WAGS 11.01.2023: A Flat Walk, In The Rain

 A flat walk of about 10 kms was what Ingrid promised; and that what what she delivered. She had made no commitment as to the weather but, even so, had the foresight to bring as many as three ponchos with her and thus was able to offer cover to some of the less well-prepared. Aren´t we lucky to have leaders like her. We are also lucky to have reporters who can step in whenever "volunteered" and produce off-beat and off-the-cuff reports such as this from Yves:-

« It will rain at 10.00 » said the Oracle, aka Hilke who knows a weather forecast when she sees one!

Let’s not be finicky about small details: at 10.03, wet and cold water fell from the sky; it was broadly agreed among the gathered geriatrics that this actually constituted rain; that settled, we marched on.

The day had started well: light traffic and only one wrong turn towards a ‘market place’ that had no market, much to the surprise of the driver; never mind… Having re-joined the throng of Geriatrics and suitably booted up, we gathered for the traditional starters’ picture with one addition: a local lady, very chatty and the proud owner of a dog called Benfica! Why not? The writer’s goldfish is called Paris Saint-Germain.

The Starters:- JohnH, Ingrid, Yves in red bandana, Myriam, Maria, Lady owner of Benefica, Hazel, Hilke, and Geraldine.

As we made our way up the gentle slope out of the village, the question WAS popped to Myriam: ‘Why was your cruise cancelled?’

Aieee! Watta mistake to maka!
It took a while and a considerable amount of ‘mental location pins’ to match Lisboa, Porto and Vigo to the various time-marks of the process, suffice to say that some did. Exhausted by such intellectual exercises so early on a rainy morning, the bulk of the troop concentrated on avoiding the puddles and the deeper mud on the track.

Geraldine captures a full rainbow

As the wet water stopped falling from above, it was time to disrobe from ponchos and jackets; various umbrellas were stowed in unlikely places (folded!) and we proceeded towards the customs house at a fair if sedate pace: 

Ah, there it is.

we did manage to catch up with the house, eventually.

(Then lots of pictures were taken. Ed)

A Windy Video

In poker terminology, this is either Five of a Kind, or a Full House.

Then the leader, perhaps feeling hungry or wishing to find somewhere warmer and drier asserted her authority and encouraged the trudging Geriatrics to move a wee bit faster: peine perdue! (Note 1). At least she had tried…

En marche

 That attempt at leadership aside, there was a definite stamp of authority in the selection of the mandatory ‘pee(t)-stop’ location: ‘These are the last trees on the trail until the village; do or don’t!” Some did, others looked up and noted that the clouds were getting darker and more pregnant than before, bad news!

 More wet water fell on us; jackets and ponchos were donned again with the help of a breeze from behind: Geriatrics KNOW how to have fun! Wet t-shirts contests are for juveniles; real fights with flailing acres of Nylon and Velcro are what sorts us from them!

In the intervening hours of cool and bracing fun, we had also learnt that far from retiring to the warm confines of Lagos after missing one boat, the intrepid cruisers were going to explore Greece and the islands in the Aging Sea, or the Asian Sea or the Aegean Sea even! There is simply no stopping brave and determined Geriatrics.

We reached the safety of the car-park without losing anyone and the troop separated between the ‘leavers’ and the ‘lunchers’; at this juncture, the baton is passed to ‘them wot wuz there’ to tell us all about tha ensuing bacchanal, sigh… A warm Bifana and a cool Sagres would have gelled soul and body again; maybe next time?

Thank you to all there, the patient leader, the ever-helpful ‘models’ for pictures and the incessant banter! Some things change, the weather for one but the banter remains! Long may your houses leak, or words to that effect in Scottish…(I think he is trying to say "Lang may yer lum reek." Ed) (Note 2)

Now the Story of lunch.

 

A p+re-walk reconnaissance had given rise to the suggestion that, because the Zig-Zag Café was closed for the holidays, we might eat at the nearby O Caravelo snackbar where JohnH had earlier photographed part of their menu. 

Yves, Hilke and Ingrid having left, the rest of us made our way there and found that Antje and Chris had already got there. But they advised that the service was extremely slow and there were no tables available for us. So we never did find out if it was better with small or  sweet toast. Instead we decided to head for Raposeira, just a stone´s throw down the road.

The café there, although somewhat scruffy and few staff to clear previously occupied tables of meal debris, managed to furnish us a table. In quite reasonable time, despite a decidedly unsunny disposition, the host produced quite decent grilled porco preto, frango piri-piri, carapau, and sargo. (Note 3.)

At the end of our meal, we were also joined by Paul who had dropped in for a coffee.

And the sun was now out.

Explanatory notes:-

1. "peine perdue" means "a waste of time."

2. "Lang may yer lum reek" is a Scottish phrase to wish someone well for the future means meaning "long may your chimney smoke." 

3. "Sargo " is the white sea bream, not to be confused with "pargo" which is the red sea bream, nor with "dourada" which is the golden or gilt-head sea bream.

PS. Dina in the Middle East somewhere?

She keeps travelling

Photo credits for this issue go to Dina, Geraldine, Hazel and Yves.

JohnH was so excited to get one of his cameras back from the repair shop (thanks Yves)  that, although he took lots and lots of suberb shots, he forgot to ensure that there was a memory stick inside the camera which there wasn´t, so none were saved.