WAGS 2021: Saunterers Season Preview

 

There is a lot wrong with the title of this blog because often, previously the season ran from September to June spanning two different calendar years. Also - a subtle change, the `S` in WAGS now stands for `Saunterers` rather than Strollers. But fear not - it will not invalidate any of the T-shirts you may have already purchased.

Another reason for aligning the Blog with the Calendar Year is that 2020 was indeed an "Annus Horribilis", and hopefully this separation will improve our lot. For non-Latin Scholars, that was not a reference to ugly nether regions nor even haemorrhoids. I hope we are all preserved from such.

As Chambers 21st Century Dictionary has it:-

saunter verb (sauntered, sauntering) intrans (usually saunter along, past, etc) to walk, often aimlessly, at a leisurely pace; to wander or stroll idly. noun 1 a sauntering gait. 2 a leisurely walk or stroll; an amble. saunterer noun. sauntering noun. saunteringly adverb.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c.

I am not entirely sure that `aimlessly` and `idly` are perquisites of sauntering as far as we are concerned, but it is a mode that has been adopted before.

There are some who might contend that saunter is a synonym for stroll, and to them I say  "You are welcome to maintain the illusion that you are strolling, but I for one will be sauntering!  To me 'saunter' carries a less rapid and purposeful connotation than 'stroll'.  

Any dissenters please argue your case before the Committee.

   The first walk of 2021 will fall on 6th January, and we will switch to this blog then if we remember!

WAGS 06.01.2021: Keep Right on to the End of the Road

    John and I had a minimal discussion before opening this new Blog and in fact was mainly about what our Latin Tag should be (if we were to have one) and as at least he and I enjoyed the friendly banter in quotes from a dead language, and whether it should be inflicted on those less fortunate who had not benefitted from a classical education!!

     Well in true Caesarean fashion, since we were the writers-in-chief and  might is right or `ius est` as Julius would have it, and we made a few suggestions.

Perhaps you are wondering `Why Latin?`. This month in The Oldie Magazine there was a nice article by Harry Mount entitled  "Saunterers Love Latin" or something very similar. I wont force you to read (or skip) the whole article, but here is a LINK.
I found it well written and interesting,

    You will of course remember that last season John rather fancied the construction, 

"In solis sis tibi turba locis" which he translated as `In solitude, be thou a multitude to thyself`, and it was used randomly, several times in "The Quarantine Diaries"

Below was my first offering which translates as "Keep Right On to the End of the Road", the title of a WW1 song by Sir Harry Lauder. There is a dispute over the date of composition, but the interest is in the several subtle differences in interpretation of that line. See how many you can find. As far as I know it was never sung nor translated into Latin, but no doubt there are scholars who could achieve the same double or treble meanings in Latin too.

"Recte Age Usque Ad Finem Viae."

Ev'ry road thro' life is a long, long road,
Fill'd with joys and sorrows too,
As you journey on how your heart will yearn
For the things most dear to you.
With wealth and love 'tis so,
But onward we must go.

Keep right on to the end of the road,
Keep right on to the end,
Tho' the way be long, let your heart be strong,
Keep right on round the bend.
Tho' you're tired and weary still journey on,
Till you come to your happy abode,
Where all the love you've been dreaming of
Will be there at the  end of the road.

With a good kind thought and an end in view,
We may cut short many a mile.

With a big stout heart to a long steep hill,
We may get there with a smile,

So let courage ev'ry day
Be your guiding star…

Here is a sample:     

There is also a fine version by Kenneth McKellar

John fired back with "“Sedente agitate navum”   which he remembered as meaning `Sit down you`re rocking the boat`.

  I then thought of :" Hoc Est Quod est"  (It is what it is!" which was what Trump was fond of saying, and if he had any education at all, he would have said it in Latin.

   The Jury is still out, but if anyone has any further ideas for a motto or Tag, please let us know. I would be surprised and delighted if anyone responded to this, but c`est la vie!!

Anyway, back to the doings of the Lagos Bubble.  There was a modest outing this week. Antje and Chris were recuperating after a flight back from Covid -ridden UK, and only walked the dog. Myriam and I intended to walk the beach, but then I remembered we had to visit the watchmakers in the furthest reaches of Lagos and we decided to walk there. I will gloss over the stats, as there weren`t too many, but here`s a quick schematic from my trusty OnePlus.

   The Saunter itself was undertaken in a Calm Mindful way, careful not to break any speed records or contest the Silves Bubble walking supremacy! Highlights were rather more than one per kilometer in terms of photos.

        First treat was a legless man as we rounded the Marina. I was a bit slow getting the camera fired up, but by the time my shutter clicked, I discovered he was in fact standing in a person-hole, and soon resumed his full stature.

Then while crossing the bascule bridge we saw what appeared to be Santa Claus at the helm of a yacht moored alongside the Harbour Master`s Office. 

The Lagos bascule Bridge the same generic type as London Bridge

We assumed it must be his last appearance until next Christmas, as today was Kings day, when Christmas paraphernalia must be taken down.

       On closer inspection the yacht turned out to be Bom Dia, a famous lagos tourist boat.

If we had fancied a sail we could have headed for the High Seas with Santa as our Captain,

He wasn`t very talkative however,

On the way back, I popped into the Harbour Master`s Office to admire his artistic Dolphins sculpted out of metal plates welded together,

A suspicious masked figure lurked outside. Apart from being stalked by her, I was suspicious of this fake robotic seagull spy drone....

We accomplished our mission at the watchmakers, and sauntered back through the town passing a couple of the decorated electricity boxes done by a local artist Jorge, who works for LAC and coordinates the annual Street Art Festival.

Pedro Alvares Cabral was a Portuguese navigator who is credited with the discovery of Brazil, which he claimed for Portugal in about 1500. He probably introduced football there too!!

D Joao I was king of Portugal from 1385 until 1433, during which time he defeated Spanish King John of Castile and reclaimed much of the Minho. In 1415 he seized Ceuta thereby gaining control of naval navigation of the Straits of Gibraltar and the internal slave trade routes in Africa. The painting looks as if he has a map of part of Africa as a mask in green. I must ask Jorge what map it was.

  We were well ready for our TM`s by this point and as we came back over the hill by the Tivoli Lagos we noticed this little known use of a solar panel - as an advertising hoarding.

And that was it!  Having achieved 5.1 km over rugged cobble stones and not shirked the hill up to the church of Sao Sebastiao we felt we had done our bit.

And to finish another Covid Lockdown Parody - more applicable to UK perhaps. We are lucky to live here!!

And now over to our man in Silves:- who, after a marathon session trying to break into this new 2021 blog, has eventually succeeded and is now able to publish an excellent Leader´s Report from Rod. If it takes him until a Sunday afternoon to report on the previous Wednesday´s events, do not, Gentle Reader, begrudge that period of rest and contemplation. His reports, like good wines, need time in the barrel. So here it is! My editorials in black.

Morning John, my goal is always to get it in before the weekend is past!  

Arade Mata Mouros South Bank 2021 01 06

An arctic morning indeed it was when the Silves Bubble, that is to say John & Hazel, Maria, Yves, Dina and Rod, gathered outside the Lounge Bar Chapim. I say outside because  everyone seemed to think they hadn't  opened...well the door was shut rather understandably in view of the temperature, and nobody thought to push it... so off we  set, caffeine free, along a route most of which we have covered many times before, on the south side of the Arade. Not the warmest of starts as this was all in the shade and the first stretch would have no sun all day.

Scarcely had we set off but Maria was already greeting old friends.....

 

As we approached the lofty white walls of the Quinta de Mata Mouros Hazel spied a tempting chain beside  the mighty portal and with no thought as to the possible consequences she was provoked into displaying her campanological skills. 

 A great peal of bells rent the freezing silence whilst the rest of us were transfixed by what might happen next. The massive wooden doors slowly and silently swung open and instead of the disgruntled housekeeper or man eating hound we might have been expecting,  there appeared from the swirling mists a smiling, shapely maiden. 

Vanessa, she introduced herself, was preparing to receive visitors to the winery in a couple of weeks and  seemed quite regretful that she couldn't invite us in there and then.  The house she explained was now little used, as the owner...one of the Pereira Coutinho sons ... had fallen on hard times and had been obliged to sell his helicopter, his usual mode of transport for visiting this, one of his many properties. 

 The property encompasses the Convento de Nossa Senhora do Paraiso now partially given over to producing wine bearing the labels of Convento de Paraiso, Imprevisto and Euphoria. ( This is, should you be interested, a joint venture between Pereira Coutinho and the Soares family, owners of the Albufeira distributors of that name and the respected Alentejo winery and boutique hotel Quinta de Malhadinha). Should you wish to avail yourselves of a private visit you may be able, if you are lucky, to persuade Yves to relinquish Vanessa's mobile number.  Maria, it transpired however, who knows everyone in Silves, knows her parents of course so Yves may not have it all his own way!

Had it been a trifle warmer we might have lingered longer, but with promises of a visit before too long we pressed on. We stopped briefly at the mysterious staircase disappearing up into the clouds;

 Maria of course, to prove some point, skipped up a couple of flights but nobody else was persuaded so on we went. Next stop was the stately property of Pura Vida, all looking in an impeccable state, we were tempted to try their entry system but this entailed knowledge of a code and anyway it seemed unlikely anyone to rival Vanessa would appear. 

 An added touch was the ancient LandRover which has for many years been part of the rear entrance decor, parked at an impossible angle, even for a LandRover on a ridge above the gate, now has headlights which switch on when you are near the gate...no sign that any other part of it will ever work.

Some atmospheric photos of what´s behind the gates of Pura Vida by Dina:-

Then on past the country boutique hotel Tapada de Gramacho, now seemingly in seasonal repose. The track then rises towards the main road passing the winery which has been under construction for some years  without any visual progress. The vineyards are well maintained however so the wine is clearly made elsewhere. 

 After a short stretch along the road we turned north along the ridge leading to the heights over the Arade. Much money has been spent on terracing, building a sort of seawall at the foot and on the house itself but not much has happened in the last year or two.  However a large truck appeared as we were passing the house and unloaded a large quantity of building material. Maria, of course knew the driver as belonging to the company who was doing work there and who had also built the expensive and comprehensive new irrigation pipeline from the Barragem do Arade...she learned from him much of the political infighting with Aguas do Algarve involved in this project (doubtless she will fill you in if you are interested).  The area along the front of the long pigsty had recently had a track cut through the long grass now affording an easy path from which to admire the quite splendid views of the Arade towards Silves.  All this looks destined to be gated and fenced off sometime so best to go there whilst one still can.

We looped round through the vineyards back towards the track along the river without further incidents, passing the ancient spring which once provided water along an acequia to ships on the river for delivery to Portimao and onto donkeys for transport to Lagoa and Estombar. 

Le Maître H C-B at work

et le résultat

 Then with rumblings of complaints about impending starvation caused by the elapsed time of the walk we hastened back to the carpark.  Yves and Dina were in a hurry to be homewards but there was a move by most of those who remained for chicken and chips at nearby Valdemars. Our dear Leader rebelled at this on the grounds that he always went out to dinner on Wednesdays and that there was every likelihood he would be dining there as well, so he was going to repair to the Bar Chapim..as advertised. (as a footnote he would take this opportunity of saying he is not entirely in accord with this fairly recent habit of full menu lunches instead of the original tostas...this seems to have emanated from the Lagos Bubble possibly as a result of their stated inability to 'stroll´ any longer!).

In the event it may have been no bad choice...the tostas and the sandes alternatives were of prime quality 

and Maria, of course, knew everybody else in the establishment, which happened to include the beguiling Vanessa...so maybe,Yves, you are actually not the only one with her mobile number.  One of the other friends of Maria had with him yet another most eye catching young lady. She it transpired was a fadista, or romantic vocalist as she seemed to prefer, and to prove her vocal, and indeed visual, provenance she deposited her mobile (Huawei suspiciously) on our table tuned in to  a visual recording of her goodself in full flow.  Surely a heart and maybe body warming climax to a not uneventful outing which at just over 12 kms may suggest the Silves Bubble at any rate may still wish to consider themselves, as long as they can anyway, 'strollers'!

The eye-catching fadista also proved to be a competent fotógrafa when she took this picture against the light...

Finally, down to earth with the statistical evidence... 12.27 kms in just over 3 and 1/2 hours

Roderick Frew