AWW 7.05.2008 Messing about Messines or A Dance to the Music of Thyme.

Your correspondent, just back - jet-lagged and disorientated after a trip to Remotest Thule - had scarcely managed to drag himself out of bed and to the starting line at Torre when he was confronted by HWMBO with the news that the Chief Blogger, still ensconced in his sybaritic fastness in the middle regions of Gorrrdon Brrroon's Brrritain and apparently content to manipulate his puppet strings and hurl his insults, as Jove his thunderbolts, from there, expected me to do both the snapography and the blog for the day's proceedings. If any of the details of what follows are inaccurate or incomplete, blame the aforesaid disorientation; corrigenda will be gratefully received. And was it only me, or did other people see strange visions passing before them even before the walk started?

Who he? Answers, on a postcard please, to Terry Ames.

The Leaders: Elaine and Stan Webb.
The Followers:David L.,Terry A., Terry M., Vitor and Dina, Tina, Janet, Ian W., Lindsey, Hilke, Mike P., Brian H., John H., and 4 newcomers, namely Eva, John, Julie and David.

Track Sniffers: Nandi and Rusty.

Tilley Hat Count: who knows? (sotto voce -or cares?).

And various statistics, courtesy, first, of Vitor:
Distance 15.1 km

Moving time 3.49 hrs/mins

Resting time 39 mins

Total time 4.28 hrs/mins

Moving Average 3.95 km per hr

Overall speed 3.38 km per hr

and, second, of Brian:

Distance 15.2 km

Moving time 3.31 hrs/mins

Resting time 54 mins

Total time 4.25 hrs/mins

Moving average 4.32 km per hr

Overall speed 3.44 km per hr

Total ascents 337 metres

Max elevation 242 metres.

The starters' photo was attended to with commendable alacrity by the participants, egged on by an admiring but noisy gallery of pugs, poodles, lapdogs, long-haired mini-spaniels or whatever in an upper window across the road.. And the trek began reasonably promptly at 9.35am.

The starters.......(Stan and Vitor being modest and camera-shy as usual).....

... and their admiring fans.

Now the Leaders'Report

The walk was one we had put together several years ago and derives from 2 walks from Maurice's Silves Walks book, so thanks to Maurice. When we reccied it first we did it with Pam and Ian, so the walk holds fond memories of Ian and keeps Maurice's walks going - we saw several blue blobs - so they may be low tech but they certainly last!
The walk has been changed as the hill down from Torre to the nora is now too prickly to pass through - ironic in view of what happened later - and the trig point we used to go up to on the way back from Amorosa to Torre is so overgrown that you can't find the trig point and so we do a contour walk along the side of the hill with views to the south.

19 of us and the 2 dogs Nandi and Rusty set off from Torre down a track and then along the road a few hundred metres to join a track down through a farm across the river and up on to the ridge leading to Amorosa. We stopped to admire the menhir and to get some tips about them from Mike Pease. (Mike alluded to their prehistoric phallic fertility symbolism while Terry A. sensed the mysterious underground power of Ley Lines.)

And did the earth move for you too?

We then continued to the well-restored nora on the path out of Amorosa village.

The nora at Amorosa

We crossed the EN124 to start the other side of this figure of 8 walk. Some road walking took us to a track up the hill and all was going well on a pleasant track until I decided that we should try to avoid more tarmac and get views of Messines at the same time -bad idea- hunters trails seemed to disappear and we didn't find the ploughed field which leads to the relevant pylon - so many prickles and scratched legs later and very few moans (much appreciated), we arrived at the path which led to the road past the cemetery anyway -won't do that again. (While we were thrashing around in the thorn bushes, Mike kept our spirits up with a dissertation on the somewhat controversial achievements of the Chindits as they thrashed around in the Burmese jungle during WWII. Stan then led us in circles for a while as some of the elderly hippies present sang snatches of Scarborough Fair..."Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme".)

We then followed the railway line from Messines, provoking a passing goods train into a burst of frantic hooting, (well, it's not often a long-distance train driver has an audience of 19 enthusiasts).

Hilke leading the Trainspotters' Brigade

and their visual reward


We then climbed up the slope for a scenic lunch spot with 'seating' for lots at the top.

12 Green Bottles

After a leisurely lunch, we meandered through a couple of hamlets and along a track which led us back to the EN124. The final section went through a couple of farms at low level and then we went through some low scrub for our 'walk back in thyme' and joined another farm track to bring us out in Torre, shortly before 2pm.

Some Local Colour


In a lengthy article about the Chindits, Wikipedia has this to say about how they moved: "Since there were often no established paths in the jungle along their routes, many times they had to clear their own with machetes and kukris." Maybe the Chief Blogger will consider a revision to our equipment specifications for next season's walking; Tilley Hats and GPSs are all very well in their place, but are they of much use when the going gets really tough?.