Emulating China's "One Country - Two Systems" policy for Hong Kong, the first walk of the season didn't start too well!! "One Walk - Two Start Points!" Arriving 15 minutes early, and knowing that the walk was to start at Restaurant O Algar, Myriam and I joined the growing band of walkers excitedly renewing their acquaintance. 0930 came and went, and the cry went up "Where's the leader?" I decided to resolve this issue by dialling the mobile number given for Ian in the brand new AWW Contact list finalised by Janet the previous week. Alas not Ian, but Marguerite answered, and postulated that Ian had left 'hours ago' and that this was her phone. Realisation dawned, and I walked 100m down the hill and saw another group of Wednesday Walkers gathered at the bottom. I hailed them, and slowly they extricated themselves from the café there and plodded uphill after the leader, who was resolutely ignoring the phone ringing in his rucksack. I will leave it to Janet to extract the number from him!
The Lost Patrol arrive at the start
Anyway, at around 0948 we set off as an enormous group of 28. Apart from the usual suspects there were a reasonable number of visiting family and friends, and a welcome return of Barbara and Volker, friends of Hilke, whom we last met almost a year ago on Romeiras Rediscovered. Hilke is off investigating The Silk Road in Uzbekistan with her husband - but not on foot.
Leader: Ian S.
Walkers: Peter S., Mike, Rod, Yves, Janet, Carol and Tony (Janet's sister and brother in law), Pauline and Matthew (neighbours of Rod) , Terry and Jill, Volker and Barbara, (Hilke's friends), Ingrid, John H., John O'., Dina and Vitor, Chris, Ian W. Tina, Alex, Brian, Phil and Ann (friends of Ian S.) and Myriam and Paul.
Dogs: Oscar, Nandi, Tiggy, Rusty, Brontus, Maddy
Leader's Report
The Muse seems to have deserted The Leader, and he has delegated his reserved space to Phil, his long-time school friend who, despite knowing Ian for 55 years, agreed to take part in the walk! Here is his account!:-
Phil (an erstwhile friend)
Stats: I hesitate to put up any stats, as I doubt if any two walkers went the same way, the same distance in the same time. The walk was conducted in what the RAF refer to as 'Navy Formation' ( Flying). ie Same Way; Same Day (but nowhere near each other!)
My personal stats were as follows:
Total Dist: 11.4, Moving Time: 2 hrs 50 min, Total Time 3 hrs 30 min, Moving Average: 4.0 km/hr, Overall Average 3.2 Km/hr, Total Ascent 322 m, Max Elevation 48 m.
You may extrapolate the group stats by allowing for the fact that I finished 20 minutes before the stragglers, and probably walked about 750m less by virtue of following the most direct route back to the start by GPS, and not Ian S.'s quickest way!
The 'Upper' Starting group
Not long after the start, The leader called everyone together for a head count, to find out how many were with him (assuming they were not lost already!)
Conducting the Choir
Another kilometre or so along the way, and the group had straggled out about 500 metres, so a halt was called by the very nice wooden tables at 'A Pirata' to regroup and water the dogs.
Maddy declined to sup from Ian's multi-coloured, porous and terminally sweaty hat which he pressed into service as a bowl.
A minor navigational error led the group to a peninsula, but this was cleverly spun as a 'Group Photo Opportunity' before we headed back the way we had come.
Don't step back!
Overall, the walk was flattish, but with so much news from the summer lay-off, those that couldn't walk and talk with equal efficiency were often lagging, much to the consternation of the walk leader, who was heard to pronounce "It's every man for himself on the way back!"
There was one descent!
After about 1 hr 45 minutes the advance guard arrived at the turning point, the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Rocha, where a squabble broke out over squatting rights for the only shady seat!!
I wos 'ere first!!
The leader was champing at the bit to get back, so we headed off as the last arrivals arrived! It was here that I decided to take the GPS advice rather than retrace our steps (sort of) so I have no pictures of this half. Myriam came up with some wild life photography.
Nandi imitating a chameleon or vice versa!
It was with some relief that we found the bar that Ian had 'booked' open, and the owner, despite being short-handed plied us with cool libations. Some non-walkers also joined us for a lunch of sardines and carapau.
Ice Cold with Alex!
Did madam want fish - or fish!
Ever independent, Mike, who had been out at Benagil since dawn, doing some warm-up geocaches, had his own lunch, which he enjoyed with a case of wine near at hand, and closely guarded!
The Loneliness of a Long Distance Luncher.
This was a gentle and somewhat chaotic start to the season. For a more serious walk, 28 is far too many.
The Speech
The Leader gave a keynote speech during lunch at which he stressed that it should be remembered that those intending to walk should have the courtesy to let the leader know they are coming, and more importantly it is incumbent on each walker to ensure that he stays in line of sight contact with the walker ahead, to avoid getting lost. I think he has the support of everyone in this.
Much as we may wish to make a new beginning, some part of us resists doing so as though we were making the first step toward disaster. Bridges, William
2 comments:
Is it not also incumbent on the leader to have eyes in the back of his head to ensure that he is still in line of sight of at least one walker behind?
A valid point John. Let's convene a sub-committee to approve the purchase of a rear-view mirror to be fitted to leaders with binocular vision and stiff necks!!
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