AWW 23.12.2009: The Wednesday Off

By general consent, the Wednesday before Christmas was deemed to be a non-walking week, to allow essential preparations for feasting and the arrival of family and relatives.

For the sake of completeness, I felt that there should be a blog entry for this week, to keep the series intact, and as a treat for those that were not fully satisfied with the contents of their Christmas stockings.

Last year I had 'A Very Hatty Christmas' competition  (link)  but this was not the most enthusiastically received chance for a free bottle of wine, and no entrance fee! You can see from the published answers   (link), that there were only two entries!

This year - no such largesse, but a picture that may at least engender some interest.

(AWW 2009 Gallery - click to enlarge)

These are the best 'mugshots' I could find of the 30 walkers who have appeared by my reckoning to have walked on at least 3 occasions, or to have made some extra contribution to the AWW.  Hopefully you will be satisfied with the one I have selected for you, but if not - try to look better next time Myriam, John or myself brandish the camera.

     Not all the the photos are from this year, they are just selected from the hundreds of file photo faces extracted by the Picasa facial recognition software, and are arranged in reverse alphabetical order by first name purely because that happened to be the order in which I selected them.

   Can you remember where you were when these photos were taken? I doubt it, but best wishes for the second half of the season, starting with David's stroll and lunch on the 30th December. Hope to see you there!

I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell.   Munch, Edvard

That the outer man is a picture of the inner, and the face an expression and revelation of the whole character, is a presumption likely enough in itself, and therefore a safe one to go on; borne out as it is by the fact that people are always anxious to see anyone who has made himself famous. Photography offers the most complete satisfaction of our curiosity.   Schopenhauer, Arthur

AWW 16-12-2009:The Main Event-our Christmas Lunch

Who could have imagined that back in September when Janet arbitrarily chose the date for our Christmas walk and lunch, without reference to White Witches, soothsayers, geomancers or indeed other Wednesday Walkers, that she would light upon the day with the worst weather forecast this December!!
Indeed, the fainthearted looked at their forecasts early on 16th December, and rolled over and returned to sleep.
This option was not available to the CB, the DCB and the appointed Leader – nor indeed to Janet, fresh from grandmothering duties in Oz, who would never have lived it down had she not shown.
Together with a few bewildered souls who had either not comprehended the potential for destroying their party hair-dos, had no hair, or thought it was compulsory to be allowed to consume the lunch, 16 of us turned up to face the predicted elements.
And we nearly got away with it!! Some early drizzle as we approached the Autodrome was not enough to persuade the hardiest to extract and put on their raingear. However, as we reached a fateful point about 1 km from the end, the leader, Rod, opined that we would be too early to arrive back at Patricia’s, and as there was no viable loop to increase the walk, we dawdled and made light Christmassy conversation, particularly about those who had not bothered to join us for the walk!
This significant decision meant that our delayed return coincided, at about 500 metres from Patricia’s and shelter, with a torrential downpour, that came upon us so quickly that we were unable to cover up before being drenched.
Fortunately William and Patricia made His ‘n Hers Guest Rooms available so that we could slip into something more comfortable and dry off – and we still made it to the mulled wine before the other party-goers arrived.
This is all by way of an explanation why in the subsequent photos in John’s Amazing Technicolour Photo Blog, one or two of us are uncoiffeured and slightly shabby. If I had not had the foresight to don The Snake Shoes to distract attention from my bedraggled quiff, who knows what people might have said!

Enough padding – here is John’s ‘rudimentary’ Xmas Walk Blog.
The Season’s Greetings to all,
Paul & Myriam

There were 16 starters, 14 in the main picture plus 2 who made it by the skin of their teeth, as Rod led us on a very gentle pre-luncheon stroll.

(click to enlarge)

From the left: Andrew, Geraldine H, Yves, John H, Chris, Janet, Paul, Dina, Mike, Myriam, Hazel H, Rod, Lindsey, Frank

plus: Terry and Jill.

and 6 dogs, namely:
Shelly: Bella; Oscar: Nandi: Tiggy, Rusty. Maddy.

The Track

The statistics:
Total Dist.: 7.77 km
Moving Time: 1 hr 40 min.
Total Time:2 hrs 6 min.
Moving Avg.: 4.6 km/hr
Overall Avg.: 3.6 km/hr
Total Ascent: 206 m.
Max Elev.: 168 m.

Weak sun along the fence
Blue skies over the autodrome




Noise pollution

Waiting for the rain

As the rain lashed down, Yves seemed to be getting up to something extraordinary

A burka can be an asset!

but in fact he was very gallantly providing Janet with a protective poncho. He is therefore our nomination for the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Assistance to Ladies in Time of Need 2009.

Before we went in for the Main Event, Paul presented copies of his magnum opus, “AWW 2006-7 The Second Blog” to a largely appreciative public.

Not quite Waterstone’s!!

Well, yes….


Puffed out with pride!



That’s better

Flower Power

Ian W seems not sure that the bouncers are doing their job properly











Somebody must think of a suitable caption for this one!

B.Y.O.

Walking boots cast aside, a variety of exotic footwear was displayed.

Cobra Choo’s

Jimmy Choo’s

T(ravolt)ina calls for some hush for the speaker

Viva

AWW economics elucidated

Well Gareth Thomas wears pink…!

Then a determined challenge to the Tilley Hat Brigade was mounted................

Cupid

Blitzen

Dancer

Prancer

Rodolf

Comet

...all at the instigation of The Gang of Four !

Ergo, by process of elimination these must be Dasher, Donner, Vixen and Olive
(not necessarily in that order)

and so, in thoroughly congenial company, we all ".... tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky”. (Callimachus.)

Sundowners

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." Keillor, Garrison

...............or not as the case may be!!

AWW 09.12.2009: A Silves Special, or Breaking One's Duck

It was a damp and chilly Wednesday morning, with many a gentleman and many a lady still abed after the Round the Corner marathon, but at Casinhas Cafe a select group of five assembled.

Their sense of style was immediately evident: none of that customary disorganised, last-minute scrimmage that has come to be known as the Starters Picture: instead, there was an elegantly posed, well-composed, and comfortably seated “Team Portrait”.

(Click to enlarge)

The Fortunate Five

Those Five were:

John H ( breaking his duck as Leader): Two of the Gang of Three, i.e. Tina and Ingrid: Hazel: and Andrew, giving JH some moral support (much-needed - see later)

Statistics (courtesy Ingrid):

Total distance 18.1
moving time 3.33
total time 4.42
moving average 5.1 (wow!)
overall average 3.9
total ascent 168
max elevation 105

The Track

Casinhas was still closed when we set off, precisely at 9.30, but after a gentle stroll of some ten minutes we found a convenient nearby Casa providing all necessary creature comforts, i.e. commodes, crackers and coffees (Starbucks and free trade, so we were told.) Thus internally and morally fortified, we then proceeded comfortably through scented orange groves. Andrew began planning orange liqueur production using the masses of uncollected windfall fruit which we saw.

Then……Calamity struck; I had failed to recognise one of the most obvious of all obvious turnings and I led the group perhaps a km or so the wrong way before necessarily back-tracking. The depleted Group of Three were remarkably charitable about this, sotto voce criticisms only.

An embarrassed Dodo tries to re-orientate.

Thus it was that we arrived at Cafe Sustelo in Poco Barreto, half-an-hour later than I had intended, for a mid-morning beer. The beer was good, the ladies’ rest-room apparently not so good. However, Andrew was greatly impressed by the unusual monumental marble fittings in the mens’ room which were duly photographed (censored:Ed) and are worth a detour for those interested in that particular type of architectural specialism.

We then struck back into wooded territory, watched by a smart Dalmatian, and past that extraordinary deserted house on the walls of which are repeated written descriptions of a domestic tragedy.




The Dalmatian






The Gang of Three minus 1 plus 1

Some story


By now, my sense of direction had been restored, and I navigated the team reasonably well, past the turn-back point where we had been an hour and a bit earlier, on past cultivated small-holdings and flocks of sheep and goats. One flock was guarded by a pair of dogs, with small cow bells round their necks, and linked together by a chain –an unusual sight – little threat to us but tricky for them in the undergrowth.

Luncheon was taken in a suitable location –so I thought - there was ample convenient stone seating and shade was not a requirement that day – but apparently that air-conditioning and de-humidifying equipment were not quite up to the required standard.

Lunch stop

While lunching, it emerged that the reason the Group of Three were down to Two was that Alex had got injured during SCD. (Not “Strictly Come Dancing” but Scottish Country Dancing). If it was a result of my doing Strip The Willow with her rather too vigorously last St Andrew’s Night, then I must apologise to her, not only on behalf of myself, but also on behalf of Scotland and on behalf of Scotland’s Supremo Alec Salmond whom, when I next see him, I will ask to arrange it so that she can go for free medical treatment in Scotland, as everybody can when they are there. This, as you all know, is possible only because England is currently sending so much money from Westminster back up North under the Barnett formula. That formula is terribly complicated and few people other than Barnett and Harold MacMillan have ever really known how it works; but essentially, it’s an annuity funded by the aggregate of the excise duty that England has diabolically been charging on guid Scots whisky ever since Hanoverian times (1745), net-present-valued at current Albanian interest rates, then divided by the distance from Earth to the Moon (on a good day), multiplied by the square root of the applicable year’s Grand National winner’s starting price, to a toss-up factor of the previous year’s GDP . Go for it. Alex.
Meanwhile, Hazel, who had already done 28km the previous RTC day, deputised for her well enough in this day’s 18km.

Show me the road to go home

After lunch, Ingrid intimated that she had a meeting scheduled with a top Government official for later that afternoon. So now, with time running short because of my stupidly missed turn earlier on, we switched on the after-burners and really rocketed home, pausing on our way downhill to Casinhas only to say hello to Misty who was pacing disconsolately behind Rod Frew’s fencing wondering why we were not taking her out for a walk. Rod meanwhile remained immovable in his retreat.

Back at base, Casinhas was throbbing with local life, the ice-cold canecas went down a treat, and Ingrid, fashionably re-attired for her meeting said…….

”Ciao!”

AWW 02.12.2009: The Medronho Meander.

 

The last ‘training session’ before the RTC, which is only 5 days away, and Ian W. dragged himself from his sick bed, having failed to complete the course (very wisely) last week, to lead a short but vigorous circuit from the Foz de Banho past the plentiful medronho bushes of the slopes below Caldas. Even so, as the stats tell, by the time he had thrown in an extra loop to ensure he fulfilled his prediction, we were on a 3 * walk. Hazel, too, insisted she had caught her chestikoff from Ian, but bravely joined the walk in her Eskimo outfit!

The starters who were there on time!

 

Chief Picker: Ian W.

Support Pickers/Tasters:  Paul; Hilke; Rod; Hazel;   Peter;  John O’; Dina; Ingrid; Hedley; Terry A.; Bob; Myriam; John H.; Elaine; Stan

The Track (click to enlarge)

Stats:
Total Distance: 15.6 km.
Moving Time: 3hrs 20 min.
Total Time: 3 hrs 59 min.
Moving Average: 4.7 km/hr.
Overall Average: 3.9 km/hr.
Total Ascent: 538 m.
Max Elevation: 323 m.

Walk Grading (D.o.D.)  3*

 

John O’ reprises his male model days – bumping on a grinder!

 

Not sure what the Leader is doing here!! Perks of the job?

 

Without more ado, here is the Leader’s report:

      Rain threatened as we gathered at the bar of the Foz de Banho for a coffee fix before setting off. There was a slight delay as Stan checked the exhaust on his car which was reported to be falling off, but it was found to be in perfect working order. The record photo shot was a bit like the Charge of the Light Brigade. Cameras to the right of them cameras to the left of them.........., hampered by the local who parked right in front of the Foz to get his brandazinho. We set off at a good pace down the side of the Ribeiro de Banho which now seems to have a permanent perfume and grey colour. Rain gear was put on and taken off at frequent intervals as rain started and then stopped almost immediately. The first river crossing had been made into a ford for vehicles and we took it without breaking step, and it wasn't until we reached the small fenced bit of bush when we stopped for a breather and the leader found the track down to the road.

 Extended lunch!

Moving on at a fast pace, no doubt a result of the punishing walk the week before, we climbed the ridge to overlook the Medronho man's house and still, where we took an early lunch and discussed how to cross the next river. (One of the earliest recorded AWW lunches at 1140 am!)
      We also spoke to Ian S who reported that he was now in a wheelchair, without "L" plates and that the nursing staff were younger and prettier than they are in UK. (He had to say that – see photo supplement!)

 

Pioneering descent

After lunch when we set off down the hill towards the river, the leader was heard to murmur that this could end in tears, to which a nearby wag said do you mean tears (as in rips). However after a rather steep descent we reached a track which led to a ford and an easy crossing.

 

Gentleman John at the ‘Easy Crossing’

 Getting strung out

Unfortunately when we climbed the hill to the ridge we missed the Medronho man where Hedley had bought a bottle previously. As we were going along pretty swiftly, and we had cut the corner taking the new river crossing, we took a little detour at the end to climb a little hill with panoramic views of Foia and Picota before heading back to the Foz.

 

Man from Ku Ching about to pour a beer on a man who hasn’t spotted the camera!

 

Stan spots it this time

 

Just after we got back the rain started in so we huddled under the canopy at the front of the restaurant for the final photo.

 

Myriam washing her ‘borrowed dog’

Medical Colour Supplement:

As I mentioned in my comment to last week’s Blog, Ian S. had fractured a hip and was in Barlavento Hospital waiting for an operation.  To ensure that his time inside wasn’t totally wasted I took him John’s Blog of Rod’s walk  last week, on my computer to cheer him up. He was delighted to have missed that particular walk!

Ian S. reported that the nursing staff were younger and prettier than they are in UK.

These photos are of a visit after his operation on Monday in which he allegedly received a ‘dynamic screw’.  When asked how many screws, Marg replied he could only manage one. 

 Sometimes you enjoy getting it ‘in the ear’!

By this time, he was feeling much better and looking forward to the next bed bath, and the sheer bliss of being able to go to the toilet cubicle.

“Time you enjoyed wasting, was not wasted.”     John Lennon

Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.    Williams, Tennessee