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)
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 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!
"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)
1 comment:
Dad's Army certainly has improved in physical fitness. It took only 1 hr. 31 mins. of rest, including time spent on dog rescuing, dog washing, bin-bagging & PR-ing!! Hopefully, they will be able to catch up with DVD's regiment by next Wednesday.
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