WAGS 2023 12 13: Standards Restored, Or Honey Café On Ice

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 Perhaps it was the slightly wintry weather, or maybe it was just that a fully restored Rod had decided that enough was enough, but this week´s outing saw the end of indeterminate 5 or 6 kilometre strolls masquerading as "walks" and a return to proper WAGS parameters of distance, speed and time. The Leader reports as follows:-


 Quite a cool morning, but bright and dry when we met at Montes de Cima's Honey & Café establishment.  Present were Antje, John, Hazel, Geraldine, Tanya, Maria and Rod.. as seems to be the norm these days the ladies were once more in the ascendancy. Off we set along the usual track past the now quiet Casa Palmeiral with its distant memories of Patricia's  Christmas and other lunches.  We opted out of taking the high road past our Medronheiro growing friend, and we opted out, too, of going though the race track perimeter, although the sound of high revving engines indicated something was going on, before turning off to the right through the old cattle farm. 


 Old it may be but there was quite an extensive herd of cattle ambling around, enough even to cause some apprehensive murmurings amongst the assembled group...particularly since there were a number of young calves around. 

"I will not be scared." Tanja
 The most we received was a curious glance however so on we went unmolested.  

Just curious, or....?


Antje leads the hunt for mushrooms

"Ah! There´s a big one."



"No, wait. Don´t touch it."

 We wandered on northwards up to the head of the valley to the point where we had an option as to whether we could take a shorter route back  or continue  the loop around to the far side of the parallel valley. 


At the head of the valley



Somewhat unusually we chose the longer version...maybe because there was no serious pressure this week on lunch reservations and menu choice!  This route follows  the eastern ridge  of the parallel valley and looks down on the results of much activity in the way of extensive clearing and new tracks. All for what purpose remains to be seen. 

Paths going every which way

There was some medronho picking as we went and, judging by the flavour of the berries, this years vintage is going to be excellent.




Rod teaches his advanced Cha Cha Cha technique

Maria picks a tree for Tanja



The return leg was uneventful and we were back at the Honey Café soon after 13.00 where after a while we were joined by Chris and Myriam who had just abandoned Paul to the mercy of his physiotherapist.  Whilst not aspiring to Michelin menus, the café produces excellent Tostas and Bifanas and is always a good place to stock up on honey if that is your wont. Interestingly, the walk recorded 10k in just over 3hrs, achieved, compared to last week's 6.4k, by halving our stoppage time and increasing our average moving speed by 0.5 kph and taking only 20 mins longer overall....well maybe we were a bit more knackered at the end!

The Track and the Statistics




The Lunch

At first we sat outside in the bright sunshine.......



but then there was some solicitous concern expressed that the wind was too chilly for comfort and we all moved indoors.



"Ah ! That´s better."

The tuna salad looked a good choice


The tosta mista with extra cebola went down very well


and there was a tuna sandwich


a refined papo seco bifana


and the more robust pão caseiro bifana


all of which hit the spot.

and, yes Baby, it was cold outside.

















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