AWW 25th February 2015: Towers, Castles and Bridges

 

Terry´s instructions for the walk were brief and unambiguous. Unambiguous, that is, if you don´t quibble too much about the exact meanings of the words “one” “short” and “climb”. Anyway, fourteen stalwarts were persuaded to chance their luck and join him. We were a goodly mixture of  veteran AWWs, the reasonably old and the newer blood. This is what it said “on the tin”.

“Wednesday walk as follows Meet at Funchias/Tor   Time 9.30am  Walk  18 km +/-  all good tracks one short climb (my underlining)chance for coffee at lunch stop. we will walk rain or shine Time 5.5 hours.”

The Starters:  Janet, Dina, John the Cyclist, Ros the Cash, JohnO, Jan, Rose, Miriam, Yves, Maria, Lynn, Ingrid, Hazel, JohnH, and of course Terry the Leader

One Dog: Terry´s well-behaved trainee, Java. 

 The Starters (not including Lynn who´d gone walk-about).

The Track

The Statistics:

Total distance: 17.6km. Total time: 5 h 23 m. Moving time: 4h 19 m. Moving average: 4.1 kph. Overall speed: 3.3kph.Total climb: 518 metres.

Lunch break: 32 m

The Leader´s Report

“We all found the Cafe Funchias OK with its blazing wood-burning fire going well, the lady having a good start to the day with coffees going down a treat, we had a bit of job to get all away from the fire and outside into the cold wind for the start picture.  The sky was blue, sun out just what we needed, I had decided to reverse this walk from last time so that meant a reasonable climb straight away, just the thing to warm us up and get the blood pumping round our getting old but in good nick bodies so I was told.

(The alert reader will have noticed straight away that the “one short climb” has somehow mutated into “a reasonable climb” ! In fact it was a demanding 125 metre upward slog for the first 20 minutes. Have a look at the elevation, as they call it.)

And here´s Lynn, proving that she did start, and pretending to have enjoyed the climb.

“John O hung in there for a 2.5 km and then went back, no doubt  to see if the fire and coffee was still on, I said meet us for lunch which he did.  We headed East along the ridge, Spring flowers making an effort in the cold wind of late.

The banks and braes of bonny Benemola

“Then wending our way down to the river crossing stepping-stones just down stream from the Fonte Benemola.  

The Fonte Benemola Stepping-Stones

“We all crossed OK some cursing but no one fell in, JohnH said “not for me” so the two of us walked up stream a bit to a easier place to hop skip and jump over. (Thank goodness Terry had a Plan B; the hallmark of a good Leader.)

Plan B successful

An easy Hop, Skip and Jump, upstream from the stepping-stones

“Nice to see that this special spot is being managed as best as costs will run to. Oh! it did look as if the Basket Maker is no longer with us all looking a bit sad and run down, and no dogs about.

Almond blossom time

 

And still the hills kept coming

More slogging uphill……….

……and finally up the steep hill into Querença

“We followed the tracks and trails up into Querenca for lunch, it was very warm sitting in the sun for a lazy 30 mins. We did notice all the plastic cows were missing, Roz found out that they had been put away for the Winter but you can look at them on a Thursday, (the mind boggles at the Committee that came up with that). 

Lunch for some

After lunch

Down the slippery path

 

Exploring an old well

“All away for a 2 hour walk back to Tor, (with still more hills) lovely country side where they will build the new golf course mixed feelings on that, hope we can still walk the trails and any jobs go to the locals first, it could be good for the area if done right.

Castle Ombria

“We crossed over the Roman Bridge (so we were informed by Jan) and I led a Tour of Tor through the many back alley-ways to the cafe for a welcome beer or whatever.

“Thanks to all who came, it was a good walk, bang on distance and time with me who has no GPS at the moment. “

Terry A

Yes, thanks Terry, it was a good walk and, if one has to do hills masquerading as little climbs, then it was lovely weather to do it in.

Finally, as Paulo a Pe co-author on the site has reminded me, each blog-post needs a closing quotation:-

"I dreamed a thousand new paths. I woke and walked my old one"  (Chinese Proverb)

Can he tell us what it means?