Recte Age Usque Ad Finem Viae.
-and still we move on inexorably! We have Walked, Strolled and sometimes Cavorted, but after a year when exercise was at a premium, we may just Saunter into the future!
In view of the recent reversion to State of Calamity, Myriam's slow-healing fractured toe and my reluctance to guess what happened on the last walk, we have decided to latibulate until further notice. That isn't as good as it sounds, but anyway here is a short piece of music to start this virtual blog post.
In the absence of any knowledge of the walk last Wednesday, I will post a few titled and untitled pics and take the rest of the week off.
Starters: Hazel and Janet do not listen to instructions and block the picture on the wall that the Leader wanted.
The picture the Leader wanted.
Long conversation no.1 about medronho.
The medronho basket.
The artificial hill was very steep. Rod was advised to hold on tight....
.... which he did.
The Long March
Umbrellas come out.
Dangerous well.
Long conversation no. 2 – about the well ?
Not only does Yves not get served first for a change but, when they do come round to him at last, it is to tell him he cannot have the bifana in traditional pão that he ordered because there is no traditional pão left.
Half an hour or so later – long after the Leader has left to go home – Yves finally gets a Tosta da Casa.
That was John's contribution to the photo story.
And now lets see what HC-B sent,
Track and Stats by John 'Viewranger' Hope
And that is all I know about the walk on 24.11.2021
If anyone would like to add anything, there are two possibilities -
1. Add as a comment (which has proved to be beyond the capabilities of one or two.) and
2. Let me know and I will authorise you as an author and you can add it yourself.
DO NOT send me any text, captions or other material, because as I noted at the beginning, I am latibulating.
No, Rod has not gone mad. The title of this blog is an Answer Smash ( similarly to WAGS 27.10 Terry Amessines)
Category: WAGS Blog Titles
Picture:
Clue 1
Clue 2: The Area WAGS walked on 17.11.2021: A river near Silves.
The Smash is answered by the title. Now has anyone not understood this little game?
Certainly as one has more birthdays, it is inevitable that some of us will experience a slow degradation of faculties - putting names to faces, losing your keys or your phone, failing to hear your wife's/husband's/ binary partner's commands and failing to respond instantly ( or is that just me?)
I personally believe that many of these symptoms are not just a product of having survived for too long, but from being over-medicated over many years. Our physicians reach for their prescription chits not just to assist with quelling a medical problem, but also to meet the needs of patients who crave some concrete treatment to be satisfied or for getting rid of patients who ask too many questions about the dark arts of medicine.
Currently, I am taking 12 tablets a day for various real or imagined ailments and some are playing with my physical status by interacting in an unforeseen fashion or just by published side effects which by law are printed on a leaflet in each box. These are very general and non-specific usually, so most bases are covered and the manufacturer cannot be blamed. Rarely does the physician himself mention or elaborate on these 'side effects'. Is that because he knows the pill is a placebo and unlikely to affect anyone, or because he knows the anxiety it may cause?
Anyway, it was when carefully scouring one of these leaflets that I came across this 'serious' side effect:-
'Tell your doctor if you experience unlikely but serious side effects including:
unusual strong urges (such as increased gambling, increased sexual urges, excessive spending and buying unnecessary items),'
Now I haven't bothered the Doctor with this explanation for why I collect Tilley Hats. and coffee paraphernalia, or even Zebra Finch hoarding, but it is definitely a good excuse!!
Seriously as you become aware more keenly of changes in your body and mental state with age, it leads to a realisation of how finely balanced is the chemistry of your being, and how even overthinking it can lead to not so imperceptible chamges in your personality and outlook. That is if you allow yourself to dwell on such things, One thing that I find to be very beneficial is something that I scoffed at in my youth - meditation, I have been following guided meditations on a daily basis via the Calm App since 1st May 2018 ad feel that it has done me a lot of personal good. This is not an advert, but it may be worthy of your consideration, though there are 'other Apps available!! eg the Balance Sleep and Meditation App.
The Walk
Now the Walk. Rod led in an area known for hills and managed to get away with only 102 m of ascent ( according to John's thingummajig). Mind you, the distance covered was not a normal Rod walk, but more in keeping with the times and the worries about whether we would get a bifana, as signs of a large party were observed when starting at Cafe Oriq.
Starters: Janet, Rod, Ingrid, Maria, John, Hazel and Yves
I had sacrificed myself to tend to a disabled person as her personal chauffeur and purse carrier, so missed all the fun, only arriving when a worried looking leader was investigating where to lunch as an alternative. Oriq appeared to be over busy.
Here is Rod's account of the walk, and as I was not there I will insert John and Yves' pictures as I can hoping some refer to the text!
Yet another unseasonably warm and sunny November morning when John & Hazel, Maria, Yves, Ingrid, Janet and Rod gathered at The Cafe Oriq. Although it actually was open nobody seemed short of caffeine we set off reasonably on time. The walk was not a particularly original one but was in part chosen to see what damage to the countryside the enormous solar panel site had done. Since this whole area had once ..25 years ago...been designated as a recreational and hunting park for the benefit of the citizens of Portimao it is sad indeed to see what this endless campaign for renewable energy can do to once pristine rolling hills.
Before we got that far however most of the unexpected side events of the walk occurred. First of all a car stopped beside us and a rotund but very friendly Teuton greeted us warmly and held forth for quite some minutes on the assumption, it became obvious, that we must be itinerant tourists. That we were not having been established he moved on and started again with Maria, who happened to be some way behind the rest of us. She learned, as she would, that he had a house nearby, actually lived or had lived in Porto, and had an English wife. Whether the silent female passenger with him was the said wife seemed unclear.
Then round the next bend we could see a blazing funeral pyre and hear the grinding roar of a large excavator. This was approached by a track which John had seen on Google Earth and long wanted to explore so we headed off in that direction.
This meant scrambling through a gap in a hedge and scaling what had been a wire fence where we were faced by this enormous excavator busy digging a ditch away from what appeared to be a prolific spring in the hillside.
So to the fore went our redoubtable cameraman from L'Agence France-Presse hot after a scoop.
Yves before the fight!
Sadly we were never able to see the evidence of this bravado for out of the excavator, breathing fire and brimstone, leapt what might well have been a heavyweight Ukrainian boxer, apoplectic with rage that anyone should have the nerve to record his activity. He demanded that all fotos on mobiles should be immediately deleted with such threatening malice that discretion was deemed the better part of valour and we slunk away only able to guess what had riled him. The evidence would seem to suggest however that he was probably guilty of trying to divert the course of water for his own ends.
Poise regained we slowly ascended the long track up to the ridge marking the current limit of the solar panels, a sea of which stretched to the very horizon. They are well defended with heavy duty wire mesh fencing and every 2 or 3 hundred metres a steel post with cameras and floodlights....fearful no doubt that panels would be too easy to nick.
Anti -dog fouling camera
We followed the upper contour perimeter track for a while before descending via a path we had used before, and made our way along the main return track.
The little house just before we dropped down to the Restaurant has recently been securely fenced in and the wooden «Salon» which ostensibly provided a hairdressing service but which of course might just have been a front for some other service, has been totally removed.
'Salon' Taken on 26.11.2020 and......
........what remained on 17.11.2021
There was so much clearance and ground markers in evidence that it is not difficult to believe that further expansion of solar panels may be expected making this an area we are unlikely to want to return to.
Stats.
Was this a new low average speed record?
The Oriq terrace tables were unusually all occupied or reserved so after some discussion we went off to the Parreirinha Bar near the bridge where we were joined by Paul & Myriam and Chris & Antje for a 'prato do dia' lunch.
The lunch! At last something of which I have first hand knowledge. As I arrived with Myriam (to our surprise they were already back) , Maria and Yves were striding determinedly towards the small restaurant which had been quite dark and dingy last time I visited, but was showing signs of enterprise and new ownership!
Hazel, Rod and John were standing outside cafe Oriq, following their progress attentively. Ingrid and Janet had already left. Very soon Maria had secured a deal with the owner to accommodate us in a front annexe, brightly lit and handy for the loo.. Chris and Antje were still on the way, so were diverted from Cafe Oriq. Only Prato de dia was available as it was now a serious eatery, and not a snack bar, so Rod tried to maintain his lunch embargo........
......but failed when his bitoque proved to be a full plate of belt strainer.
Before the Whittles arrived - we couldn't wait.....
Don't worry - the happy couple soon caught up after this photo.
The Pratos da Dia - excellent and good value.
Arros do Pato
Lulas com arroz (Hazel)
Calamar avec pommes frites (Yves), Tintenfischringe mit chips (Antje)
I don't recall what Chris had - perhaps he does!
Now the related music to finish. About Squids of course!!
This song tells you most of what you need to know about The Squid Game.
It is with a certain amount of trepidation that I write this blog because, not only do I have to do the blog, but I have also been delegated the task of writing the Leader´s Report for inclusion in the blog. This is because, although our Leader for the day has many, indeed very many, estimable qualities, there is one thing she does not do, indeed she downright refuses to do, and that is to write Leader`s Reports. How then do I try to capture the essence of her Leadership style and to describe her walk yet perhaps inadvertently upset her by casting aspersions (Cast not your aspersions on my asparaguses) on her choice of route? If I mention that the total ascent for the day was only 30 metres, will that provoke some Gallic expostulation? Well, I shall have to duck any bullets that come my way. Here goes.
Walk Report 10th November 2021
10th
of November - a date to remember because a lot of things happened
that day, as shall be related.
The
first was that Ingrid reappeared. She
had finally agreed to lead a walk, having been persuaded by Paul to
emerge from her self-imposed seclusion these past many months. Not
that she had been inactive, she was at pains to assure us – in fact
she had kept walking through the summer, but very much The Cat Who
Walked by herself.
But certainly very good to see her again.
She
had summoned us to gather at the Mexilhoeira Grande railway station
for a start at the exceptionally civilised hour of 10.30 hrs. The
majority got there by car but Yves had elected to come from Algoz on
a train due to arrive at 10.28 hrs which it did at precisely 10.41
hrs.
Rod
who had somehow arrived on the wrong side of the tracks from the
station building itself and phoned us to tell us he was there, which
we could see for ourselves from the station building, was therefore
on the right side of the tracks to be the first to greet him as he
alighted .
Actual
walkers were few in number. Paul and Myriam, although there to see us
off, were medically disinclined to walk. TerryA was somewhere to the
west, Maria was absent for undisclosed reasons, and the Whittles were
still in the throes of house moving.
Starters: Yves, JohnH, Hazel, Ingrid the Leader, Janet, and Rod
Myriam
obliged by taking the Starter photo and then waved us off.
And
we set of along the Caminho da Espargueira. I am not quite sure why
the area is called Espargueira, because there are no especially
noticeable signs of agricultural activity in the area. We walked past
an establishment called Viveiros da Espargueira (substantially funded
by the EU) but that, despite its name, is concerned with the
aquaculture of robalo and dourada, not vegetables.
And then very soon
we found ourselves walking beside the expanse of salt marshes where
the veggies are unlikely to grow.
There
was plenty of (distant) bird life, butYves got frustrated by the
birds flying off just when he was about to film them. More by luck
than skill, JohnH did manage to capture this shot of a grey heron
(Ardea cinerea).
A
fairly leisurely stroll (the Leader was in a charitable mood) then
brought us to a left turn onto a newly rehabilitated dyke across the
marsh where there was a brand new plaque commemorating said
rehabilitation, unveiled by Isilda Gomes, Mayor of Portimão, among
other dignitaries.
I
took this photo at 11.35 hrs but I failed to spot that the date on
the plaque was 10 November 2021, that very day. If I had, I might
have commented that she must have got up pretty early that morning to
have done the ceremony. Not
sure what Sérgio Faias does in his Docapesca administration –
Google translate is baffled by the word. Does anyone know what it
means?
The
restored dyke stretched far out before us and off along it we went.
Yves, having remembered on this occasion to bring his camera, took some artistic pictures as is his wont.
At
one point along the track Rod and I were accosted by a German
twitcher (birdwatching fanatic) lady who demanded to know if we had
seen a Black Stork (Ciconia nigra).
(I hope that I am allowed to use the word nigra
in this context.) We had to say no we hadn´t, not even
knowing if such a thing existed. Black cormorants
(Phalacrocorax carbo) were of
no interest to her.
Very
shortly after that we came to that point where, back in March 2020, a few of us
walking along the same dyke had found our route interrupted by a
sizeable breach where tidal storms had swept part of the dyke
completely away.
From the archive
The repaired section over the inlet/outlet
Now
the breach is repaired and the whole circuit can be made again. But
Rod did point out that the restored bit of the dyke over the tidal
inlet/outlet is still very narrow and that it must be vulnerable to
future storms.
On
we went circling the marsh, the sea to our right sparkling in the
sun and the gatherers busy digging for their amêiojoas
We
made our way back to where we has seen the new commemorative plaque
which was now surrounded by a crowd of well-dressed and be-suited
officials. Obviously, Isilda Gomes had not woken up especially early
after all. Quick as a flash Yves, brandishing his camera and the
Accréditation Presse he had been issued with by L´Équipe, nipped in
and photographed the celebs and the actual inauguration,
What a
historic moment ! 10th of November again.
Excitement
for the day over, it was now just a matter of our tackling that fearsome
30 metre ascent and heading for home.
En
route we stopped briefly to look at the A Rocha notice board.
A Rocha
is an environmental protection organization providing conservation
and bird-watching activities. And there on its list of birds spotted
during the week was the Black Stork ( Ciconia nigra).
Surprisingly, no Black Cormorants; how could they miss them?
A Black Stork
The
Track and the Statistics
It looks as if we were walking on water but we didn´t.
A pleasant and interesting walk.
Well done the Leader. Let´s hope that she will lead another walk soon, perhaps in the
Carrapateira area.
Back at the railway station,
Ingrid the Leader and Janet made their excuses and departed homewards while the remaining four of us set off for Café Tassbem in nearby Figueira
where Paul and Myriam had managed to arrange a table for us.
By the time we got there, there
were only three portions of the prato de dia (feijão e
polvo con arroz I believe)
remaining and these were all snaffled up by Paul, Myriam and
Hazel, leaving Rod, Yves and JohnH to chose between bifanas or
tostas.
Some critical comment on the
restorative and curative properties of the beans and octopus were made.
Yves chose a bifana and, in
accordance with WAGS tradition, once again got served first.
How does
he do it? Is he in some sort of secret café frequenters
fraternity which gives its members priority food service on the
exchange of a surreptitious password, nod, or wink?
Rod and John went for tostas. Now the last time some of us ate
here, the tostas were very reasonably sized.
From the archive
Now they are enormous. More than a mere lunch´s worth.
If there is a criticism to be made of those tostas it
would be that the bread was insufficiently toasted. I prefer my toast rather more browned,
as I was able to do later that evening with the half-portion I
smuggled home.
Then there was the matter of how
would Yves catch his train home. He didn´t know exactly when it was
due, Where we sat, we were some distance away from Mexilhoeira Grande
station. Then Rod offered to drive him to either Silves Gare or Poço
Baretto. Offer accepted. The last we heard was that, in the end, Rod
drove him all the way home to Algoz. That´s service for you.
So that was the 10th
November for the WAGS. And what else was happening in the wider world
on 10th November? Well, there was welcome headline news for those of you gourmets who
enjoyed last year´s WAGS blogs about the World Scotch Pie Championship
competition. The Championship is back.
The judging of the 2022 competition was held on 10th
November in Cumbernauld, Scotland. The not-so-good news is that the winner won´t be announced
until 18th January 2022 so, till then, you will just have to contain your
impatience.
But if, in the mean time, you
would like to learn more about what makes the perfect scotch pie, why
not search this link
there you can watch an
absolutely fascinating 15 minute video on what the pie judges look
for in the perfect pie. Apparently the most important thing is to avoid
a soggy bottom (to your pie.)
Post publication Note.
John asked me to publish this blog on Sunday afternoon, and perhaps add some music but Strictly and the Brazilian F1 GP got in the way. Of course by Monday (today) matters requiring my urgent attention arose and so I was glad to see that John had become impatient and gone ahead at 1318 hrs, anyway. However during my late morning patrol round Lagos, I saw a Whatsapp from Rod about my over-authoritativeness, which reminded me, so here I am at 1500 hrs adding music and a few comments.
Possibly one of the most annoying songs ever written, but please listen to the end and tell me what happens if you make it!
Anyway The Camino da Espargueira which is an entry point to the newly rehabilitated Dique da Espargueira caught my attention. Portuguese is a bit of a minefield when it comes to words with minor differences beginning with 'espa'. or 'espr' Not only are there many variations pertaining to the tasty vegetable from Waitrose, 'espargira, espargiria, but also others such as 'espadera', 'espargida', 'emparceiro' ,' esparteiro' 'esparguete', 'esparguta' or 'esparida'. Thank goodness English is less confusing! The one I liked was 'Fazer espargatas' which was to 'do the splits' Perhspd one of our Portuguese speakers can demonstrate.
in the midst of these ruminations about waitresses doing the splits in their espadrilles while they shovelled spaghetti along this dyke facing swordsmen, Myriam crushed me with 'Perhaps they used to grow asparagus here a long time ago. So that settles it.
Beware the Dreamers of the Day - Such men are dangerous!
As for DocaPesca it is an organisation that monitors local commercial fishing , with a weigh station and various official inspectors and has Docks or wharves/offices in Portimao, Alvor and Lagos at least, You can read all about it online.
Next weeks walk is to be led by Rod from Cafe Oriq. No description available to date except 'departure at 10.00' Please inform Rod of your attendance on WAGSAL or if challenged by smart tech, a primitive personal email will do it.
