AWW 07.03.2007 Forest Finagle

Ian & John arrive late - to much consultation of watches!!

Forest Finagle:

Leader(s): Myriam (Ladies' Invitation 10km)
Paul (The Race to the Bar)
Present:
Mike, Chris, Antje, John H, Lindsey, Andrew, Ian W., Ian S., David, John O', Brian.
Oscar, Tiggy

Stats: Length: 22.3 km, Moving Time; 4 hrs 34 minutes; Total Time: 5 hrs 13 minutes
Moving average; 4.9 km/hr; Overall Average: 4.3 km/hr
Total Ascent 538 m. Max Elevation: 186 metres

'Twas a 'soft' day, as our regular Paddy's John O' and Brian would have it. Seriously, it is getting beyond a joke how every time a Walk in the Forest is scheduled, it is grey with varying degrees of precipitation, which spoil the views. Between us we must have consulted about 300 online weather stations, all predicting minimal rain and clearing up in the later morning. However we had a fairly consistent windy drizzle, which fortunately abated before we settled for lunch at Pedra Branca.
John was being driven to the start by Ian S. and coming via a convoluted route to inspect possible future sites for Casa Scott, arrived almost 15 minutes late! Thanks to a timely phone call from the retards (!!), the ever considerate leader held back the pack who were ready for the off! Ian W. was making a welcome comeback after a World Tour of New Zealand, and this was to be a test of how much fitness he had retained.


Andrew had thoughtfully procured a climbing rope to avoid further incidents such as Lindsey's Cliff Adventure on the RTC Walk, and it was Myriam's honour as leader of the first part to carry The Rope!

The plan was for Myriam to test her dodgy knee on a flattish 10 km before lunch. However if the shadow leader had not stepped in, she would have arrived at the lunch spot 15 minutes after the start of the walk. Antje admitted that she was distracting her from her navigational duties by conversing to excess!! Once back on course to the forest path leading to Sculpture Hill, the cultural highlight of the walk, we maintained a good pace reaching Pedra Branca in just over 2 hours

Track of the Forest Finagle (click to enlarge)

Mike took the opportunity of this carefully designed walk to capture Paul's Geocache " 22.5 House", benefiting in no small amount by having the cache owner to observe his efforts. The starting cache was about 10 minutes before the lunch spot, and the rest of the walkers chewed on bananas and Energy Bars with great forebearance while Mike scrabbled around in the thicket!

Senior Geocacher at work!

Lunch was at Pedra Branca after just over 2 hours and 9.5 km, and there were plenty of flat stones and even a bench for our comfort.

Lunch with a view

At the Pedra Branca TP after lunch

After lunch, Myriam dropped out as planned, and was joined by Tiggy (involuntarily) who had an infected foot -(Antje sacrificed her further participation to drive her home!), and by Ian W. who had failed the fitness test, and was suffering from some strain to his upper legs or thereabouts!
The remaining ten set off at a cracking pace in the improved meteorological conditions, and soon reached the point where Mike was to continue the pursuit of the cache. This consisted of following one of Paul's Bamboo Diagrams, retrieved from the first cache, and for this he led the group through a minor forest path for about 3 km to finally reach the 22.5 House where he located the cache.

The group patiently waits for Mike to 'log' the cache while Oscar wonders what is going on!!

The remainder of the walk, on a wide and flat path down the Vale de Bordeira and back to Barão São João was done at a cracking pace which lifted our moving average to an unprecedented 4.9 km/hr, and would probably have been over 5 km/hr, had I not moved the GPS around while waiting for Mike to complete his geocaching operation.
The "Innominate" Bar (Palm Tree) which we frequent in BSJ had a new and rather more efficient barmaid than hitherto, and the only slight hiccup was that Myriam ordered in Portuguese and was supplied with two Chokolade quente's only later to establish that the lady was from London, and had thought Myriam was speaking chinese!!

John O' is a potential new convert to Tilley Hats, and models a slightly oversize version belonging to Chris




In a rare photo, John has captured Ian S. actually handing over to Lindsey, his week's pocket money for the beers he consumed . He had been working on his thirst the whole walk by refusing water and leaving his anorak on buttoned to the neck to promote a healthy sweat! I, on the other hand, paid up for my modest two beers on Lindsey's demand, despite the fact that as leader this week I had exemption. Being entirely honest, Lindsey was so troubled by blagging this extra cash from me that she sent me an IOU by email before dinner!!