Another hot one! The walkers gathered reasonably early at the very welcoming stables of Quinta da Bica; the spirit was high and there was a faint but detectable whiff of Paul’s after-shave : ‘Brutes’, with a trailing soupçon of ‘Exit by XV, from London’…
No hard feelings: Yves offering ‘Paulus Imberbus’ help with removing the stubble…
The first almost serious hills of the season awaited us but, surprisingly enough, it was a four-legged friend who threw in the towel first: Tiggy convinced Chris to go back near the half-way mark. Undaunted, the troop carried on and a splendid day was enjoyed until Rod’s name became mud, almost within sight of the bar! Ah well, nobody’s ferpect…
This Blogueur extends his thanks to the leader and to the paparazzi who provided so much excellent material, and of course to the stable owner, Katherine.
Leader: Rod
The Trustees: Paul and Myriam, Chris, Lindsey, Ingrid, Yves, Terry M, Jim, John O', Bob, Dina, Nick and Pam.
The trusting friends: Tiggy, Misty and Alfie
The track:
The stats:
Total Distance: 15.25 km
Total Time: 4 hrs 39 min.
Moving Time: 3 hrs 44 min.
Overall Avg.: 3.3 km/hr.
Moving Avg.: 4.1 km/hr
Total Ascent: 433 m.
Max Elevation: 253m.
Highest Temperature: 28ºC
The leader’s report:
“We met up at Katherine Cooks wonderfully situated equine establishment, Quinta da Bica, near Messines. Our leader keeps his horse there from time to time, and scours the splendid local countryside for new challenges. Coffee and a loo were available for those who must have such luxuries before setting off.
Everyone had arrived so promptly, despite some navigational shortcomings revealed by few, that we were actually able to set off some 10 minutes early. It was still unseasonably warm, cloudless skies and no breeze, at least to start with. So with this in mind it seemed best to get the hilly part done first.
Over the hills and far away…
Huff, puff, moan and groan…
Off we set along the banks of the mostly dried up Arade river bed before turning away north up a valley. After 15 mins along this we made our first (of the day and almost of the season!) ascent to a long north-south ridge. The ridge has splendid views to the east over the IC1 and the railway and to the west over rolling hills towards Picota, framed rather inevitably by a row of ubiquitous pylons. The trouble with most ridges here is that they are not really ridges but a chain of hills joined by some high ground!
‘A few moderate ascents’ he said…
This was no exception so a string of ascents and descents was met by the usual, but actually surprisingly modest, moans and groans. Amongst the ascents, rather inevitably, was one rather sharpish one (Blogueur’s note: you promised ‘moderate’ hills!) to the now obligatory trig point.
Where was Maria when we needed a top of trig mascot?
One of the ascents proved to be one too far for one of the luckless hounds, Tiggy, who managed to convince owner Chris that she had a wounded paw and wanted home...Chris obliged and managed, so we later learned, to find his way back. The breeze had still not come up so it was still quite uncomfortably hot.
A few moments’ respite and some sought shelter in the shade
The sight of São Marcos getting nearer and nearer; another ominously steep ascent
to an even higher trig point looming and recent hero of the Algarve Way, Bob, feeling mildly indisposed, all combined to suggest we should descend to the valley and head southwards again. We wandered uneventfully back south along the main valley track for a couple of kilometres before taking a path of to the west, rather more verdant and pleasant, before making one last ascent...amidst increasing grumbles about hills and lunchtime...to a high point with a ruin, some eucalyptus shade and even a breeze...and a view back to the east of where we had just been not once but twice before!
Lunch completed, Bob and more importantly Alfie, rehydrated, we headed off down the valley towards the Arade and the dried out headwaters of the Funcho dam. After a short walk along the main lake (when there is one) side track we dropped down onto the still fairly green lake bed.
Immediately Misty bounded off in search of water, but announced with much barking that she had found something in the water. This turned out to be a young goat, strayed from the herd.
Spot the dog! and the goat?
On the assumption that we would come across the shepherd and the main herd shortly we left it there and wandered along the, surprisingly green still, lake bed to a point where we could cross the remains of the Arade river. This proved to be where the shepherd plus flock plus lady-friend were as well. Having been advised by our leader of the fate of his young goat he immediately dispatched his lady-friend (later, of course, proving to be his wife!) on her motor-bike to rescue it.
Mud, of the sticky variety, as splodged by Paul, and Terry, and Dina, and Lindsey, and Jim, and Bob, and Ingrid…
Amidst all this the low point of the walk...horror of horrors, Paul managed to put his foot in probably the only bit of mud in the Algarve at the moment and a vestige of it attached itself to one of his spanking new €250 Salomon high-spec expedition boots.(for the record Cosmic GTX4D and a mere €130- sale price! - RCB) Of course our leader was rounded upon for failing to have pre-advised this hazard.
The Leader was definitely on the defensive by then!
Fortunately by now we were were only a short distance from the Quinta da Bica, so it seems no permanent damage was done (note to future leaders; check your personal insurance cover!).
Once there, we all quickly repaired to the Quinta's small self-service bar where mastering the technicalities of getting on tap beer, sprite and coke into a glass without smothering everything in foam proved beyond most of us.
Well done Terry: happy customers!
In any event good start point for future walks in the area and hopefully Katherine will not have been too horrified to have us back again!”
Walk? Moi?
Bonus Video:
Post Script by RCB:
Le Grenouille qui rit!
Le Froguer having been hyperventilating and clutching at his chest during the last 5 minutes of the Wales-France RWC semi-final, it has fallen to me to polish and publish the final version of this fine blog. I am saying nothing about Monsieur Rolland’s performance in denying Wales their moment - it could have been salvaged if the Welsh kicker had been as accurate as the French one, but at least there will be much to talk about next Wednesday, even if next Saturday’s Final is a bit of an anti-climax.
Rod supplied the kind of walk we need in our early conditioning for the RTC, but ‘it weren’t ‘alf ‘ot, mum’ and I certainly knew I had had a walk at the end. It is a bit of a worry that we would have to do another lap like that, and a further two laps the next day to accomplish the RTC, but we are all hoping for some cooler (but dry) weather on the next few walks. I will be sending out lists and instructions to those who have positively responded to the RTC call circular in the next few days. If you don’t receive anything, and you think you have subscribed and should, then let me know next Wednesday.
The quotes appear to have been dropped from the new blog regime, so I will take the opportunity to insert this one - and not just because when I queried Rod about crossing the ‘river’ without the benefit of the bridge, he assured me that I would not get ‘S*** on my Salomons!’
“Marriage may often be a stormy lake, but celibacy is almost always a muddy horse pond.”
Peacock, Thomas Love
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