AWW 25.03.2009 The Valley be Dammed or Dad's Army 4 + 2

Who said that life in the Home Guard was easy? 5 of last week's contingent dropped out, possibly from exhaustion, after the first of Rod's dam walks, leaving only 4 veterans who returned for the second one and who were happily reinforced by 2 sprightly lassies. Maybe, the Free French will heed the call to arms and join this diminishing but resolute band next week. Hein, peut-etre, Yves? Meanwhile, the Littlewood Forces are steadily closing in on Silves from the east.

The Starters

(click to enlarge)

On parade:

Dad again: Rod.

Veterans: Hedley, Frank, John H.

Sprightly Lassies: Val, Hazel.

Lucky Dog (see below) : Misty.

Statistics. (Very few because a vital bit of paper got mislaid.)

Distance: 14.49 km; moving time 2hrs .59 min; total time 4hrs .30 min. or thereaboutsbut I'm sure Myriam will be able to work out how much down time we had!

(click to enlarge)

The lassies take the rough with the smooth


An exemplary, if somewhat valedictory, Leader's report follows, leaving the DCB with little to do other than add a few pictures and captions.

"This small and very select group set off from the Cafe Ourique to drive up to the Odelouca Dam site. Having seen what was in store for the Valley further up last week, we were keen to see what was happening nearer the dam. The approach road to the site gets ever wider and what looks like a motorway bridge is now under construction at the Odelouca / Monchique Rivers confluence where once was a pretty ford. Much of it, on the hills, has now even been surfaced.
At the entrance to the site, where we parked, we were accosted by a charming fella, who must have been the PR Chefe. All in excellent english he discouraged us from taking the lower road ( which was not the intention any way) ....”for your own safety”, so we set off along the higher road which has excellent views of the dam’s progress. Progress it is, too, with countless heavy trucks, bulldozers and cement lorries beavering all over the place.

Rod surveys the damage

A near miss

" Next winter, the PR Chefe seemed confident, the dam will start filling. Interesting fact from him as well: the 8km. tunnel connecting the dam lake with the trans-Algarve pipeline at Funcho, although having a pump, will, in fact work on the siphon principle; the Funcho outlet being somewhat lower than Odelouca.
The next phase, already under way, will be to clear the entire valley floor of all vegetation. Having descended to the valley floor further up, we immediately understood what that was going to mean What once was a grassy slope is now a jumble of broken clay with a mass of glutinous mud at the bottom. The main excitement of the day came when Misty, assuming that one of these mud holes was a refreshing pond, leaped in. It was like quicksand and she disappeared, then surfaced up to a point, but was quite unable to get out. She was hauled out, but a few more minutes and she would have gone!

The rescuer, and the rescued

"The first river crossing was nearby and a good wash down in that made her recognisable as a dog once more. A warning of river crossings brought out no complaints and a fair range of bin bags for those who particularly wished to avoid wet feet.

Shades of Alley Oop and his legs

"Thereafter the terrain returned to more or less normal up to the farmhouse on the far side of the valley......how long the farmhouse would be there seemed open to doubt as it is about on the edge of high water and is somewhat ominously adorned with red and white tape.
And so down to the second river crossing which had become a bit more tricky than before ...much use by forestry and site traffic has deepened the approach.

Site traffic

"Indeed a chap came by in a jeep but clearly had no intention of becoming a ferry, so we were obliged to force our way round some brambles to reach a shallower bit. At that moment who should suddenly turn up but the PR Chefe ( he must have had his binoculars on us all the time!). He implied we had been a bit naughty in coming down to the valley floor at all...”for you own safety”, of course and wanted to be assured that we were going to ascend away from it....which we were anyway. A bit further on, a friendly bulldozer driver pulled up...he was one of many who will be scraping clean the valley..” muito trabalho e muito complicado” (heard that before!?) ....at least he will have a job for the foreseeable future!

"Muito complicado"

"The hillsides above the waterline had also been cleared and replanted with eucalyptus so the track upwards was hot and barren but at least we were away from dust, noise and the distant odour of diesel. Near the top we stopped for lunch under the shade of one or two eucalyptus left standing.

"Nobody seemed inclined to ascend to the Montinhos trig point so we chickened out and shortly after that a shortcut down a new pylon access took us to the return track. This runs along the ridge almost all the way back to the dam. It will be a wonderful track some time in the future with great views over the Monchique River valley towards Picota on one side and over the future lake on the other.

View over the future lake
(archivists may wish to record the co-ordinates for this view which are N 37* 18.817' W 008* 28.256' so that they can revisit it in 3 -4 years)

"Towards the end, instead of taking the main track back down to the cars, we took a rough contour track round to the left which brought us back overlooking the dam from higher up still...a terrific view before a steep scramble down to the cars.
A walk to satisfy curiosity... which it did. A valley being ravaged by progress but just maybe, when it is full of water, it will have its attractions once again. For those who remember it as it was perhaps it would be better to wait until then before contemplating another walk through it, or rather indeed round it, as it might be in three or four years A hot day, the post-walk drinks at the Cafe Ourique went down well, and Hazel collected a lot of cash for AWW funds."

Doubles all round at Cafe Ourique

"There are always many more disordered than ordered systems"

(From the Second Law of Thermodynamics)

"The chicken is a noble beast,

But the cow it is forlorner,

Standing in the pouring rain,

With a leg at every corner."

(Spike Milligan after William McGonagall)

Algarve Way 2009: Day 4 - 25.03.2009

 

Our request for volunteer bloggers was again successful, as Hilke offered to compose for Day 4. Her account of our exploits, with the usual photo interjections, follows. Thanks, Hilke!

Track of Day 4.

Day 4. The Descent to the Lowlands.

The second day of the second week saw some tired warriors at Tia Bia at 9 o’clock, the first day of more ups than downs had taken its toll. We even lost Alex because of her feet denying her their service. In her stead we had Terry A. as a new companion, he had already walked there from his home in Salir to meet us.

Guess who was up at 06.00?

This day David had a heart for those fans of trig points and did not avoid the first one on our way. After about half an hour of an easy climb we reached it, standing next to a windmill. And it was a special one: it even had the cistus symbol on it.

They could have re-painted the trig as well

Oh God of the Cache, Hear our Prayer….

Talking about cistus: astonishingly they were not out yet in this area although we had seen lots of them during the first week further east. But that was compensated by lots of others flowers (of which only Lindsay might know the names).

Here’s one we made earlier….

As the path was easy and wide, we had enough time to admire the beautiful countryside, the sun came out early, and we made good progress. So we came to enjoy a very special privilege of the English: the elevenses. Our way passed Terry A.’s house and he and his wife Jill kindly invited us to have water, coffee and biscuits on their terrace. That was a very welcome break, thank you both for your hospitality. Only after 30 minutes David succeeded in making us leave this oasis, except Terry A., that is. He had already done his day’s work, of course.

Casa Vida Nova – looks like they need one!

A little out of Salir we passed through cultivated land, and there was a group of five Noras still working with their cisterns beside them. Up to then we had come across quite a lot of them, not all of them working and never so many. An old man standing at the side of one of them showed us that he kept some fish in one of the wells (they looked like goldfish to me, you could call it a big bowl, he seemed very proud of them).

Tickling for trout – (with apologies to Arthur Ransome.)

In Almarginho we came upon a very old Alfarrobeira, even listed as a monument, a very impressive specimen of its kind.

Algarvean Ent – be very polite!

Lunch was in a very idyllic spot this day, low walls protecting cultivated land with olive trees offered comfortable seats, peonies (Lindsey told me that name the other day, do not think I have suddenly become an expert) abounded and everybody was eating his lunch happily except Myriam who couldn’t even be humoured by Ian S. singing to her.

Just covering my white legs.

In the early afternoon we arrived at the village of Penina where we suddenly heard a loud noise coming from behind us. The normal size EVA bus wanted to pass us in the narrow street and we all pressed against the walls, some of us following it with longing eyes when they saw it was on its way to Benafim, just like us. None of us dared to hop in when it stopped right in front of us, but three of us followed it on its way thinking this might be the shortest way. Not for us. David brought them back in line, so finally we arrived all together at the café in Benafim at the scheduled time. Our support team plus Alex was already waiting there for us and we got another of Marguerite’s praises for having finished another interesting part of the Algarve way.

Who’d be in charge of this lot??

Four down, eight to go.

As we would say in Germany: ohne Fleiß kein Preis!

  ADCB’s Comments:

This was indeed a much easier day than the previous three, and very welcome for that. The weather played its part – never too hot and with a refreshing breeze from time to time. The only black cloud in sight was the one emanating from Myriam’s brow, and if you didn’t look at her directly, the chances of being turned to stone were not great. The actions of a small breakaway group in the later stages of the walk were hardly in the spirit of the AWW, and could have led to complications, but that is for them to reflect on.

Run off again and I’ll have you on a charge

The route on this section, although marred by some stretches of tarmac, has remained intact, and there is no sign of any changes that would threaten it. The cafe at Pena has sadly closed and is up for sale or rent, but the one we used at the end is very pleasant in spite of being on the side of the 124. 

Well done to all involved for covering over 100k in the four days so far. The remaining sections, though not all easy, can hold no terrors now for such a fit and determined bunch.

Stats for day 4:
Total Dist: 24 km;

Moving Time: 5 hr 6 min.;

Total Time: 6 hrs 6 min;
Moving Avg.: 4.7 km/hr;

Overall Avg.: 3.9 km/hr;

Total Ascent: 492 m.;

Max Elevation: 523 m.

Quotes for Day 4.

‘Nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around’

Bill Watterson

‘We started trying to set up a small anarchist community, but the people wouldn't obey the rules.’

Alan Bennett.

Finally, a caption competition. Submissions, please for the following snap of two apprentice walkers:

Algarve Way 2009: Day 3 - 24.03.2009

Ribeira to Barranco do Velho

The track of Day 3.

Stats:

Total Distance: 27 km; Moving Time: 6 hrs; Total Time: 7 hrs; Moving Average 4.5 km/hr; Overall Average: 3.8 km/hr

Total Ascent: 1129 m.; Max Elevation: 509 m.

An overcast start

Director: David

Cast: Ian S., Mike, Terry M., Chris, Antje, Ingrid, Paul, Myriam, Lindsey, Tina, Hilke, Alex.

Extras: Maddy,

Support: Marg, Mick, Terry A, Dinah

A slight change in personnel from Days 1 and 2. Ian W., Andrew and John O’ had better things to do, but the hard core were still there.

The inspirational suggestion that writing the text for the blog should be shared was successful in that Chris ‘volunteered’ for Day 3 and Hilke for Day 4.

Words by Chris below:-

THE LADIES LAMENT or THE NEVER ENDING HILLS

Getting ready for the drive to the start

A slightly reduced band of enthusiastic Algarve Way walkers gathered at the Tia Bia in Barranco do Velho to start the third stage of the Algarve Way, a section known to be particularly long and tough. The start was delayed slightly following a plaintive phone call from three ladies "Lost in Loule" . This news was received favourably by those seeking relief and the ardent bica drinkers. Once everyone had arrived, the convoy to the start point at Ribeiro set off, a place familiar to all those participating the previous week. Unfortunately the vehicle driven by last weeks "Good Shepherd" took a wrong turn and headed off towards Beja. The fact that this car also carried one of last weeks "Lost Boys" together with a lady well known for her sense of direction gave some cause for concern. Although armed with at least one GPS it appeared that coordinates of the start point had not been entered. There then followed a series of phone calls from mobile phones with with poor reception when the appropriate numbers were communicated, having been repeated several times by those that knew. Finally the missing members of the group arrived and the coffee addicts could then be extracted from yet another cafe to which they had retreated in the meantime.

The walk therefore commenced some 45 minutes later than scheduled, and the thirteen participants finally set off to tackle the first stiff ascent of the day.

At this point is was noted that the ladies outnumbered the men (an AWW's first ?), and provision had then to be made for more disrobing stops than usual.

The 7 to 6 majority and a multi-use pole!

One of the minority – seeing no evil!

The weather had started cold and damp, soon to become warm and humid and finally hot and sunny. Given the distance anticipated, a steady pace had to be maintained, despite the seemingly continuous uphill grinds at frequent intervals.

Few complaints were heard, although the rate of climb was becoming severe.

Still smiling after a vigorous climb

At the lunch stop (near Castelao) we were able to view the winding trail already covered, and see what was ahead, more of the same with what appeared to be continual uphill gradients.

While lunching, a Freguesia de Cachopo bus arrived and disgorged a number of senior ladies who greeted us and wandered back to their homes in the village. Apparently the bus was not able to turn round any nearer to the village, so they were obliged to walk.

The first hill climb after lunch was considered by the Leader to be a "bit of a pig", and it did indeed turn out to be just that, even when compared to the sows and piglets tackled previously.

It looked like we were in for a paddle….but

Soon we were walking on water!

With the mirage of Barranco do Velho shimmering in the distance, the effect of the virtually continuous climbs and the unrelenting sunshine started to have an impact, not least upon your scribe for whom the remainder of the walk was undertaken in a haze of dehydration not experienced previously.

There was an afternoon tea stop in Parizes……..

….and we met a couple of English walkers doing PR4

Which given the distance, altitude gained and the climatic conditions was hardly surprising.

Resting at the top of yet another long hill

Few notable events were recorded, other than the great sense of achievement felt by all , as were the serious efforts made to address the need to rehydrate in the Tia Bia bar afterwards.

It’s nice when you stop!

CB doing the sums!

Solving of the meaning of the acronym GCWS (set by David in the Day 1 Blog) was finally achieved when Antje declared it to be Geo Cachers Withdrawal Syndrome, something which a number of AWW's appear to be suffering from, when not complaining about the apparent lack of trig points to be collected. Maybe TPWS will become a common complaint before the end of the Algarve Way is reached ?

Thanks Chris for getting the blog in, despite having to leave for England the day after the walk!

I have few things to add, apart from stressing that despite clawing back one of the kilometres David had lost on Day 2, coming in on 27 km rather than the 28 km estimate, this was really one of the toughest days on the Algarve Way.

The terrain, apart from being mostly up, was magnificent and afforded us many great views, and also being spring in the Algarve, there were new flowers in abundance. I am hoping Lindsey and Ingrid, who have both been photographing the vegetation, will between them, produce a short illustrated monograph on ‘The Spring Flowers of the Algarve Way’ – There’s the challenge!

The meal at the Tia Bia in the evening was fairly unmemorable apart from the lively company, most of whom had rallied a little after a tepid shower and a laydown, except for Myriam and I who dashed out to claim a nearby geocache near the Chapel, Ermida de Barranco do Velho.

Pre-prandial drinks

Myriam also did a bit of PR and got behind the bar with our hosts, Dona Maria do Carmo and Sr. Henrique.

Myriam at the Bar

Dining at Tia Bia

After dinner, Marg was called upon to use her professional training, with Myriam as interpreter, for one of the locals who had broken his arm the previous week, but was having trouble with his half-cast.

Henrique’s solution to amputate was met with much joviality, but fortunately he did not get his way!

And so to bed – early for most – ignoring the adage:-

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel. Johnson, Samuel

but I think a more appropriate quote is:-

I've always thought a hotel ought to offer optional small animals. I mean a cat to sleep on your bed at night, or a dog of some kind to act pleased when you come in. You ever notice how a hotel room feels so lifeless? Tyler, Anne

Algarve Way 2009: Day 2 - 18.03.2009

“It’s a bit longer than yesterday……..” David L.

We dispensed with the start photograph, as we had taken an end photograph after Day 1 at Soudes, and incredibly no-one had dropped out, following benedictions from St. Patrick.

There we all were back at the windmill with the ‘rustique’ sculptures randomly strewn around. This is a photo of David briefing the group, stressing the requirement not to embarrass him again by going off-piste and losing the pack……….

…… although it looks like Hilke has taken charge, enlarging on her success as a co-leader with Hedley last week!

Day 2 Track (click to enlarge)

Leader: David

Cistus Fodder: Mike, Paul , Myriam , Ian S., Tina , Chris , Antje, Andrew,  Lindsey , Ingrid , Alex , Hilke , Ian W.  John O’, Terry M.

Scout. Maddy

Stats: Total distance: 29.8; Moving Time 6 hr 14 min.; Total Time: 7 hrs 22 min.; Moving Average: 4.8 km/hr; Overall Avg. 4.0 km/hr; Total Ascent 876 m. Max Elevation: 350 m.

A new development in this walk was that the Leader (traditionally the Blog reporter) being also the Assistant Chief Blogger, realising that he might have an awful lot of writing to do over the next 5 weeks, especially as the CB is fleeing to UK after week 3, posited to the assembled multitude that it would be ‘nice’ to have a different perspective on each of the walks, and to that end would someone volunteer to write the Day 2 Blog. I have to concede that there was not a flurry of upraised hands, but after an embarrassed silence, Ian W. bravely volunteered for the task, and it is his text that appears below.  I really hope that for the forthcoming Algarve Way walks we can have some willing would-be bloggers write up the day’s events. It can’t be that difficult otherwise the current incumbents would not be able to do it! The difficulty is in posting it after it has been written!

On the Road again…

Here is Ian W.’s report:-

Before we left Soudes we made sure that John O' and Terry were in the middle of the pack. Losing one walker may be viewed as a misfortune, losing two looks like carelessness. (Oscar Wilde, nearly) The wind from yesterday had died down a bit and the sky was Algarve blue. As we approached Casa Nova we laboured through a ploughed field with grass high enough to hide the ground.

But there were no twisted ankles and we moved easily along the road to Zambujal.

A fat black pig with lots of offspring, some of which were not black ( would dad mind?) presented a photo opportunity before we stopped at Fonte Zambujal just before entering the village of Zambujal.

Here, the well was tested in front of the camera and the water found to be as fresh as ever. We continued to the deserted (nearly?) village of Mesquita, with its fully functional bread oven and well.

Alex at the wheel!

Everybody agreed that it was a des vill, which had lots of possibilities, including a very fine weathercock sitting proudly overlooking the village. A group photo was taken using Paul's gorilla pod.

All 16 in the pic.

We sped along now, all the aches and pains from the first day banished, but John O' was beginning to imitate a lobster.

Applying the Thermidor sauce

Many of the fair sex were becoming worried and there were lots of comments about sun tan lotion. Arriving at Vaqueiros we stopped at the Casa de Pasta Teixeira for lunch, the fine cafe which the Irish group lunched at last year no longer being open.

Unfortunately it seemed that in Vaqueiros, lunchtime is the best time to have a bonfire, and not just Paul and Myriam had smoked sandwiches. Talking about sandwiches, those of us who bought the Estalagem packed lunch, certainly had lots of bread to eat. 4 sandwiches made from bread slices the size of doorsteps with a piece of ham like meat or cheese inside so thin it was nearly transparent. Before leaving most of us tried the very clean loo, which was an eastern or Asian toilet in the case of the Gents. John O' was heard to say that nearly every female member of the walking group had been rubbing their hands all over his body, while we were stopped for lunch. Perhaps it had something to to with sun tan oil, who knows.

The ladies discuss whether to go to confession!

We walked on down a river valley with a pine plantation, but no blue car, which had disappeared, to reach the wide expanse of the Odeleite river.

A short rest in the shade

At this point we started the long pull up to the summit above the river. The views were truly spectacular as we climbed, with the river visible on both sides of the hill at the shoulder and the river snaking around the mountain.

Over the top and down to the village of Azinhosa, near which Chris spotted a mongoose and Mike disturbed a small snake as we crossed a stream. Through the village of Azinhosa we climbed a small hill, hoping it was the last, but were disappointed in that respect. Finally we ascended the last hill and as the village of Monte de Ribeira appeared we made our way down, straggling along behind Ian S, to the cafe Paraiso de Serra and a cool drink. We were not put off by the gaggle of Dutch campervanners who had taken all the available chairs.

Tina and Alex were happy to sit in the shade on the concrete patio, while all the early arriving men hogged the available seats. Marguerite, meanwhile, had made a shopping excursion to Spain and brought back some enormous strawberries, which disappeared quickly, washed down by beer and other drinks.

It turned out that we walked 29.8km and not the 27km we thought we were doing, ( David claimed it was the first time the walk was GPS'd ) but it was all worth it, and we basked in the satisfaction of having successfully completed our first week.

CB’s Comment:

Thanks Ian, a good report about a relatively incident-free second day.

I think we should make mention of the waymarking efforts that David and Terry A. have done for this whole route. While setting it up, and even on a few Wednesday Walks, David was often seen carrying his Waymarking Kit, which was a Tupperware box containing brushes, stencils and at least two colours of paint. With this, and according to a pre-determined yet seemingly random schedule, he anointed various rocks, trees and other mostly inanimate objects along the route of the Algarve way with our Group emblem, the Cistus flower. The result was much more discreet and eco-friendly than the official V.A. markers, and this can be demonstrated when he finally ran out of alternate objects to mark and used one of theirs.

The most common option was on the near vertical face of a rock, but these often found themselves concealed by nature………

…..as on this occasion when Mike’s Team Secateurs were wielded to useful effect.

On this day we also came across a rare attempt at forgery!

The real one was on one of the stones laying face down, but pointed in the opposite direction!! The mystery was compounded when David denied having done the one shown, saying that if he had done it, his artistic integrity would have made him insert the yellow centre!

The photo competition is from a shot at the end of the day when we returned to Soudes to pick up the cars.

The question is not ‘Why has Tina got her dancing shoes on?’ but ‘Who is the mystery walker with the non-standard headgear?

A couple of the odd sculptures can be seen in the background by the windmill. Was she the artist?

Finally to explain David’s estimate of ‘about 27 km’ against the unassailable GPS reading of 29.8 km….

“In complex situations, we may rely too heavily on planning and forecasting and underestimate the importance of random factors in the environment. That reliance can also lead to delusions of control.”   Einhorn, Hillel J.