AWW 10.03.2010: As Easy as Abicada

 

“Alvor estuary and beyond.
Start time 10.00am   Walk about 15km + (dependent on some reccying tomorrow, Sunday) and 5 hours inc lunch.” (extract from preliminary email)

 

Stan and Elaine introduced an all-new walk starting in Figueira, and at least they got the weather right. The best walking weather for weeks, and just as well, as with a near  record turnout of 25 walkers and 8 dogs, the final walk of just over 20 km could have taken much longer.

Track by John H.

Stats:

Total Distance: 20.2 km;
Moving Time: 4 hrs 45 min.;
Total Time: 5 hrs 45 min.;
Moving Avg.: 4.2 km/hr;
Overall Avg.: 3.5 km/hr;
Total Ascent: 270 m.;
Max Elevation: 50 m.

D.o.D:  2+*

Average Age: 63 yrs 5 mths 7 days

 

The starters (less Stan who was finalising the recce!)

Leaders: Elaine, Stan

Walkers: Terry A., Antje, Ingrid, David, Alex, Frank, Ian W., Myriam, Dina, Paul, Lindsey, Hazel, Val, Hilke, Tina, Andrew F., Janet, Rod, Bob, Chris, John, plus Dave and Alice guests of Ian W. over from Scotland.

Dogs: Bella, Shelly, Misty, Maddy, Amos, Alfie, Rusty, Tiggy.

The forecast fine weather and promise of an easy walk had resurrected  a few walkers who had not been seen since before the rain, or else had been on holidays in exotic parts like Brazil (Chris and Antje) and Malaysia (Hazel). Plus Val was welcomed back on her regular visit and Dave and Alice were in from Perth, Scotland.  Hilke had recovered from a Scottish dancing injury, Janet had temporarily misplaced the grandchildren, Ingrid wasn’t required for building duties, Andrew F. had a flat tyre on his golf buggy, Alex had changed her hair day to Thursday, and the rest of us really needed a walk.

Elaine sent in the following account of the walk:_

 

25 walkers and 8 dogs set off from Figueira car park on a sunny, well partly cloudy, morning.   We first had to cross the EN125 and then we walked briefly along a river bank to the railway line, which we crossed and joined a very long dyke, 2.5km along the Alvor estuary towards Alvor.  

Crossing the railway bridge

No rain overhead but very wet under foot through the high Oxalis spurred on by all the rain.  So soggy but warm feet for most of us all day, the trousers dried out but not the feet!

  Along the dyke

We crossed the barragem, turned briefly inland, long enough to encounter a shepherd with heard of sheep, goats and a horse! who was very worried about us and 8 dogs.

A banana break before Alvor

   Safely past them, we followed the cliff path into Alvor.  Along the esplanade past the harbour, we reached the beach and walked east along 'not as firm as we would have liked' sand to the cliffs.

  We climbed steps and clambered up and down cliffs finally reaching a flat path at the top, en route for Praia da Vau.  Views of Monchique inland were partly spoilt by so much urbanisation in front and showed why we didn't try an inland route back to the barragem to complete the circle.    We followed the path through the pine forest emerging to stunning views of Praia da Vau, Praia da Rocha and beyond and of the grassy sea stacks complete with comorants on guard and  gulls nesting, confident they were well out of our reach.

  Lunch in the sunshine and with a view of……….

…..Ingrid providing the lunchtime entertainment!

We came back the same way - too many of us and too much rain had fallen for us to try a tricky cliff path back (we'll save that for a future time when its been dry for weeks) .

Spoiling the view!

  While we were waiting for Ingrid,taking a rest sitting on the wall by the harbour, Shelley decided she had to live up to her water dog name and went chasing and almost catching a poor unsuspecting seagull swimming well out into the harbour.

Almost the only ‘climb’!

Back at the barragem we took the dyke to the side of the lake and spotted the spoonbills tucked up on the island and the multicoloured skydivers floating down from the sky.  

Back along the oxalis-strewn dyke

We then took a short diversion to the 'ruinas romanas'  thanks to Paul's directions and saw the amazing mosaic floors which won't be there to see much longer as they are being gradually covered or worse destroyed by the weeds encroaching.

Abicada  Roman ruins

Part of the mosaic floor going to weed!

A short walk along a track and over the railway line at Figueira station! and we were back to the car park and off for a beer in the Cafe da Aldeia  25 walkers and 8 dogs back safe and sound although we did lose one or two of both before we reached the cafe -  Stan and my fault - the walk was 25% longer than promised - we'll do better next time!

Ian S. sacrificed his free time to welcome the weary home!

We took over most of the terrace.

CB’s Comment:

   A walk with a bit of everything – except a trig point!  Dykes, cliffs, dunes, an air display, sea views, mountain panoramas, and Roman Ruins.  Not much was known about the Abicada ruins which are in a state of decay, and without even an information panel. David did some research and came up with this link which leads to a Portuguese info page.

   I am hoping that the doyen of  The A.A.A.  (NOT the A.A. but  the Algarve Archaeological Association), Mike, who was forced to miss the walk by a neck twinge, will weigh in by way of comment to enlighten us all.

   Let us hope the more settled weather is beginning, and we can break out the sun cream and wear less clothing!

 

“See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.”    Socrates  (Not the current Prime Minister of Portugal!)

“Thank Heaven, the sun has gone in, and I don't have to go out and enjoy it.”    Smith, Logan Pearsall

AWW 03.03.2010: An Odesoaka Odyssey

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.    Franklin, Benjamin

Well Ben Franklin got it wrong today!!  We anticipated getting wet and we certainly got wet!
The forecast was correct – rain and winds until late afternoon – and I was waiting for the cancellation , but Rod was economising on his phone bill and never made the call. Myriam insisted on going to the start, and on the way kept saying brightly – ‘Look it’s clearing up over there!’ – pointing in the direction of Africa.

 
Not much smiling at the meeting point!

Really she wanted to field test her new €15 Decathlon anorak, so there was no turning back.  We all agreed we needed the exercise – it was just a question of ‘how much?’

 
The ‘soon to be soaked’ six

The objective was to see how full the new Odelouca reservoir was after the extraordinarily wet weather of the past 3 months, and here the Google satellite picture was sadly useless, showing the Odelouca as the faint trickle it had been in October 2006.

The watercourse

Rain God: Rod

Wet Blankets: Myriam, Paul, Lindsey, David, Terry A.

Water Dogs: Rusty and Rosie.

Stats:

Rainfall: Several bootfulls and an anorak hoodfull.
Total Distance: Main Party (MP): 12.7 km.
                                Dog Recovery Team (DRT): 14.9 km
Moving time: MP: 2hrs 38 min; DRT: 2hrs 45 min.(approx)
Total Time: MP: 3 hrs 10 min.; DRT: 3hrs 15 min.
Moving Avg.: MP: 4.8 km/hr; DRT: More
Overall Avg.: MP: 4.0 km/hr; DRT: More
Total Ascent: 367 m.
Max Elevation: 323 m.
D.o.D: 2* plus bonus foul weather *= 3* 

Here is Rod’s flowing account of the walk:

Well this one sorted out the real walkers from the wimps....or anyway the weather did!
Of 15 who had checked in as coming only this stalwart 6 actually turned up.
It wasn’t even raining when we met up at the suitably gloomy rendezvous of Silves Cemetery for a 12 km drive up the S.Marcos road to our start point below Louro trig point.  Within minutes of the start we, of course,  had to make a short upward detour to get the statutory pic  and it still wasn´t raining...much.  Terry correctly thought it imminent, however, and spent some ten minutes taking his boots off so he could don his impermeable pants.....and just in time as it happened!

Louro Trig Point

The walk was primarily designed to be able to get a good view of the encroaching waters from the perspective of the lesser known side of the Odelouca dam lake.  Our leader, as usual, was relying on his dimming memory to follow a route down through some quite complicated terrain of steep winding valleys in an area which had been dramatically altered by heavy tractors and trailers hauling out scrub from the rising waters.

 

‘Noah’ checks out suitable locations

Although we didn’t end up quite where he intended it was good enough to get some excellent views, well between torrential downpours anyway,  of the new lake and to look nostalgically down on many walks we had done in this valley, now for ever consigned to the deep.

 

 

Log jam

We had negotiated a trail along existing tracks, although some were little used and where blockages from mudslides seemed likely at many points, to a point  somewhere beyond the halfway mark, when Rosie, seemingly bored with our company, decided to wander off on her own.  Much local searching and calling produced no results so not knowing whether she was ahead or behind we split into two; David and Terry back tracking and the rest pressing on.

Captioned photo by David

The forward track proved to be considerably shorter than the one originally intended  which turned out to be no bad thing in view of the increasing frequency and ferocity of the deluges. The backtrackers eventually, and maybe fortuitously, found the errant hound and arrived back at the cars only minutes behind the main group.

Colour coordinated

Reunited – and hungry

The gods were still not with us apparently for they saved the mightiest of the torrents to just before we got into the car and ensured we arrived at the Cafe Terinho sodden enough for even Paul to reject a Bohemia for a Galão and a Bifana.  Ah, what the other 9 missed !

Mopping up

“Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain.”    Unknown

Competition Time


Now I realise from past attempts that most readers are ‘not very good at competitions’, but this first one of an occasional series, should be close to the hearts of the AWW’s, as it is based on the bars and cafés where we spend the best part of each walk.
All you have to do is to name the location of each bar/café in the 4 pictures: A B 
                       C D
for one point each, and for bonus points the NAME of the bar/café.  



There is no point protesting that you haven’t been there, or “I was away!”, as I have the incriminating photos, and senility or alcohol-related memory problems are not a socially acceptable excuse!
You know how to submit answers, and there could be a Major Prize for the most points at the end of the series!

STOP PRESS
Competition Leaders: Ingrid 6 points
                                 Hilke 5 pts
                                Janet 3 and 1/2 pts
                                David 3 pts
As at 0900 hrs on 8th March

AWW 24.02.2010: Boulevards of Barão de São João

 

We have all been suffering from ombrophobia recently, and Mike who is recovering from a shoulder operation has a severe case of basophobia;  Janet, who has been away again,  is renowned for her  bathmophobia; and David is particularly susceptible to macrophobia. Ian S. however is definitely not subject to potophobia, while I must confess to twinges of monophobia, which was why I was very relieved when 22 walkers signed up for my ‘easy’ walk in the Mata Nacional of Barão de São João.

For those without a classical education, you can save yourself much Googling by looking here

No doubt, once you start reading this fascinating list your hypochondria will set in, and you will discover any number of symptons that apply to your good selves.

Perhaps the fact that Myriam had recently had a significant birthday, (see gerontophobia) and there had been a flurry of correspondence between Ian S., Tina and others, to which I was not a party, about a party, and also that the walk was advertised as ‘easy’, moreover we were all in serious need of a perambulation, meant that the potential cast was well above normal numbers.

19 of the 20 starters (Myriam took the pic – no gorillapod)

I did say 22 potential starters. Unfortunately by 0940 when we set off, we only had 20. I had received a plaintive phone call from John O’ who had sadly misinterpreted the directions in the email, and found himself in Sagres, from where he was unlikely to be able to find the actual start in time, so called it a day; and John H. texted in that he had a puncture, and would only arrive for the Aprés Walk activity. This had nothing to do with the fact that he was still recovering from Terry’s Mega Walk last Wednesday! (ambulophobia).

The Track

Leader: Paul

Boulevardiers: Myriam, Bob, Terry M., Elaine, Lindsey, Ingrid, Alex, Tina, Terry A, Ian W., Janet , David, Frank, Rod, Andrew F., Mike, Tony, Karen, Stan.

Chiens: Amos, Alfie, Rosie, Rusty, Maddy, Bella, Shelly, Nandi.

We welcomed the return to active service of Mike, who has hopefully recovered from his shoulder problems, but who has indicated that he will be selective in the walks he attends; Janet from holiday; Terry M. from the snows of UK, and Karen and Tony, who were WW’s in a former incarnation, until they returned to the luxuries of urban life in London. Stan and Elaine also made a rare guest appearance!

Stats: Walk rating (D.o.D.) 2*

Total Distance: 16.5 km.
Moving Time: 3 hrs 15 min.
Total Time: 3 hrs 50 min.
Moving Avg.: 5.1 km/hr.
Overall Avg.: 4.3 km/hr.
Total Ascent: 308 m.
Max Elevation: 190 m.

Average Age of Walkers*: 63 yrs. 6 months and 6 days.

*(This stat is based on the best available data and an estimated d.o.b. for Janet, who may or may not need to leak the information fast to qualify for her 70th Birthday inauguration to the Hall of AWW Fame!)

Sunny periods

Marshalling the unwieldy number of walkers, and a flurry of text messages meant that we were a little late in setting off down the broad boulevards of the Forest, but we had sun at times, and amazingly there was not one drop of rain for the entire walk.

Obstacle course

Our exceedingly rapid progress was interrupted by a couple of fallen fir trees, but otherwise, on even wide paths, with great views across the forest, the walk was fairly uneventful.

Maddy complaining about her lack of freedom to beg sandwiches!

Lunch was early, as we were in danger of completing the walk in about 3 hours.

 

Soon after Myriam captured the photo of the most senior and junior walkers, no doubt discussing Geocaching!

For a change, Ingrid managed to get some pix of the non-male chauvinist variety of Pig. The rest of the photos in this series were censored!!

Unfortunately the last part of the walk involved a bit of tarmac, but also the bonus of  the only real hill which was the cultural highlight – Statue Hill. We were delighted to see that the BSJ Resident Sculptor had not been idle since we last walked this way.

Ian S. immortalised on crutches!

The Boys in the Band

Tony ‘tapping up’ a young lady

No signs of ‘megalophobia ‘ nor ‘zoophobia’ from Janet

Of course the keen students of art at the rear got left behind and missed a turn at the top of the hill resulting in a phone call to the leader from Myriam. What would we do without mobiles?

We were welcomed by Ian S and John H. as we strolled back towards the car park. They had been charged with checking out the café bars for our party, but alas BSJ is lacking in capacity for a group of 22 thirsty walkers. An executive decision was made to drive to Bensafrim, where there would be adequate parking and more chairs at the market café.

Myriam’s eye view of the group.(from atop a plastic chair)

Tina eventually called us to order and announced that Myriam was now qualified for a bus-pass and sundry other discounts having achieved a venerable age. Janet had baked a lovely cake, of which somehow I don’t have a decent photo, and Tina presented Myriam with a large bottle of anti-aging cream (which doesn’t appear to be working – yet!).  Rod then made his expected laudatory platitudes, and Myriam got quite excited and had to be restrained by Tina!

 “I’ll hold her – you hit her!”

Our thanks to all those that organised the surprise, and also the wonderful news that the seeds I planted about the RTC Franchise seem to be taking root – David has offered to help out with the walk admin and planning, leaving Myriam only to supervise breakfasts, accommodation and dinner. Now if there is a potential catering supremo out there………….

I am also looking for some alleviation of my athazagoraphobia, so feel free to comment!

 

“Age is a high price to pay for maturity.”    Stoppard, Tom 

 

“Maturity is the time of life when, if you had the time, you'd have the time of your life.”    Unknown, Source

 

Post Scriptum

Just after I had finished compiling the foregoing, my Inbox pinged and David kindly submitted about 20 Mb of additional photos –duly captioned. I will add some of them without further comment.

The Birthday Girl

Paul was very proud of his new AWW signalling device

Alex blamed the washing machine…………

Andrew wasn’t sure the new plastic hybrid would sell!!!

If this guy with purple wings comes in and asks for fork ‘andles..

AWW 17.02.2010: The Salir Seven

After goodness knows how many days of rain, how many cancelled walks, and so very little exercise, a few desperate souls were unable to resist Terry’s repeated challenge of “come, walk with me”. The 9.30 am kick-off was delayed because Ian W and JohnH were unable to work out his simple directions of how to get to the starting cafe. Terry, however, sprinted to down-town modern Salir where they were floundering about and shepherded them back to old Salir. A kind of Starters Photo was taken, mostly under umbrellas, while the weather turned a trifle melancholy.

Starters in the rain

The walk had just stuttered into life when IanW had to go back to get his wallet out of his car. JohnO professed to be at a loss: “Who on earth,” he asked, “could possibly be so desperate as to want to break into a car to take a Scotsman’s wallet?” Peace between the two of them had scarcely been restored when Celianne’s dog, Harry, deposited a princely-sized dump right outside a Salir worthy’s front gate, and again we paused while she did her civic duty with the poop-scoop bag. And so it wasn’t until about 9.45 am that the ever-patient Terry was finally able to lead his group through the lanes of old Salir, past the open doors of Igreja Matriz where we didn’t tarry, and out into open country, where the weather lightened.

So who were these magnificent but foolhardy Seven?

Leader: Terry Ames.

Followers: Tina and Andrew, IanW, JohnO, Celianne, and JohnH.

Dogs: Rusty and Harry.

Statistics

Your deputy blogger’s GPS is notoriously unreliable with measurements ,but these are what it recorded and they don’t conflict all that much with what the Leader put down in his report:

Moving time: 3hrs 57m

Stopped time: 2hrs 23m

Total time: 6hrs 10m

Distance: 25.96km

Speeds: who cares?; we got back!

The Track

(click to enlarge)

The Leader’s Report

“ A lot of up, a lot of down, 6 hours total, 5 hours walking, 4 star rating.

"As I lay in bed listening to the rain beat down, I thought 'here we go again - third week in a row’.

"At 7am still raining but bits of blue and clouds quite high so I made up my mind the walk was a on. Had a few calls but, not to be dissuaded, it was on. After the caffeine intake it’s all systems go, a bit of light rain and wet under foot, but we took off, route Via Algarviana out of Salir heading for the hills; small detours needed to walk over the bridges as the river crossings were not a option unless we are into white water rafting.

Not an option

“The trails were soft but but no deep mud as such. We wound our way ever upwards in light rain, warm sun so off came a layer of clothes as we began to perspire. (Despite an encouraging phone-in from invalid Paul) the leader was hesitant in parts as having not walked that way for some time but we came out at the right place and on up to the old mill for lunch.

It certainly was upwards

Lunch at 497 metres

“Lunch over,we walked west along the ridge in the sun while the rain swept through the valleys below us with the ever changing light watching the greens of the valley sides keep changing colour. The afternoon was dry as we started to descend and, yes, I made another small navigational error but soon spotted it. (He was clearly distracted at this point by IanW’s offer to “show his bits”. Ed)

Ian repeating his offer

“After making another route change to find the bridge, I was aware that legs were beginning to tell us that maybe we are not as fit as we would like to be.( He can say that again! And again! This was me at the Point of Pain, with JohnO about to sign me off for good in accordance with ancient Irish rites!)

Oh, my goodness!

(Pic copyright Terry Ames Images)

“However, at last we made it up and over the ridge to be rewarded with the sight of sunny Salir. As the end was nigh the finish soon came and the smiles were back on our faces as we went to the cafe for our just rewards. We all agreed we had had more dry time than wet and were glad we turned out . Thanks for coming , Terry.”

Post-mortem

Here’s Terry, after the walk, looking thoughtful. Now,do you think he’s already mulling over what to put in his Leader’s Report?

Nah; he’s watching F.C. Porto beat Arsenal 2-1. Apart from that, the main topic of discussion in the bar was a comparative analysis of whether being on one of Terry’s hill-climb endurance tests was more exhausting than having to read all the way through one of the Chief Blogger’s introspective medical ruminations, e.g. his last one on the common cold and how to get it/not to get it.

Well, I think that it’s fair to say that the jury –if indeed there is one competent to hear such a case- is still out.

Be that as it may be, here are the statistics on that latest blog of Paul’s:

Quotations: 1

Captions: 3

Pictures: 9

Paragraphs: 42

Text Lines: 305

Words: no less than 2724 (+/-)

Now isn’t that quite something? And from a sickbed! And what does Myriam give him?

But let us not mock, my friends: as Frere Yves, I am sure, will tell us, one of the world’s greatest 19th century authors took to his bed from where he produced a masterpiece constructed initially out of his thoughts about being ill and about cookies, or to be more precise, about his memories of a particular buttery, lemony type of cake called a madeleine which he had just nibbled. (visit http://www.slate.com/id/2118443/ to learn more).

I haven’t read his works, neither in French nor in English, but no doubt Yves has, and I’m sure he will tell us more. But Marcel Proust’s book (A La Recherche du Temps Perdu) ran into twelve volumes, and it still sells!

Paul is close on his trail, however; he has already published two AWW Blog books; a third and a fourth are under preparation; the twin themes of health and cuisine are gradually emerging; and so the series will grow. Place your orders for these future life-enhancing masterpieces now!

Three quarters of the sicknesses of intelligent people come from their intelligence. They need at least a doctor who can understand this sickness. (Marcel Proust)

Illness as a catalyst for artistic creativity is not a new theme, and surely Marcel Proust should count as one of its most celebrated examples. (Thomasine Kushner, M.D.)

We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full. (Marcel Proust)

Post-Scriptum

I have already been corrected by one of our more literature-minded walkers that Proust's major work was not put out in 12 volumes, but in 7. Well, as it's obviously cheaper to buy 7 books than 12, and as two of the sub-texts to this week's blog are the number 7 and the parsimoniousness of the Scots as a race, I'll go along with that and stand corrected. Indeed, since no greater authority on such matters as Monty Python ratifies the 7 version (check it out on "Monty Python's Flying Circus Episode 31 - The All-England Summarize Proust Competition"), who indeed am I to argue?

Post-Post-Scriptum 

After months of clandestine research by M and appointment of Excel Consultants Brian and his advisor Clare, I am now in possession of a table that enables me to calculate automatically and swiftly the average age of the participants on each WW. (provided they have submitted their personal data accurately and/or are not suffering from gerascophobia or even gerontophobia).

The stat for this week reveals that the average age of 6 of the walkers whose data we know is:-

65 years, 1 month and 7days as at the date of the walk.

It is not yet known whether the effect of this stat will be uplifting or depressing, but counselling can always be sought in the Bar/Café after the walk.

CB. 

 

AWW 10.02.2010: Rain Rain Go Away……..

Here we go again – I have dragged myself from my sick-bed, having contracted A1W1W1 virus on our trip to Lisbon last week, hoping to have a day of peace and quiet while Myriam joined Terry and the rest on his planned walk from Salir. And then came the Rain!

If there is a Vengeful God, surely he will take action on my behalf against the woman who exploded a comprehensive packet of virulent germs while sitting opposite me on the Metro from Colègio Militar to Laranjeiras.  I would have had her pegged out in the upper reaches of the Odelouca, while Tabasco sauce was dripped in her eyes and the back of her throat was poked with a sharp piece of bamboo!

My plans were in place – a nice DVD – loll in bed feeling sorry for myself with a hot toddy while manfully pretending that if I hadn’t been stricken, I would have welcomed an invigorating stroll through the mud of the Eastern Algarve – but the early call from Terry ruined all that, and as the walk hadn’t even started, I would have felt guilty about asking John to do the Blog as he had filled in last week.

 

So as we have no AWW related activities to discuss, I have to provide some padding on my most pressing matter of interest, right now - “Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases”

Common Cold Remedy

The common cold virus rhinovirus 16 contains 60 sites capable of connecting to a receptor, called ICAM-1, on human cells. The virus uses several of these sites to gain entry into the cell. This computer-simulated model, developed by Purdue researchers, shows where the receptors attach to the outer protein shell of the virus.

When I was a child, I remembered I would occasionally catch a cold and spend about two weeks lying in bed, suffering. My joints and muscles would ache and, although I received better treatment, being served meals in bed and having a TV in my own room, it was still a very unpleasant period.
Eventually my mother blurted something about some Nobel prize winner (Linus Pauling) who wrote an article about eating lots of vitamin C to kill colds. So I tried that one time and found I managed to get the period of immense discomfort down to four days.
Then at one point garlic was mentioned and, after trying that as well, I seemed to get the period down to around one and a half days.
In my earlier years, it seemed that whenever a “cold was going around”, I would catch it at the beginning AND at the tail end of it, when it had mutated slightly so that I managed to catch the next strain. Now though I’d say I get sick on average about half a day a year.

Since this is potentially a costly sickness, I thought I would add this to my list of natural ways to battle various illnesses.
The common cold is “a contagious viral infection of the upper respiratory tract characterized by inflammation (swelling and irritation with presence of extra immune cells) of the mucous membranes, sneezing, and sore throat. It is our only effective weapon against the alien attack of War of the Worlds, where all our military strength and nuclear weapons proved useless.
The following explains how I manage to avoid or kill colds.
Sometimes I could be in a pub and drink from a less than clean glass and soon feel a scratchy feeling in my throat, like the bacteria left on the glass from the previous sick person. Or I could generally be feeling weaker and susceptible to catching a cold. So I immediately bombard my system with at least a thousand milligrams of vitamin C and one pill of Echinacea (description later). Generally, I throw at least 5 cloves of garlic into everything I cook, so my body’s general immunity should already be okay. I’ll take this dose of vitamin C and Echinacea once or twice a day, for one or two days until I feel my body is resilient again. This usually manages to avoid me from getting sick. However, if the virus gets out of hand, such as if I was on a drinking binge for a few days and lacked sleep, I then roll up my sleeves and get prepared for the all-out ATTACK on that virus!!

How to Kill a Cold

Once a cold has succeeded in establishing a good foothold in my body, I have several approaches I use to “kill” it. However, as usual, I prefer to avoid all “western medicine” approaches requiring chemicals or drugs. In most places in the West, someone sniffles and is immediately handed a doctor’s slip to lie in bed for four days and pound themselves with antibiotics. Although this practice is fading, it seems to be supported by the Labour Government,  so as to work as little as possible. Of course, most people would go out drinking and screw up their bodies further. I heard that these manmade antibiotics actually weaken your body, because your body does not produce the antibiotics itself and over time grows weaker and more susceptible to catching sicknesses.
Echinacea, on the other hand, is a natural antibiotic and actually STRENGTHENS your body against future sicknesses. I find Echinacea is most useful for killing viruses entrenched in my lungs, whereas vitamin C seems to work overall on the body.
Another natural herb which is supposed to be good for strengthening the body’s immunity system is Lapacho, although I don’t like its flavour very much and tend not to use it. You should be able to go online and ask what various natural ingredients are good at strengthening your body’s immunity system.
When sick, I tend to bombard my system with 3,000 mg of vitamin C daily, spread over the day, each time taking a dose (one pill) of Echinacea.
In nature, when an animal gets injured, their natural instinct apparently is to fast. This is because the body needs to use the energy it has to fight the cold and not to process the food you are eating. Therefore, it is generally a good idea to not eat foods, such as meat, which require greater energy to break down and process. When I feel REALLY bad, I go all out and fast totally. Maybe one and a half days to two days, depending on how strong the virus is.
However, as I am sure  doctors will suggest to you, all the killed virus must get flushed out of your system, in which case I find it quite important to drink lots of water.
When I feel real bad, I find I can still work, but I get tired frequently and resort to sleeping in intervals. Sleeping is a time when the body generally rehabilitates itself, and is very important while you are sick.
If you do not want to resort to all out fasting, you can try cooking natural rice with lots of diced garlic. Ginger is also very good at fighting or preventing colds.
Therefore, you can try my favourite super duper cold killing soup, as an example:

• in a small pot throw some cooking butter and sprinkle with certain spices, such as curry, pepper, thyme, bit of oregano, hot chilli/cayenne combination according to your tastes (I always put caraway seeds into everything I cook, but a lot of people do not like caraway seeds). In Indian cooking with curry, the trick apparently is to fry/cook the curry at the beginning into butter (or Gi – very condensed butter), until a certain point (not very long) when the spices have merged into the butter and each other;
• once the spices have melted into each other (be careful not to burn the butter or curry), throw in the diced ginger. Perhaps add a little oil to prevent burning or if you don’t like too much butter flavour in your soup;
• shortly after that (depending on how much you want to soften the texture or weaken the flavour of the ginger) you can add onions and garlic. Stir fry until your desired level and throw in water;
• you can add soya now or during the frying process at the beginning;
• as the water heats up, you can add essential ingredients, such as natural rice, precooked lentils, maybe Chinese noodles, to give yourself your carbohydrate blast and fuel. Or nothing at all – depending on how much of a fast you think you can handle or are willing to take. (If you reaaally want to avoid fasting, you can make a similar meal by cooking only rice and then flavour it with the same ginger/garlic and or onion combination, with some vegetables);
• add spices to your liking, tabasco spice and all the hotness you think you can handle. Hot spices are good for getting the nasal juices pouring.

You can also suck all day on raw lemon. I heard once that the difference between the molecules in store-bought vitamin C and the vitamin C in for example in a lemon is that the natural, living vitamin C molecules are spinning, where the store-bought ones are stagnant. This tells me that they are essentially dead and I assume that the natural ones should be a lot more powerful. You cannot overdose on vitamin C and you apparently just pee it all out, so feel free to have as much “live” vitamin C as you can handle. (However, I find my body starts to feel a bit overdosed if I have more than 3,000 mg of store bought-vitamin C pills.)

Drink lots of water, take a lot of sleep naps, and I find I am virtually cured by the next morning. Try to avoid beer or wine – it seems to me that the yeast or something in these feeds viral growth in my throat, not to mention that it tends to neutralise or kill vitamin C and other nutrients in your body. If you really do need to drink booze or party, try to limit it to only hard or herbal alcohol.

Also, a few people highly suggested gargling salt water in the back of your throat. I have resorted to this when my throat really hurt, to help kill the virus living there and which was infecting the rest of my body. But since the salty flavour is so repulsive, I find that gargling a bit of strong alcohol (vodka etc.) can do a lot of healthy sterilisation. But try not to drink too much of it (or just spit it out), as it might weaken your body and cancel out all the other prescriptions above. On the other hand, several times I've also been informed that if you drink ENOUGH hard alcohol, you can sterilise your entire body and kill a persistent virus rather quickly. This could be a risky proposal though, but I've been told it can be quite effective.

This is how I generally manage to kill a cold – once I actually do catch one – by the next morning. Deep uninterrupted sleep helps a lot.
But this is only once you do actually catch a cold. As usual though, why catch it at all when you can apply a bit of PREVENTIVE medicine?

How to Avoid Catching a Cold

Obviously, colds are transmitted by little virus bugs which land into your throat or nasal passages and start to eat away at your body. You can be on a metro or tram and inhale the bug from someone else’s sneeze. To prevent this, I guess you’d have to wear a gas mask or some other mask; but for most of us, this is not a viable option. Or you can generally eat lots of garlic  and ginger as I do, as such strengthening your body’s immunity system But there are three main ways,  how I found I tended to catch colds:

• the hygienic standards here are not that strict, I ordered myself a beer and caught a cold. So I try to always drink from just above the handle – a weird place from where most people do not drink – increasing my chances of not putting to my lips the juicy chunk of virus left by the last user. Or if not a glass with a handle, I pick a point on the glass, such as above the label, and drink only from that location, hence lowering my chances. If possible, I ask the bartender to pour my next beer into the same glass, since I have already “broken it in”, so to speak;

• if travelling by public transportation or while in any other location where my hands come into contact with frequently touched objects (handle rails etc.), I try to always hold only with two fingers and at a “strange” location (joint between handle rails etc.) where most other people will not grab hold of (wearing gloves is certainly also good). And above all, try not to absent-mindedly wipe my nose with my fingers after holding onto something which the last hundred people held onto after wiping their nose with their fingers. This is a perfect way to transmit a virus;
• one last thing you can try and which, as part of my internet research on this subject, I learned may help is to put a jar of water on your heater in the winter. When it is cold outside, we heat up our homes, and heaters tend to dry out the air. When the air is dry, my lips start to chap and I often wake up in the morning with a dry and sore throat. This seems to make it more susceptible to catching colds. You can be fancy and spend all sorts of money on a humidifier, or just put a jar of water on your heaters, which slowly evaporates and helps keep the air in your home more moist. Aquariums also help.
• and lastly, perhaps contrary to the above few points, is not to be so obsessive about sterilisation. The new generation is said to be catching colds quickly and constantly because everything is so sterile, and many people take prescription antibiotics at the first sneeze. Synthetic antibiotics weaken your body. It is like a crutch, or a wheelchair, and if you sit in a wheelchair too long and don't exercise your muscles, your body gets weak. It develops a dependence on your crutch. But natural antibiotics, such as garlic, ginger, vitamin C and Echinacea instead strengthen your body. And the introduction of foreign bacteria will also strengthen your immune system, because your body is forced to develop antibodies against it. It is like taking a vaccine. A small dose and weakened version of a disease which your body can react to and develop against it an immune system. So hey, just be a bit of a pig man. But avoid strong doses as mentioned above.

These are general preventive tactics. Of course, I guess you can include in that trying to avoid going on drinking binges for too many days in a row while depriving yourself of sleep, or other forms of stressful work which tend to weaken your body’s immunity system. Or by trying to maintain a healthy and balanced diet, with lots of vegetables and vitamins, or by exercising and taking care of your body to make it stronger. In my internet research on this subject, I also learned that sugar is bad for the immune system. White sugar is supposed to be bad for you generally.

Below, how a cold or any virus attacks the body. Similar to how Malaria works. A very interesting read and the bug that has caused the human species to evolve the most.

There so now you know about as much as I do!  Feel free to include any gems of your own, or strong exceptions to the arguments by way of a comment or an email.

On an admin note, Rod’s proposed walk on 21st April in the Alentejo bears another plug, to help you make up your minds. Please reply to him direct to express an interest or otherwise:-

Wednesday Walk 21^st April.  I have mentioned a possible walk in the Alentejo in the spring when hopefully all the spring flowers are out, well herewith an early advice!

We should meet at Pru and Julian Clayton Meade’s riding establishment, Equus Ourique, a few kms SW of the Alentejo town of Ourique, for a 9.00 am start, walk for about 20k / 5-6 hrs( with only a light snack)and then have lunch there provided by Pru at a very reasonable price.  The walk covers  splendid rolling countryside with wide views and different perspectives and it takes in the edges of the Barragem de S. Clara, a wander around the extraordinary defensive village of  Castro de Cola with its vestiges of Iron and Bronze ages, Phoenician, Roman and Moorish occupations and the nearby chapel of  N. Sra. De Cola, the centre of medieval pilgrimages attracted by numerous local legends.   Equus Ourique is about 1 hour from the start of the IC 1 on the A22. Obviously I will need to know who is coming fairly well in advance so that Pru can make the necessary lunch arrangements. Formal notice and directions will be given nearer the time.

“Spring is not the best of seasons. Cold and flu are two good reasons; wind and rain and other sorrow, warm today and cold tomorrow. Whoever said Spring was romantic? The word that best applies is frantic!” 

AWW 3-02-2010: A Picota Put-Off, or Prudence Preserved

So Gordon Brown is not the only Scot to embrace Prudence. Ian W likewise when at 9 a.m. he called off the climb up Picota. An entirely justifiable decision: the precipitation forecast was dire; several intending walkers had already pulled out; the cloud base on the hill was down to about 300 metres. Nobody really fancied scrambling “eyeless in Gaza” over soggy, fallen eucalyptus or skidding in minimal visibility off wet granite slabs. As Ian put it “we walk for pleasure, not for pain.” All day,from down below, the whole Foia/Picota massif remained invisible, enveloped in thick black cloud.

An opportunity,then to draw your attention once more to Rod’s treatise on St Vincent of Saragossa – now we know the significance of the four raven’s on the St Vincent’s Church coat of arms.This work can be found in the blog of 31.01.2010. And a suitable moment to remind you that the Chief Blogger has generously given us the chance to vote on his Walkers’ Patron Saint referendum at the end of that blog. Don’t miss this once-in-a-blue-moon offer. Who knows when democracy will ever again feature in the AWW annals?

No photographs this week but, while we're on the subject of St Vincent, here’s a scan of the recent article in the Algarve Resident about Bob and Terry’s planned Algarve Way walk starting 28th April in aid of charity.

(click to enlarge)

Their contacts are:

Bob – 289 366 720

Terry – http://www.algarvewalkingexperience.com/