WW 4th October 2006 Alferce - Picota - and back!

"Like Stout Cortes ....."

For once I am innocent - John beat me to it with this picture and the caption for which he provided the quote in full .
"..like stout Cortes when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific - and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise - Silent upon the peak in Darien." [John Keats] ..."
I checked my Chambers and he does have an etymological 'get out'! although the principal meaning does have a certain gritty realism - but I am not the one to bring up that subject!

stout adj (stouter, stoutest) 1 a said of someone: well-built; on the fat side; b said of the stem of a plant, etc: thick. 2 hard-wearing; robust. 3 courageous; steadfastly reliable. noun dark beer that has a strong malt flavour.
ETYMOLOGY: 14c: from French estout, Dutch, meaning 'proud'.

Leader: Rod.
Present: Paul; Myriam; Ian S.; Charles; Antje; John; Hazel; Lindsay; Andrew; Janet.
Xana; Pooky; Tiggy.

At last - a walk with a cafe open at the start to imbibe the 'necessary'. A short drive (for everyone except Antje - and Rod who had to chase her back from the Monchique direction) to Monte Velho to cross the road and start the long but pleasant ascent to Picota.
The weather was pretty well perfect for climbing, cool without being overly windy, and we made what we would consider 'reasonable' progress averaging 3.5 km/hr to the top. Charles, who is back from HK specifically to supply Rod with the latest Sony Digital camera, is like the proverbial 'butcher's dog' and could have bounded up and back in the time it took us to draw breath at the impressive large standing rock formation about halfway up the climb.
This was not the ideal walk for the 'Bamboo Diagrammer' as there are no discernible paths for large sections and the instruction is to follow the bare rocks up the ridge - and the red blobs which appear to have been renewed recently by the German walk leader who leaves his marks all over Picota.
We reached the top of Picota after about 2 hours walking- almost 7 km and 780 metres in height.
It seemed like a good time for lunch, and as Charles did not need any, I lent him my precious Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS and the coordinates to the Picota geocache which was not too far away, and he went off happily to break his Geocaching virginity. The result can be seen here.
Then it was a feeling of 'uv ajèd' as we retraced our steps down the ridge. After leaving the rocky ridge, we encountered more tarmac than had been there on previous occasions, so much so that in view of the potential traffic hazard, Rod felt moved to escort an elderly praying mantis to the verge. This insectarian act of kindness was regrettably not recorded by the Official Photographer, so our submissions to the RSPCI Bravery Award will have to wait for a future occasion.
And so we reached the cars without further incident of note (that I can recall - I am waiting impatiently for a few words from Our Leader!)
At the post-walk drinks, a glass was raised to Maurice, whose birthday had been on Monday, and who had generously offered to buy all the walkers attending this walk, a drink. We had seen a few of his 'blue blobs and a blue arrow on the way down - Faded but not Forgotten!!