WAGS 2024 01 03: Pescadores New Year or A Tale of Two C´s.

 

No, not a Tale of Two Cities nor a digression into Charles Dickens, but a Tale of Two Conspiracies.

The first one is the Cat Conspiracy whereby Hazel and the esteemed Silves physiotherapist Alison Hale so worked things between them that, out of the blue, a new kitten arrived at Casa Esperança to provide company, so it is alleged, for the incumbent feline. A Susanna, of course, for Figaro. Suffice it to say, neither your scribe nor Figaro himself were consulted beforehand. No need to say anything more about the matter in these Blogs since one understands that adequate other bulletins are been issued on other channels as things progress to those who are interested.

The second matter of concern might be called the Medical Conspiracy whereby some mysterious mafia so arrange things, primarily but not exclusively, in the medical field so that potential participant WAGs are prevented from attending the walks and/or the lunches because these assorted professionals, be they doctors, physios, osteopaths, Senegalese masseuses, or maybe even people in the motor trade, can only offer their services on WEDNESDAYS !!!! We cannot name names because no names are named but, as is essential with all good conspiracy theories, THEY do exist. And every Wednesday our participant numbers come under threat. 

But a hard core is fighting back and, in fact, this week, fought back quite well. We had six on the walk and eight for the lunch. All is not lost, yet.

And so to this week´s walk, the first one in 2024 an we returned to our old faithful starting point Retiro dos Pescadores where the first of this year´s orange harvests was in full swing and parking near the café was problematic, as a result.

Starters: JohnH, Antje, Maria, Yves, Myriam, and Rod.

The route was along familiar often-trod paths.

It was good to have Yves back with us, in good health, even although he had forgotten his camera, because he was a great help in clearing sizeable obstacles from our path...

It was a drizzly day with anoraks and umbrellas in evidence. Connoisseurs of medronho were rewarded with some good berries, although not quite as juicy as those found three weeks earlier.

A fine specimen

And another

We tackled quite a few hills, then eased off for the long home stretch by sticking to the flat ground.

 

The final hill.

When we got back to Pescadores, Chris was there waiting for us and we took some refreshment there before heading into Silves in search of lunch, all except Yves who took early retirement.

The Track and the Statistics

Movement had seemed rather slow at times, so the 3.9 km average speed in the end is not too bad.

Primavera is not too far a way when Maria can put flowers in her hair.

The Lunch

Hazel and Geraldine found time to drag themselves away from cat attendance duties to join us for lunch at the Plazza Pizza Café Restaurant, reasonable food and prices and friendly service. 

Rod had the soup, of course.

Some had Bacalhau a bras;

and the others had Mão de Vaca com Grão which is basically cow hoof stew. That doesn´t sound especially ínviting but in fact it was delicious.

Obviously the hoof has to be thoroughly cleaned first, with bristles removed with lighted matches and tweezers, and only then the cartilage is ready for cooking. here is a piece of the cartilage - yummy !

All this reminded me of the cartoon character of my younger days, Desperate Dan, the strongest man in the world,

!

not just because he had a very bristly beard which he shaved, when he did shave, with a flamethrower and a lawnmower, but because his favourite food was cow pie.

Then we had the usual choice of desserts including a very large slice of Molotov...

By this time Hazel and Geraldine had had to leave (I wonder why?) so Myriam got an extra dessert

Not at all a bad place for lunch.

Linguistic footnote: "Mão de Vaca," literally "cowhand" is a phrase in Portuguese for a stingy person, somebody who habitually waits for someone else to pick up the bill.

And the closing music this week is chosen by Paul; he has a penchant for piano music, particularly when played by young ladies with short skirts and extra long legs