiffened their pace to try to arrive back at the Foz before dark, having spent one hour too long in the descent from Picota. (the stalwarts were Paul and Myriam, John, Janet, Hilke, Thyl, Tina, Terry M, Dina and Ian W)

The cistus are really huge this year - and sticky!!

How Green was My Valley!

Myriam performs gymnastics while negotiating a gate at the start of a bridge!

After just over 1km we headed south west on a mainly downhill track, which eventually after one or two mishaps reached the Monchique road in time to see Rod and Ian S. floating past leaving fumes of tea beer and diesel behind them. We crossed the road, followed the river downstream and crossed a bridge to start a stiff climb to the ridge.

Heads are down! A long steep slog, west of the Monchique road

Panoply of spring flowers

At the top of the ridge we were able to see the whole route of the walk from beginning to end. Quite the view. We followed the ridge dropping down into the Caldas de Monchique valley and wound our way up to the Foz. Unfortunately we failed marginally to complete 1000m of ascent by about 50 m. Had the walkers been prepared to climb to the leader's house they would have done the " Munro" and received a free beer, but they were all too tired and it was after all, 4.30, and some had pressing engagements. As usual, Thyl found his own way down from the ridge and no doubt through brambles and leaping the stream.

Back at the Foz - morale is rising - but where is Thyl?

We lingered over our beers, and Myriam graciously volunteered to walk back to the distant car park where she had been ordered some 7 or 8 hours ago by the Director of Traffic, and bring the car to the front of the cafe. On her return she reported that Thyl's prize Mercedes was still parked there, and no evidence of the adventurer having made it off the mountain. The CB attempted several times to contact the responsible walk leader, but he, having already lost one walker earlier, had disconnected his comms rather than risk breaking the AWW record and losing almost 10% of his flock! On our way back down the road to the A22, we saw a man laying down and preparing to sleep on the hard shoulder next to the white line. We stopped and went back to look, but alas it wasn't Ian S. We roused the elderly gentleman, who was obviously (according to Myriam's finely honed sense of smell) on his way home from a neighbouring hostelry, and moved him to a safer position in which to recuperate his faculties! Good deed done we went on our way, praying that Thyl had merely decided to include Foia in the day's walk, and would return soon!

"We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success." Thoreau, Henry David (Excuses for not completing a Walk #287)

AWW 9.04.2008 Start Your Engines, or Terrapins and Virgins.

Most of the group came well-prepared for lousy weather, and it was indeed a dark and stormy morn. Now read on.

The Leader's report:
"Despite the doomsday warnings in the walk notice, a number of members had expressed interest in joining this "Start Your Engines" circumnavigation of the "Autodromo Internacionais Algarve" located north of Mexilhoeira Grande. However, after some 50mm rainfall the preceeding day and night, only "The Lunatic Fringe" of the AWW were actually present for the Starter's Flag,numbering 6, to wit:

Leader: Mike "To Blame" Pease
Fellow Lunatics: Lindsey (the one lady present,but in trenchantly good form); Hedley (returning to UK shortly); Terry M (always a mine of information and a photographic contributor to this blog); Thyl (recently emerged from the forests of Nicaragua - but, on this occasion, without his usual straw hat but wielding a City brolly and, despite his misgivings about blog photographs and blogs in general, another able photographic contributor); and JohnH.

4-legged Friends: zero.
Just as well as they would have had to have been manhandled over the various obstructions we met. (Fair comment; Mike "To Blame" had obviously done his recce, but "various obstructions we met" !!! Strewth! There were more fences to negotiate than in your average, run-of-the-mill Grand National and Aintree's Stewards would surely have had something sharp to say about the amount of barbed wire, never mind the width of the Becher's Brook which came later)

Tilley Hats: zero.
Rain: see below.

Walk Statistics (to keep the CB happy in his Shakesperean retreat):

Distance: 16.5km

Moving Average: 4.6 kph

Moving Time(no record of what we did when not moving): 3.36hrs

Actual Time od Circumnavigation: 4.hrs 35 m

The Starters

We reached Penascobo trig point (157 M) in 30 minutes flat, from where we had excellent views of the remarkable progress in construction of the motor racing track and its linked facilities. Hedley had assured us that, whilst it would be cloudy for most of the day, the sun would come out briefly and we would probably have no rain. That is precisely what happened - just a few drops fell towards the end as we free-wheeled in to receive the Chequered Flag.

A strange pair of hands by the trig point

Much calculation was made as to the likely length of the perimeter fence (two-thirds of which took us about two and a half hours to get round). Thyl estimated that he could easily fit 10 golf courses of 60 hectares each within the race track perimeter.

"How many golf courses did you say...... ?"

The circumnavigation necessitated much walking alongside the perimeter fence and cistus bashing but we were able to view track layout, pits and infrastructure development from various angles. We crossed several minor fences with no ripped clothing (apart from JohnH's trousers).

"What boots it at one gate to make defence,

And at another to let in the foe?"

(Samson Agonistes)

Having crossed the Pereira to Senhora de Verde road, we commenced the ascent towards Boi (125m.), where - earlier potential meadows having been vetoed by Lindsey on account of unacceptable bovine smells, and this venue "above the poo-line" meeting with her discriminating approval- we had a pit-stop for lunch, pleasingly and refreshingly overlooking the surrounding countryside.
Below Boi, we took the path known as that "The Wise Virgins". That of "The Foolish Virgins" ascends to Boi and then rejoins the main route by way of much cistus bashing. As we ploughed our way through the considerable undergrowth, there was considerable discussion on the derivation of the nomenclature for such a particular group of young ladies, on its relevance to the AWW, and also disappointment that it had nothing to do with sex. Terry M. scores top points here by correctly identifying the source material as one of the Gospel parables (Matthew 25. 1 - 13 to be exact) and that it was a matter of home economics, candles and Tesco's "Best Buy Lamp Oil". (Just ask Terry.)

This learned discussion came to an abrupt close when we had to face up to a totally unexpected stream in full flood. Undaunted, however, we all girded our respective loins and leapt across the deluge, happily without any repeat of the recent unfortunate incident involving the Chief Blogger.

I know it's a leap year but this is ridiculous

All safely across, the route provided few challenges, but Hedley espied a terrapin plodding along, perhaps in search of a FV terrapine. Poor fellow - we picked him up, carried him in my hat (never mind the smells!), and released him into a nearby dam. No doubt, he will be complaining of the injustices of life. (Sub-editorial: why is it that we all assumed Hedley's Terrapin was a male? It could equally well have been a female out on the razzle)

Hedley's Terrapin

And now, if we're lucky, a movie.

Our very own David Attenborough

Excitement for the day now over, we coasted back to Cafe-bar Goncalves at about 2.10 pm."

The Survivors

To conclude, some shots of the race track construction site, around which no doubt Paul and Chris will be hurtling in a few month's time.

For afficionados and for the simply curious, there is, so I am told, a website for the Autodromo Internacionais Algarve, and that is http://www.autodromodoalgarve.com/en/index.html.

CB's motivational nugget:

What is there that confers the noblest delight? What is that which swells a man's breast with pride above that which any other experience can bring to him? Discovery! To know that you are walking where none others have walked; that you are beholding what human eye has not seen before; that you are breathing a virgin atmosphere. To give birth to an idea, to discover a great thought -- an intellectual nugget, right under the dust of a field that many a brain-plough had gone over before. To find a new planet, to invent a new hinge, to find a way to make the lightning carry your messages. To be the first -- that is the idea. Twain, Mark

Well done John, with the first video blog - shame there was no more detail about the contents of Mike's hat or whether he donned it again!

AWW 2.04.2008 The Wanderers' Return or Two Dams for the Price of One

I would have been worried about this blog being published later than usual, had I not happened to meet a Very Senior Walker in one of Algarve's most fashionable shopping venues over the week-end. When I mentioned that I hadn't yet been able to wheedle a Leader's Report out of Rod, the response was that said Very Senior Walker could not give a toss about the blog. Much consoled by this salty breath of fresh air, I relaxed and let Rod take his time with his submission.
Wanderers' Return the day truly was, with Rod just back from the Antipodes and Mike from his Chilean adventure, both with a sufficiency of traveller's tales to regale us between Barragems do Arade and de Funcho.

The first event of note was that Ian S., stung by an earlier apparent reference to his personal navigational skills, managed to arrive at the right Barragem this time. Hence his look of triumph.

Now details for the record:

Leader: Rod.

Walkers: Chris and Antje, Ian and Diane W., Andrew and Lindsey, Vitor and Dina, David L, Yves, Hilke , Ian S., John H., Peter S., Mike, Val, Alex, Hedley, John O, and Antony Frew.

Dogs: Maddie, Nandy, Oscar, Tiggie, Pookie and Devinia

Tilley count: who knows.

Trig points: Nil

Statistics (courtesy Vitor):

Coordenadas da partida...... 37 14.325 - 008 22.671

Distancia percorrida............ 17,7 Klm

Média................................. 4,3 K/h

Media Gera.......................... 3,7 k/h

Tempo percorrido.................. 4h 07 m

Tempo parado...................... 41,09 m


The Starters at the no-longer-existing bar

"Now, when I was in Tierra del Fuego... "

And now the Leader's report:

"The billing as a short(ish) walk round the Barragem do Arade, along with the wonderful weather, produced quite a sizeable turnout...even though there was no pre-ambulatory coffee. The billing, in the event, turned out to be somewhat illusory as our dear leader added on an extra loop to take advantage of the lovely spring flowers, or so he said. The three to four hours turned out to be about five (although partly ascribed to a more than usual number of stops) (One unscheduled one when Nandy lost Mike, whose thoughts were possibly still far away in South America)
We set off from the no-longer-existing bar at the Barragem round the dam in a clockwise direction. There were a number of moans during the first two hours, that since nobody had even seen any water, they had been misled by the billing. (Can't imaging what they were complaining about.The next picture was taken at 9.44 a.m.; water very visible.)

The rebels were, however, quickly distracted by swarms of quite aggressive bees. Alex´s hair seemed, well quite understandably, attractive to them and disentangling them (achieved without a single sting) was the cause of one of the longer interludes.

I'll tak the A road and you'll tak the Bee road

On eventually sighting some water...below the Barragem de Funcho, the party temporarily split into two; some opting for a shorter route to the lunch site and others going up over the dam itself.

Tilleys and Non-Tilleys

The object of the latter was to get a view of the Barragem de Funcho and to see some unusual and very attractive Acacia trees. Lindsey, of course, was able to enunciate, without a stumble, the full Latin name and will doubtless be able to repeat it should anyone wish to know.

No complaints about the lunch accomodation

John O doing his Spike Milligan impersonation

After lunch the views of the dam lake became quite frequent and the moaners eventually realised they had indeed completed a circuit. (Then they started complaining about the tarmac.)
Enthusiasm was mildly diminished by the fact that the selected post-walk watering hole proved to be shut but a detour to Casinhas, before dehydration became too apparent, saved the day."

No complaints from these three.


"Always bring money along with your complaints" (Plautus)

CB's eggs:

Glad to see the wanderer's have returned. We too will be returning wanderers in due time, so I shall have to quote:

He travels best that knows when to return. For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. Stevenson, Robert Louis