AWW 06.06.2012: Vale de Vila Vander, or Frew With A View

 

The Frew View

Announcing this to be his last walk this season, Rod yet again stepped into the breach to lead yet another AWW. And, to boot, he hosted it from Monte dos Alisios.

The Starters

 

The Track (courtesy Ingrid)

The Statistics (courtesy Ingrid) 

Moving time 3 h 20 m: Total time 4 h 04 m:
Moving avg 4.1 km/h: Overall avg 3.4 km/h:
Total ascent 229 m:  Max elev. 271 m:
Distance 14 km.

Participants

Leader: Rod

Present: Ingrid, Alex, Jim, Lindsey, Janet, Jan and Rayner Otter, Antje, and the irrepressible JohnO just back from his expedition to Campostela 

Dogs: Misty and Ember

The Leader´s Report

“Vale de Vila Vander

“Gathered at Chez Leader of the Day for a 9.00 departure...although coffee service was apparently available, curiously nobody seemed to want it and when somebody finally thought they would it was of course time to go.....or was that a put up job?

Away they go

“Anyway we departed on a very warm morning along the flat, agricultural, plateau area of Vale de Vila. Sadly some dogs in the region had been poisoned (protection of birds by the hunters it is said) so wisely Antje had left Sasha behind. Misty and Ember were kept on leads. No events of singular importance occurred as we wandered through citrus groves and open scrubland until Misty, maybe wanting to make a point about continuously being on a lead, developed a most disturbing asthmatic wheeze which required some remedial attention......although recently acquired CPR and mouth to mouth breathing skills were not required!!

Misty wheezes

Time for a drink

Too long gone for our resident herpetologist to identify

Horticultural corner

“Out of the breeze it became really quite hot so we had a number of drink stops.....a particularly welcome one by an orchard where the irrigation system was on its last legs (maybe some of the walkers and dogs too!!) and and copious refreshing jets of water were squirting everywhere.

M. Le Blogeur caption – Jan et Janet

Gentle going

“A flat walk being totally out of the question for any WW, a couple of gentle hills were thrown after the refreshment in to remind people they had been on a walk. And of course we couldn't miss a final photoshoot at an inevitable trig point.

At the trig

And home they come

“This was only 20 metres from Chez Leader so much needed refreshments round the pool were quickly in hand.”

Relaxing in the welcome shade.

Drinks were generously provided by the host, except for those consumed by Ian Scott who made an appearance at the end and brought his own bottle.. The bulk of this weeks´s photos kindly supplied by Ingrid – with RCB and Myriam nowhere to be seen, M.Le Blogeur still mysteriously absent and not even responding to RCB´s barbed comments (could it be that his hand-cranked radio transmitter has been confiscated by the authorities in Rangoon?), and ACB pleading a prior commitment in town as his excuse for avoiding the day´s physical exertions.