AWW 28.01.2009: 'Z is for....' or 'Rosie, Where Art Thou?'

A ztimulating ztroll in the hillz and valleyz around Zambujal.

Ztrollerz: Paul, Antje, Chris, Tina, Ingrid, Lindsey, John H,

John O', Rod, Alex, Ian S, Janet, Frank, Dina, David.

Wooferz: Tiggy, Sam, Maddy and Rosie.

Preamble: The competition to identify the relevant 'Z' was won, approximately 30 seconds after publication, by Paul, - who else? - who wins two bottles of Sagres Bohemia Reserva.

Ready for 'Z'

The weather forecast had changed so many times over the preceding few days that no one was quite sure whether to expect sun or snow. In the event we got a small amount of drizzle, a lot of cloud and a few peeps of late sunshine - almost the opposite of the latest available information. This uncertainty did not deter any of those who had signed up from arriving, on time, at the Benafim roundabout, ready for action. Even Janet and Frank, who had been at the Penina Hotel (no, not overnight) 45 minutes earlier, managed to make the starting gate without penalty.

The group then decamped by car to the start-point at Cortinhola, and commenced the first leg to Zambujal, following the infant Arade down the valley. A stream which had grown somewhat since the recce was crossed, sadly without major incident.

We are getting too good at this

 

Form an orderly queue!

...a braver man than I....

At which point dizazter almozt ztruck. Rosie, on her first major Wednesday outing, had been doing the hoped-for doggie thing, following the pack and running from side to side. A scent too good to miss then took her up and away into the matos, and she disappeared for a good twenty minutes. Ian heroically climbed a hill to search, and leader DL walked back and forth along the road, crossing and recrossing a stream just deep enough to give him wet feet. Finally the wandering pooch returned, having apparently followed the scent of the group the wrong way back towards the start-point. A spell on the lead was her reward.

Rosie......... Rosie!!!

This near-calamity addled the leader to the extent that he forgot the way - along a tarmac road, no less - and a few more minutes were lost while the information he required found its way round the dead bits of his brain. Zambujal was reached without further difficulty, and the walk proceeded along the valley past orange groves blighted by the recent frosts.

Camouflaged Cat

Of a zudden, a Very Zteep Hill got in the way, and chatter was replaced by gruntz and sighz, but the view from the top was a fair reward. The inevitable descent followed, ending with a crossing of the Arade at some ztepping ztones thoughtfully laid by the leader. All managed the crossing, though few ended dry-shod - well, if I had wet feet, why shouldn't everyone else suffer?

I predict a wet foot

A second Very Steep Hill then reared up and attacked, forcing the leader to call for lunch at the top. Many were the cries of anguish as buttiez were downed and nutz crunched.

Where does he find 'em??

Those who can, sit.....

 

One zkin, two zkinz, three zkinz........

The return leg followed, taking in two undulating ridges, the first leading to the trig pillar Laje, overlooking Zambujal, where the traditional photo was taken - not before various fruitless attempts by Rod and Pole - sorry, Paul, to create a support for the latter's gorilla pod - who on earth thought up that name? Rosie, having had a second spell of freedom, proved too keen to wander and sniff, and was permanently enleashed.

With a smile and a throb....

After a further descent to the Zambujal road, the final ridge was attained by means of a further Very Steep, but Shorter, muddy climb, and all continued to the end. The leader's attempt to describe the shape of the walk as a balloon on a string attracted a few slightly caustic comments about deflation, and the fact that we were a couple of k over estimate was also the subject of some dark mutterings, but then the humidity was over 90%, so some fratching* amongst the kiddiez was to be expected.

Pull, Rosie - if they catch me, I'm dead.

The bar at Benafim was a welcome sight and the usual chat and relax was enjoyed by all. All were agreed that 'it was a good walk', but a steady undercurrent of 'it was a bugger as well' - I interpret, you understand - was also present. It is always interesting to observe the owners of bars we have not previously frequented, as they carefully and sometimes with difficulty, attempt to keep track of our group order for the conta. I think she got it right, but I'm sure she will be ready for us next time.

Nothing to it - going round again?

So, over to you, Ian - hope your injury heals quickly - good wishes to Myriam and Mike - bon voyage to Janet. Ate a proxima!

Glossary:- *fratching - an old Yorkshire expression meaning bickering or quarrelling.

Alternative representations of Z

NATO phonetic

Zulu

Morse code

––··

Signal flag

Flag semaphore

Braille

 

Taking the first footstep with a good thought the second with a good word and the third with a good deed I entered Paradise.   Zoroaster.

Stats for this walk:

Total Distance: 17.8 km; Moving Time: 4 hr 26 min.; Total Time: 5 hr 23 min; Moving Average: 4.0 km/hr; Overall Average: 3.3km/hr; Total Ascent: 748 m.; Max Elev.: 392 m

Track of the walk (Click to enlarge)

CB's Quote:

Virtue craves a steep and thorny path. Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

A set of videos of the heroic crossing of the Arade below!

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AWW 21.01.2009: Rambling from Rosa's

The walk is named, in the absence of a definitive nomination from the Leader, after the anonymous bar we started from, up the side road off the 124, turning opposite the 'Blue House'. There are no nameboards nor notices on the bar, but the old lady who has run the place for years is known as 'Rosa'.

After last Wednesday having been the only completely dry day of the week, Ian worked his magic, and there were even periods of sunshine during this walk which started with a completely blue sky, yet by Thursday, and today (Friday) we have been subjected to hours of drizzle and leaden skies.  Since the best thing about the Algarve is the weather, if that too goes the way of the economy and the bureaucracy, then we shall all be looking for somewhere else to Ramble!

We all met initially at Café Ourique, just in case there was anyone unfamiliar with Rosa's and took the short drive there once assembled. We were expecting 18 km according to the circular, and I am not sure how much of the car journey was included in this - about 6 km as it turned out!

Starting lineup by John H

Leader: Ian S.

Ramblers: Paul, Mike, Vitor, Ian W. Chris, John H

Roses: Lindsey, Janet, Tina, Antje, Hilke, Dina, Ingrid

Best Friends: Maddy, Tiggy, Sambo, Nandi.

Track of the walk (click for enlarged version). (I forgot to start the tracking function on my GPS until we had done 1 km, so the above track is courtesy of Vitor)

This was a tricky walk for me, as despite it's relatively short length, it covers the corner of four of the Military maps, and requires a lot of work to stitch it together for the above picture. You may be able to see the joins!

Stats: Total Distance: 12.0km; Moving Time: 3 hours; Total Time: 3 hrs 20 min; Moving Avg.: 4.0 km/hr; Overall Avg. 3.6 km/hr.  Total Ascent: 494 m; Max Elevation 217 m.

We last did this walk on 5th December 2007, and it marked David's debut as Assistant Chief Blogger. Oh that he had been here to help me pad this one out!  John H was on his first walk after a prolonged absence in the fleshpots of Edinburgh over Christmas and New Year, and between gasping for breath on every slope, he manfully tried to recapture his art as  a leading paparazzi, as Myriam is still incapacitated.

Here is the Leader's Report, which is almost as informative as his last one on this walk!

 

We started a little late from Rosa's bar which she kindly opened to allow Antje to complete her usual pre walk equipment checks. After a particularly dreary spell of weather we enjoyed a bracing and for the most part sunny day,encouraging us to stride out north up the ridge and track to the east of the Odelouca river to our trig point objective overlooking the river. Stunning sun dappled views to the north and west were our reward. After a few more undulations we dropped down to the valley road and made good time back to Rosa's with no discernible dramas, but much better informed about "scotch" and the various interesting properties of "perspiration", just don't ask!.

 

Comment:

Once across the road from Rosa's car park we got straight into the climbing, and with a few undulations, the first hour and a half seemed to be mostly uphill.

 

Straight up - with Rosa's in the background......

......and still up......

...... a bit more up......

....up again....

.....the first summit by the Fire Tower, 35 minutes into the walk

Despite the blue sky and sun, it was relatively cool at first, but as the photo shows we have a variety of sensitivities to heat and cold, with Mike being in full polar gear and Ian W. in shirtsleeves.

After this we continued undulating, with little for either photographer to record until we reached the only real trig point of the day, Passareiro (217 m.)

The 10 second run and squat! Thanks to Gorilla Pod!

As you can see the clouds were starting to gather and the wind increased slightly. Then at last a serious descent, albeit steep and stony, to the tarmac that ran back towards Rosa's.

...and he marched them down again!

Even though it was about lunchtime when we reached the bottom, a quick check of the GPS revealed we were only 2.3km from Rosa's, and the Leader made an executive decision that lunch would be taken at the end of the walk. That could have been because HIS lunch was waiting at the end of the walk in all it's amber glory!

It only comes halfway up the dog! Janet makes a break for it before Sam decides to get up and shake!

The climbing wasn't quite finished, as the tarmac wound steadily uphill until soon after the bend at the top we could see the cars and Rosa's.

Back at Rosa's, lunch was broken out and beverages purchased, while I made a moving presentation to Lindsey, the winner of the 'Hatty Christmas Competition'. She responded in true Kate Winslet style, and thanked everyone she could think of except Andrew, who hadn't helped her entry. I admonished her not to share the magnificent bottle of Quinta de Esperança with him!

The 'eastern' table

The 'southern' table

As the leader recorded, there was plenty of knowledge aired about Scotch whisky, what with Oz and James's visit to Islay on TV the previous evening, and the imminent 250th Anniversary of the birth of the Scottish bard on Sunday, to which end some of our northerly members had been practicing twirling and reeling - and that before they got stuck into the Scotch!  Unfortunately Rod was absent this week, so we were not graced with a most learned opinion on the subject.

I want someone to laugh with me, someone to be grave with me, someone to please me and help my discrimination with his or her own remark, and at times, no doubt, to admire my acuteness and penetration.    Burns, Robert

I pick my favourite quotation and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.    Burns, Robert

AWW 14.01.2009: A Bravura Passage

 

'Bravura' can refer to a virtuoso performance by a solo artist - in which case this was quite fitting, as Rod accomplished his walk, almost exactly in terms of distance ,  as he had published in his description, despite having covered himself with the fairly loose caveat "Plus/minus 20k.  May come across a bit of most things!"

Coincidentally,  Bravura was also the female bard in 'Asterix and the Secret Weapon' who is set up as an example of woman empowerment by the women of Asterix's village.   I am all for the empowerment of women, if only it induces them to offer to lead walks!

Anyway this was not to be the Bravura walk in an anti-clockwise direction round the barragem, which brought many to their knees in 2006, as a 'warm-up' for the RTC with a 32.35 km romp. See  HERE 

A good quorum of 18 turned up, on a cloudy but potentially dry day, despite the rain on the Tuesday, and again on the day following the walk, where as I write it is drizzling down. I was even moved to clad myself in my 'Grasmere Gaiters' to forestall the mud climbing up the inside of my trousers.

All 18 starters, thanks to the 'Gorilla Pod' The dogs obviously miscounted the camera timer!

Rod has supplied the following 12kb of notes and succinctly summarised the conduct of the walk!

Leader: Rod.

Present:  Mike P, Paul, Tina, Janet, Hilke, Antje, Ian W., Alex, Ian S., Ingrid, Dina, Vitor, John O´N, Lindsey, Yves, Peter S., Colin.

Dogs: Nandi, Maddy, Tiggy, Sambo, Devina.

Start Location. Barragem de Bravura

Weather: Sun, some light cloud, chilly breeze.

The track (click to enlarge)

Stats: Total Distance: 20.3 km; Moving Time: 4 hrs 41 min; Total Time: 5 hrs 30 min; Moving Avg.: 4.3 km/hr; Overall Avg.: 3,7 km/hr; Total Ascent: 524 m.; Max Elev.: 169 m.

Gathered at the Barragem carpark....the bar, under new owners, not open until 11.00 in the winter meant pre walk shots were not available....and set off punctually at 09.30.  Over the dam and headed into the hills to the east.

The cistus recovers from fire better than the cork oaks

Much timber cutting had gone on here and some extensive replanting of ’sobreiros’´(cork to the masses) as identified by our resident botanist, Lindsey.   The going was easy and we covered almost half the advised distance in the first couple of hours.

A stiff climb up from the river to the ridge road some distance below the dam  found us quite unpremeditatedly at the site of one of Mike P’s geocaches...which of course he couldn’t find for a while.

Off we set in a continuing westerly direction...an increasing amount of mud but no real difficulties...even the river crossings shortly thereafter were a bit disappointing and nobody even got a bootful !

Will it be a swallow dive?

The track deteriorated somewhat then but attention was diverted by the appearance of a local belle on her steed; the ensuing chat was a bit brief as the steed was a bit put out by the appearance of our motley group and yapping hounds and was  understandably anxious to be on its way! 

She had a good seat!

    A scramble up an old path strewn with newly cut lumber took us to our lunch spot with views down the coast.  

Then came the disaster when Yves, after completing his repast, found he was unable to get up!   Hauled to his feet he manfully struggled on but it was clear his back was beyond immediate repair.

Antje applies a Masonic handshake in an attempt to cure Yves!

Ian W produced some Valium from the  depths of his backpack and this provided enough relief to enable him to stagger down to Bensafrim a couple of K´s away, aided by Vitor.  

The Walk of Pain - Yves raises a grimace for the camera

After this brief interlude everyone else  carried on....more river crossings provide no challenges (24 hours later and things would have been a bit different!)    We wandered through Corte do Bispo ....the site of Sven Goran Eriksson´s much heralded football academy or something.  Our leader´s lengthy conversation with the farm manager suggested all this was now merely a ‘sonho’ .....as indeed was the future of the rather unkempt vineyard down below on which much had once been spent. 

The first flowers of Spring

From there a cross country route took us back to the barragem carpark without further excitements, having covered  almost exactly the estimated 20kms.   The bar was by then open and we were effusively greeted by Gretel....Hansel must have been well in the background....her beaming face and cheerful chatter almost made up for the fact she had no Bohemia and was  a most welcome change from the previous incumbents!   

No wonder he had a stiff back!

Then the mystery of Yves´ back was explained!  Dina had been given the keys of his car to return to Bensafrim to pick him up.....she produced  the keys and behold, across the somewhat flamboyant keyring was  emblazoned... VIAGRA.....obviously he had taken too much!

CB's Comment:

For once I do not have much to pad!

Another of Peter's dogs making a debut today. I really don't know why Sonia would have named her after the hostess of the, 'Big Brother' Game Show though!

  There was some interesting conversation on the way round.  An unnamed Scot expressed the desire that Cipriani should be in the England Team for the Six Nations to give his side a chance.    I said that once he had got over the novelty of having Kelly Brook for a girlfriend, he might have more energy and switch to putting it into the scrum more accurately. For those (like the unnamed Scot) who are unaware of the love lives of our glamorous rugby players, this is Kelly Brook

  The next topic was whether Kaka was worth £100 million to transfer to Manchester City. The (possibly) rhetorical question "Is anyone worth that much?" was posed, and after a nanosecond's thought I riposted that Katherine Jenkins would be close.  This was immediately refuted by the same Scottish person, who wanted Cipriani selected for England, dissing her angelic voice and porcelain complexion (among other things), but I suspect it was only because his wife reads this Blog, and he wanted to create a good impression!

    As Rod recounted, the 'Hansel & Gretel' is a vast improvement under the new management, but their beer is a bit pricey for we economic refugees. Janet barely cleared €5.00 from 18 drinkers!

   

  Blue Tongue disease jumps to humans!

  Perhaps worried that I would have nothing to write about, Antje demonstrated to Rod how to make the ink flow in the pen I had tossed to him (and he dropped). Luckily we had no Aussies here to demand his inclusion in the English Test side this summer! However, I suspect she was a little too enthusiastic in her encouragement, and she ingested all the remaining ink in the pen!

Fortunately she had reserved a little of the whisky she habitually carries to enhance her coffee, and this did help in the tongue cleaning process!

  I have not yet found out how Yves fared on his casevac to Bensafrim with Vitor, but I hope he has the strength to inform us via a comment to this Blog.

 

It's a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don't see or care.    Unknown, Source 

AWW 07.01.2009 A Walk back in Thyme. (Or Thyme Wark in Torre)

 

The CB's lot is not .........

It's not easy being the CB. Those anxious hours waiting for copy ...agonising over deadlines...... trying not to be a stereotypical 'hard-drinking hack'. And if and when the Leader's report does arrive, taking the hard decisions on whether to offend sensibilities by correcting grammar, punctuation and spelling, deciding how best to pad it out, and the constant justification that you are only doing it for yourself, as no-one else reads it (except Myriam and Maurice!).

This was Stan and Elaine's comeback walk, having managed to find a Wednesday slot in their overstuffed diary, and perhaps stimulated by Janet's plea for Walk Leaders in January, Elaine stepped into the breach and offered to lead. 

After the event, 'something came up' in the post-walk administration period,  requiring urgent attention, and Elaine has graciously ceded to the CB the opportunity of crafting this week's blog with perhaps only a fleeting reference to the walk itself, which was undistinguished by incident, argument, scandal or physical strain.

To Pad - or not to Pad?...... That is the Question!

I think you can guess the answer!!

 

We have had Bamboo Diagrams - it is time for Haiku.

Haiku is a Japanese verse form of 17 syllables, arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and the intention is to engender a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through brevity.

Having a little time on my hands with the cold weather and the anticipation of an incoming report I composed this:

CB is waiting.

The computer does not ding!

Where is the report?

Is that wistful and yearning enough?

Enough!! I hear the cry - the walk itself:- It was advertised as "about 15km- 5 hours and is based on Maurice's walks Nos. 14 and 15"

There was a huge turnout of 22 for this first walk of the year, no doubt stimulated by the need to purge the seasonal excesses.

     Apart from Myriam, the photographer, there are unexplained absences from the start photo by Vitor and Maria. Nothing sinister is to be read into that nor Dina's absence after a slight accident the previous evening!

Frank was making his debut with the AWW having been introduced by Rod.

We started at the Café Machado in Torre, where we received with dismay the announcement by the owner that the Café would be closed on our return as there was a funeral in the village that she would attend. However most took advantage of the fact that Elaine had organised a café that was open AT THE START of a walk, which satisfied both the need for caffeine and micturition, that Antje previously proposed was 'a basic minimum requirement' !

Chief Whip: Elaine

Flagellants: Stan, Rod, Paul, Myriam, Mike, Janet, Ian S., Ian W., David, Terry, Antje, Tina, Lindsey, Yves, Ingrid,   Alex, Maria, Vitor, Hilke, Colin, Frank.

In bondage: Tiggy, Maddy, Nandi, Rusty. 

 

Mole kisses Ratty! The track (click to enlarge)

Stats: Total Dist.: 14.8 km; Moving Time: 3 hr 22 min.; Total Time: 4 hrs 3 min.; Moving Average: 4.4 km/hr; Overall Average: 3.7 km/hr; Total Ascent:388m. Max Elevation: 248 m.

It has been a cold and damp period for the Algarve most days since well before Christmas, and we started at about 9ºC, although the more reputable weather forecasts were unanimous that there would be no precipitation. The cold did bring out Ronald Macdonald in Traditional Tartan and Trews!

Maddy trying to escape the embarrassment!

Elaine sensibly took a wider track out of Torre village down to the valley than the traditional mix and match path down the cistus-strewn hillside. The zero precipitation didn't start until we were up the hill on the other side near the rather impressive menir.

 

A light drizzle.

40 minutes later, when we had reached Amorosa, it was time to remove the raingear, though it was still not officially 'warm'.

"Time for change" (B. Obama)

The walk progressed rapidly without too much undulation, although there was some heated discussion, which I witnessed, on the problems in Gaza, and at barely 1230 pm, shortly after Zimbreira, Elaine found a convenient wall where we settled for lunch. A ceasefire was declared and no rockets were sent over the wall.

A wall-equipped lunch spot!

A comfortable Colin!

After lunch there was a little more rain on the easy meander back to Torre. On the way into Messines, we encountered the funeral traffic near the cemetery, with cars abandoned all over the place and buses trying to force their way through impossibly small gaps.

We arrived back at Torre a little before 2:30 pm, and it was with great relief that we realised that a young man had been seconded to open the Café Machado - a sensible option in these hard financial times. As everyone else was at the funeral we had the place virtually to ourselves, and all managed to seat inside, out of the inclement weather.

David made a short but fact-filled speech about his plans for the imminent walking of the Algarve Way, which will be done in two or three day bursts in March and April. The decision was to hold a sub-committee meeting over lunch at the Recanto dos Mouros on 23rd January. If you haven't advised David of your intentions yet please do so.

Antje on 'the hard stuff'!

The Three Amigos!

Alas, I am rather devoid of amusing anecdotes about this walk, but if you do have any, do not hesitate to comment - it's not that difficult!

 

Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you're two steps ahead!    Flagg, Fannie

We realize our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time; it is basically a problem of priorities. We confess, We have left undone those things that ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.    Hummel, Charles E.