WW 13th September 2006: - Romeiras Ramble

Hazards on the way up Cabeço d'Egua

NEW FEATURE: Bamboo Diagrams for this walk can now be downloaded here

Leader: Paul
Present: Myriam; Janet; Ian S.; John; Hazel: Terry A.

We have all discussed this shrinking world: faster, better communications and speed of travel. The ice caps going into meltdown, and inevitably, the effects of around 60 years of gravity reducing a 6 foot 2 inch strapping youth into a slightly wizened (but still active) 6 foot Wednesday Walker! Now the truth has really struck home, since my acquisition of my Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS. This walk, which we did last February, having been scientifically measured for the purposes of the Bamboo Diagrams, by my Mark II Pedometer, and advertised as being around 18.24 kilometers, has, through the miracle of GPS measurement shrunk to only 16.2 kilometers! This does not bode well for our dinner conversations - " Dashed off another 31 k's round the barragem today" might have to be reconsidered as 'Paul says we only went 25.3 k's today - b***** well felt like 31 though!"

Anyway the ulterior motive for my offering this wonderfully scenic walk at this stage of the season, was not only to update the Bamboo Diagrams with the GPS, but also for Myriam and I to lay out a series of stage caches for our latest geocache "Sudoku Symphony of the Serras" which can be viewed here Additionally during the summer, I have acquired the excellent HP Photosmart 3210 PSC which should enable me to scan the bamboo diagrams and load them somewhere on the Web for download by those who suddenly need a good walk!

Back to the Romeiras Ramble then. The Magnificent Seven (mostly) made it to the Casa Pacheco for a convivial heart starter coffee at 0800 hrs, and we set off with a spring in our stride as the air was cool and fresh. All vents were set closed in my Rohan Dallol Equatorial Outfit, to avoid unnecessary chillblains in the morning air. Hazel's first walk of the season and she was sporting new boots. Apart from that, it was the same old gear, but Ian claimed to have dug out a fresh set of his School rugger shorts for the new season.

The highlight of the first part was the short sharp push up Cabeço d'Egua, (Janet was heard to mutter "We're not REALLY going up there are we?"), but we all made it in good order, particularly Terry who bounded up just like a man who had recently cycled 450 miles from Penrith to Inverness, (which he had) and was like the proverbial Butcher's Dog!

On the route down through the river valley, Ian gave a passable impersonation of Errol Flynn in swashbuckling mode, with his vigorous onslaught on the brambles which hindered our progress. I knew he would find a use for his Leki one day! Lunch was on the same ridge as last time and we reenacted Stan leaving his stick behind as a real life drama, but managed to contour on our way with all sticks firmly secured. There has been further slashing and clearing of fire-damaged eucalyptus in this area since February, and at least they have cleared much of the debris from the paths. The last climb of the day was accomplished without too much wailing and gnashing, although it was getting slightly warmer by then. I achieved optimum climbing temperature by opening my inner thigh vents (L & R) by7 and 4 cm respectively to allow for the angle of dangle. You really do have to concentrate with this Technical Clothing.

Magnificent views of Foia and Monchique appeared on cue at top of climb. Janet had a 'moment' on some loose scree on the descent, but as she herself admitted, she was reasonably well protected in the area that made contact with the ground. As we arrived back at Romeiras, and were crossing what used to be a significant stream before the summer, I made a facetious remark, on seeing the village cows lying down, that if they were English cows it would be about to rain, but Portuguese cows probably lay down all the time anyway, and thought nothing of it until at around 5:30 pm the heavens (most unusually) opened and soaked the ground for a full ten minutes! I apologise unreservedly and will never make snide remarks about Portuguese cows again.