AWW 14.10.2009: Watch Tower to Castle.

The track

Statistics:

Total Distance: 13.7 km;

Moving Time:   3 hrs 48 min;

Total Time:     5 hrs 10 min;

Moving Average: 3.6 km/hr;

Overall Average: 2.6 km/hr;

Total Ascent: 553 m.;

Max Elevation:  778 m.

Leader:   Rod

Present:  John and Hazel, Paul and Myriam, John O’, Tina, Dina, Ingrid, Valerie, Ian W. 

Dog:       Misty

   Assembled company

We all met up on a wonderfully warm morning at Cafe Carlos in Alferce. It was so warm indeed that  our leader opted for Plan B. Plan A, we are reliably informed, was a long descent into the Monchique River valley, all the way up the other side, followed by further ascents and then all the way back again.

In the event Plan A was a reasonably simple ascent to Picota. 

Ding Dong Bell,   ????’s in the Well

Not much to report until we reached  a small farm past which we had been on previous occasions. There we stopped to chat to the lady of the house for a while...such a while however that Misty got bored and thought she would play with the chickens. Much noise in the undergrowth and a guilty looking dog emerged with feathers in her chops.  It didn’t appear it went further than feathers so peace was restored. 

        We think your chicken is OK !!

On we continued upward at a fairly leisurely and undemanding  pace   

............very leisurely pace !

and  eventually arrived at the top to take in the always wonderful views.  We had never had a foto actually looking down on a trig point, so Ingrid (wo)manfully volunteered to shin up the fire watch-tower and  do the honours.  

 

Ingrid doing her stuff...! 

 

Usual Trig-point foto

 

     Unusual trig- point foto ! 

(JS in the background!)

This done we became uncomfortably aware that our party had expanded somewhat until it dawned on us that we were in danger of being swamped by none other than a JS Let’s Walk lot.... led by JS herself.  We fled.  Stopping briefly to accost a group of them seated, panting, on a rock well below the top......’been there before! ’was the amazing excuse for such inactivity!  

Apart from heading down a track which ended in an impenetrable (even for us) bramble thicket forcing a retracing of steps......by then the JS lot had gone which happily avoided any ignominy!....the descent was unremarkable. 

No further incidents and we stopped for lunch round a shady water tanque disturbed only by Misty jumping in and shaking herself dry over all and sundry.

Lunch spot

On downwards until we felt, lest boredom set in,  a short cut might be opportune.

Like all unproven short cuts this one proved not to be !   The track ended in nowhere!

Turning round or struggling down a steep drop through heavy undergrowth were the only options.  True to our ideals we chose the latter.  Everyone made it undamaged and complaints were surprisingly muted !  

        Wot...no complaints !

This landed us at the foot of the track up to the ramparts  of  the mighty Alferce Castle..... 

Alferce Castle ramparts

well it might have been a castle once but it must have been partially destroyed by Mike Pease in his search for the Holy Grail some weeks previously.

This must have been successful as his presence was recorded in the Geocache notebook which Paul took great delight in locating.  The castle is in such an impregnable position that we had to descend the same way as we had come up....alternatives looking rather impractical. 

And so back to the Cafe Carlos. 

CB's Comments: Many thanks to Rod not only for his walk, but also for the tenacity with which he tried to publish this blog, which included several (expensive) coaching lessons via the mobile phone. Alas there were some complications, and on the eve of the next Wednesday Walk, a massive Word file, complete with pictures that I had sent him less than a week ago,  arrived in my inbox to be fonted, sized and uploaded.

   One Golden Opportunity which passed Rod by, was when we were dismounting from Picota, we passed one of J.S's customers climbing up, who enquired of Rod "Is it worth it?"

   Regrettably he was too polite to say "€5.00 - I don't think so!" if that indeed is the current rate!

"Hesitancy in judgment is the only true mark of the thinker."   Runes, Dagobert D.