Cool and draughty up Montinho…
Claire, Terry and David were up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, waiting for the troops at the Café in Montinho; it was not long before regular Walkers and welcome guests were marshalled by John Le Snappeur in front of the garden near the Café: some un-thinking person had parked a French registered car (!) on ‘our’ spot! A stiffly-worded letter to the next Président will follow as soon as we locate a semi-literate speaker of French.
The group made their steady way through gentle hills affording good views of distant empty motorways and close-by orange blossom; as happens often, our senses were almost swamped by the beautiful surroundings and the heady mix of scents: orange, rosemary and thyme –we could almost have been in Scarborough, lad !-.
The blossom The Blooming Walkers
Some blooms were larger than others
Indeed, the Yorkshire connection was made when we found out that some of our guests had lived in the same little town as this Blogueur and to cap it all, one chap had even attended the same school as the RCB in the West-German Riding of Yorkshire! Small world, but I would not like the task of painting it…
The Leader, attentive as ever to grumblings and stomach rumblings, had planned to stop at a rather splendidly appointed School-yard where we could enjoy lunch without balancing plates precariously: give that man a biscuit!
The Senior Mistress?
Safely back at the Café, a nervous trainee-garçon plied us with spirits-reviving beverages; Myriam was befriended by a another ‘French-speaker’ who had duly celebrated the Portuguese National Day: he felt no pain as they parted, but anyone approaching him with a naked flame did so at their own peril.
Ingrid had to introduce our guests to the quaint custom of ‘paying for your beer’…
While the rather insipid, plastic-looking ‘samosas’ were not to everyone’s taste, it was generally accepted that once the ARCB has learnt to fasten buttons in the correct sequence, he will be ready for shoe laces…
Even with Sagres, still insipid.
Growing old is easy, just takes time;
growing up demands dedication.
A pleasant, gentle amble with the added spice of meeting ‘amateur Walkers’ near the top: thank you Terry!
The Willing Led:
David, Jan and Otto, Myriam, Marianne (?), John O’, Paul, Dina, Ingrid, Maria, shy Andrew, Yves, Claire, Terry, Lindsey, John H.
The Lone Wolf: Rosie ! [In her enthusiasm to greet and forgive this Blogueur, she even toppled a parasol near David’s head.]
Her Imaginary frollicking Friends: Snowy, Lassie, Scooby Doo and ‘Paint-the-Door’ the Irish Racing hound.
The track:
The stats:
Total Distance: 15.1 km
Total Time: 4 hrs 20 min.
Moving Time: 3 hrs 28 min.
Overall Average: 3.5 km/hr
Moving Average: 4.4 km/hr
Total Ascent: 345 m.
Max Elevation: 304 m.
Guest Walkers: 5 (including a rare sighting of Andrew)
The Proud Leader:
Yessir, that’s my girl!
The leader’s report:
This walk was another of my variations on a theme walks, the theme being "Keep it Simple Keep it Safe".
I had this walk in mind for some time so I put it all together and it was quite a good walk, some new paths these having been created for the Via Algarviana and they seem to be having quite a bit of traffic; two of the walkers just in front of us, the lady queried me in English to ask "are we on the VA? ". It later transpired in conversation with our resident linguist Ingrid that they were from Denmark and that they were walking the whole VA; Ingrid was able to say with pride: “Oh, we have done that ages ago”; anyway, I digress. We started from Santa Margarida at 9.30 sharp: nearly all walkers arrived just after 9.00, some even before: what is all this enthusiasm? And the café opened at 9.00 sharp to quite a crowd. We welcomed and introduced three new walkers including my daughter Claire and some strange coincidences unfolded later in conversations!
He boldly led into them, thar hills.
We walked westwards towards Messines on the left hand ridge before dropping down the valley to the Messines road, crossing over and then climbing slowly up to the three wind turbines at Pico Alta and what a view! Andrew watches these from his kitchen window and uses them as a weathervane (it's the farmer in him).
Pico Alta Trig shot
The wind was too cold to linger so we moved on and just round the corner came quite a few people, among them a party of Londoners in their very colourful ethnic dress and flip-flops, I think Yves lingered to take a photo.
Someone lost their bearings, our leader or theirs?
Passing friends from the UK: happy holidays!
Silves Camara have been spending their money on a very good Bio Diversity trail with 8 information boards finishing at the old School where lunch was taken on the picnic tables with a view across the valley.
After leaving, more visiting holidaymakers walking up the path, never before have we seen so many people out walking during our Wednesday Walk.
Some came by coach, cheats!
A short bit of road until we moved back onto the paths and tracks heading back to Santa Margarida, this time using the Algarve Way route (just as good as the VA) back to the café 15k on the button, a good day and a dry one.
Thanks to all who came.
Every Tom, Jock or Paddy welcome, as long as they’re called John!
Hobbits’ habitat?
Maria meets a Hobbit with the proper footwear to catch those runner-beans (favas)…
Unlike some of the Walkers’ footwear…
The A22 earning oodles of money for governmental coffers…
The trouble with windmills is:
They are bigger than we are (J. H.)
They can look menacing (M. S.)
But they mix terrific Candy-floss! (Y. F.)
Just for fun: who thinks or says what?
* ‘Where’s Rosie?’ :
* ‘And then I said…’ :
* ‘Is that so? :
* ‘How big do these things grow?’ :
* ‘This will never make the Blog’ :
* ‘Let’s set orf; they might follow’ :
Le Retour du Gourmet: While the catz away, the mouses will play… Taking advantage of a lull in the flak, the Gourmet had with him a light collation of fillet de dinde panés au pri-piri sur un lit de risotto avec légumes de saison.
Bon appétit!
Sadly, he was not brave enough to bring the planned déssert of fraises et crème vanillée; prudence, just in case…
Cat’s-tail-piece: A pussy’s thoughts
‘He’s friendly enough, for a foreigner…’
‘There he goes, will he write? text? e-mail?’
Cod Piece - Vids by Myriam.
And just because there wasn’t one from the Chef Blogueur, the RCB has decided to display some of the Chinese wisdom bestowed on him by you know who!
“If your strength is small, don't carry heavy burdens. If your words are worthless, don't give advice.”
Proverb, Chinese
