It is That Time of Year again. The RTC safely over, most of us at peak fitness, thoughts turn to the Festive Season. Often a time of overindulgence and under exercise! Not for AWW’s of course. Valiantly fighting a rearguard action against indolence, sloth, gluttony and the evils of alcohol, we certainly know better! Whether we have marched this earth for 50, 60 or 70+ years, without doubt, experience has given us the common sense to avoid the harmful stuff.
Just what the Doctor ordered - a bracing calorie-burning walk before the Annual Christmas Lunch at Patricia’s.
32 were booked in for lunch - but only 3 arrived for the walk which had been offered by Rod. Not the weather at fault as it was a cool clear day - ideal walking conditions. True, it was a Friday - mainly because of Tina’s holiday schedule, but Wednesday at the Foz, though traumatic for certain dogs and their owners, was hardly likely to have exhausted everyone significantly.
The character of the AWW’s has changed over the years, since the beginnings when Myriam was the only lady to attempt the longer walks. and the group split into ‘Striders’ and ‘Strollers’! Now we have options, drop out points, friends and relatives arriving at Faro on Wednesdays, high heels, hairdos and nail polish hues to consider! It is time to regroup and challenge ourselves while we still can.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Three Proud Walkers!
Of course I have looked back through history ie. previous Xmas lunch Blogs, and dragged out the stats enumerated below:-
Year url Walkers Lunchers Location
2005 2005 Blog link 19 Not recorded Patricia’s
2006 2006 Blog Link 12 21 Patricia’s
2007 2007 Blog Link Walk cancelled - rain 34 Solar do Farelo
2008 2008 Blog Link 21 27 Patricia’s
2009 2009 Blog Link 16 Not recorded Patricia’s
2010 2010 Blog Link 15 25 Patricia’s
2011 This Blog 3 32 Patricia’s
I will leave the analysis to less jaundiced minds than my own, but it is enough to say that the highest number of lunchers ever, was when there was no walk because of rain, and the second highest number of lunchers when only 3 walked. QED!
The Walk
Stats:
Total Distance: 8.38 km
Total Time: 2 hrs 24 min.
Moving Time: 2 hrs 06 min.
Moving Average: 4.0 km/hr
Overall Average: 3.5 km/hr
Total Ascent: 251 m.
Max Elevation: 181 m.
We were waved off by Patricia’s flamboyantly-tailed cat!
As we were a small elite fast-moving group (think Alexander the Great’s Army) Rod headed straight up the hilly track behind the farm to the south of Patricia’s, giving us an invigorating start to the day, and views of Patricia’s property that we had never seen before.
Of course we had to check progress on the construction of the Apartments at the Autodromo, and there did seem to be quite a lot of activity as evidenced by the number of builder’s trucks parked nearby.
Next Rod led us past a seemingly deserted farmhouse, across a small brook and then into some secondary jungle up to a ridge where we had apparently walked before the Autodromo was built.
There used to be a path here somewhere.......
At the top Rod exercised his rare photographic skills and captured an even rarer shot of Myriam and myself in very close proximity!!
Cistus, cistus everywhere.....
We started north along the ridge, hoping to see a path back down to the road leading to lunch, but there was nothing that would not have taken a full Wednesday Walk to get round. (Note for next year: A recce and an earlier start!)
The other option was south down to the Autodromo perimeter roads, and to our horror a high wire fence appeared, but fortunately there was a wire locked gate, which yielded easily enough, but was much more difficult to reinstate.
Since the last time I looked there was now a field of photo-voltaic panels near the perimeter, with a very informative (for some) sign. Grateful if one of our engineers could estimate how many kettles could be boiled with the stated amount of electricity!
Now we were too early to take the normal route back to Patricia’s, so Rod opted for the extension loop that took us eventually to the road about 1 km north of Patricia’s.
Perfect synchronicity
Once on the road we forced marched at Gurkha pace, for fear of the non-walkers hoovering back all the mulled wine before the deserving arrived!
John was alert enough to catch us as we stormed the gates
We need not have feared, Will had a plentiful supply, and while we struggled to identify some of the AWW’s in their high fashion finery, some looking almost 6” taller than usual, he plied us with a warming cup or two.
Then there was a very pleasant lunch, organised with military precision by Tina, even to the extent of place cards with our choice of courses clearly marked to prevent any unseemly quarrels and seating conflicts.
A job well done.......
The food was excellent, as were Rod’s chosen wines, and a very good time was had by all. Yves distributed his unique Christmas fridge-magnet calendar which provoked some discussion as to whether it was Praia d’Amado or Praia de Castelejo.
I am still not sure - will need to see the original.
Rod gave his State of the AWW Address, which was well received, especially by those who had their moment in the spotlight. We really do need some more leaders - if only for one walk per season. For a few days after this lunch, owing to absences from the main leaders, the walk for 14th December was in danger of being cancelled. Happily, Terry A. managed to free himself from a previous commitment and stepped in to the breach. If the walk had been cancelled for lack of leader, it would have been to my knowledge the first time since I joined the group in 1997.
Toastmaster in Chief!
Many pictures of the gathering were taken by the usual snappers, and I don’t propose to be too selective in case I offend anyone who spent hours preparing for the photographers (instead of walking) so I have committed them to an Online Album which can be accessed HERE
Here is a little pot-pourri of the lunch crowd. Much too much video was shot for blog purposes as usual but you get the idea...
“Everyone realizes that one can believe little of what people say about each other. But it is not so widely realized that even less can one trust what people say about themselves.”
West, Rebecca
Excellent blog mixture; great technical skills.
ReplyDeleteYou should try blogging regularly.
JohnH