AWW 21.02.2007 Arade Amble

Apology for a Trig point Pic - the Leader took pity on them!

The Arade Amble.

Personnel.

Two-Legs:- Terry, Caroline, Stan, Elaine, Mike, Chris, Hedley, Vitor, Dina, Paul, Janet, David.

Guests from the St. Patrick’s Society, in training for the Algarve Way:- Brian, Mike, Sylvia, John O’, John H, David, Lesley.

Four-Legs:- Tiggy, Oscar.

‘At Home’:- Myriam, Jill, Dinah.


Track of the walk - click to enlarge.

Stats: Distance: 18.6 km, Moving Time: 4 hrs 10 min: Total Time: 5 hrs 6 minutes
Moving Average: 4.4 km/hr, Overall Average: 3.6 km/hr
Total Ascent 567 m: Max Elevation: 202 m.

Weather:- Cloudless start, increasingly cloudy and colder towards mid-afternoon.

Here is David's tale of the walk!

Fresh from their initial training walk the previous day, the St. Patrick’s contingent arrived in fine form to join a strong turnout of WW regulars at Amorosa where, luckily for the leader, the bar was open and the caffeine addicts could get their fix. Assisted by Myriam and Dinah, the whole party then decamped to the start of the walk near the chapel of Sao Pedro, just outside Messines. The first section of the walk took place along the low ridge connecting the outskirts of Messines with the upper waters of the Barragem do Funcho, which was seen to be still at virtually maximum capacity. This contrasts with the situation two years ago, when much of the walk could have been undertaken along the river valley floor, so severe was the drought.

The main part of the walk took the group alongside the Barragem, taking in the height just below the Panasco trig-point. No-one seemed to be interested in the idea of a detour to the trig itself, but a group photo was taken at the high-point. Paul managed to get into one version by pretending that he couldn’t work Terry’s camera. Lunch was taken halfway along the Barragem walk when it looked as though the fine morning might turn into a damp afternoon. Fortunately the weather stayed fine, though it became distinctly cooler as the afternoon progressed.

Struggling up the first climb

After lunch the winding way round the Barragem resumed, followed by a climb out of the valley to the ridge overlooking Vale Fuzeiros. A tramp along the tarmac was avoided by an adventurous scramble over rocks and through light scrub on the northern side. Yes, there is a path, it just takes a bit of finding! What remained was to cross the valley once Amorosa was well in view, and to climb the short distance to the village. Tiggy and Oscar were shepherded expertly at this point past the only farm livestock encountered, in the shape of a family of ducklings.

A debate had developed during the later stages of the walk between Leader and Guardian of the GPS about the length of the walk. Announced as a c17k, it appeared that we were going to break the 20k with ease, until it emerged that the Guardian had been calculating based on a return to Sao Pedro, whereas the walk was designed to finish at the bar. There was an overshoot, but within the limitations of the low-tech methods employed by the leader, not an awful one.

A pleasant, extremely pretty walk, and the prospect of some new members for the group, as the St. Patrick’s folk declared themselves well-satisfied with their two days of exercise. For those who might be interested in an invite to tag along, they are to begin their attempt on the Algarve Way on the 16^th of April, walking for two days a week until they finish. These plans may change slightly when we post-mortem the trial walks of last week, but the general time-frame will stay. Anyone who tells the SPS that their members were drinking 25cl beers at the bar will NOT be allowed to walk.

Caroline assesses a dead snake. - Unfortunately, Myriam, our Snake Soup consultant was not available to judge whether it could yet be turned into a tasty broth - or whether consumption of the raw gall bladder would give one of our senior members a new lease of life!!
Later on we came across a Caracois production facility - if only we had known this could have been a real Gourmet walk.



The gate post of the Snail Farm


The St. Patrick's contingent enjoying the 'best' part of the walk!! Who said size matters!!!