WAGS 2024 01 31: Old Pals and Black Puddings

Chapter One.  

Pictures and Commentary by Yves Ferrer (completely unabridged).

1  Pretty bush just to make some cover shot: lazy pic first thing in the morning…

2  Equally lazy shot of sleepy Pêra in the distance…

3  Serious stuff: admiring the Master of Things Electroniques at work; sadly the Master lost that bout, quite narrowly, before reverting to traditional Things Photo-Mécaniques… He was very successful in that endeavour and the Starters’ picture was duly recorded.

4   A late entrant attempted to join the group but the Leader put his foot down with a firm hand: ‘No! No ‘can do’!’ before adding sotto voce ‘The bugger will probably be faster than us…’ I thought that it was a snail but clearly, the Leader knows better…

5   Hardly had we set off that some laggards were lurking in bushes!

6   The light over the lagoon was very attractive and certainly propitious to some bird photography with the means on-board: we were travelling light and heavy cumbersome ‘équipement’ was safely left at home.

7   Surveying the activities of ‘toddlers’ on his Golden Pond…

8   Just a few metres away to the right, the party was in full swing with a variety of birds that budding twitchers will identify for us, probably.

9   Quite why the vanguard of the group dashed ‘en masse’ behind the bushes will be left to conjecture; all will be revealed if that has not been done yet!

10  On the far side of the lagoon, this heron was quite amused by the many walkers and riders sporting binoculars and cameras dashing past while totally ignoring him.

11  The beach, eventually, and an unequal struggle between the sun and the camera flash: the sun winned!

12  However, the camera has a trick up its human slave: move in closer to the young lady and flash! My case comes up next Tuesday…

 Here endeth my contribution; shortly afterwards, some of us got a bit wetter than we wished and had to turn back… 

Cheers, Yves.

Chapter Two.

Leader´s Report  by Rod. Special Portraiture by Hazel.

Salgados Semis.   Upon a request for a flattish walk  a considerable number of  motley past, present and wounded members of AWW/WAGS  gathered  on a lovely spring morning at Café Paradise  Restaurante, entry to which required first getting past a particularly aggressive guard dog in order to get the necessary coffee shot.

 Present, at least to begin with, were;  Antje, Yves, Ros, Sue, John, Hazel, Geraldine, Maria, Jim and Rod. (not necessarily in that order)

We set off, as before,  through the white broom bushes, towards the lagoon.....

pausing from time to time to admire the many birds there. 

However, large expanses of the lagoon were dry, from lack of rain, one presumes.

A local environmentalist shows his concern at the dry conditions

 We continued at a gentle pace  towards the boardwalk. The boardwalk itself was unusually busy....strollers taking advantage of the spring sunshine, enthusiastic athletes stretching their limbs, dog walkers, baby walkers  and the odd cyclists. 

We ourselves ambled along amongst the crowd to the point where we could access the beach and headed towards the firm sand near the sea. 

But no sooner had we set off back along the beach than  Jim's stick sank into the soft sand at the water's edge  and he came a cropper into the receding surf. Somewhat wet, uncomfortable and  frustrated, he thought it better to call it a day. Yves and Rod thought it prudent to escort him gingerly back to the car park area where he could be picked up. And so ended Part One of the walk. Rod  set off at a spanking pace to collect his car to come an pick up Jim and Yves waiting patiently beside the car park  from whence they returned to Paradis Restaurante. The others continued along the beach...at which point the walk report must perforce be continued by the Deputy Chief Blogger! 

Rod

Chapter Three.

Part Two Leader´s Report  by DCB JohnH. Additional photography by Myriam.

And so it was that I found myself totally alone in the company of seven ladies who claimed not to know where they were, and landed by Rod with the responsibility of guiding them back to the Restaurante in time for lunch, time being of the essence, as they say, because Chris Whittle and PaulaDev were due to be there by 1 pm, and we were all aware of their propensity to scoff the best food first should the walkers be late.

"Turn right at Carlos´s Café, go to the end of the board walk, and then follow the usual route home" were Rod´s Part Two Orders as he left me to it.

Well, we made it past Carlos´s Café easily enough and there we had a wee rest.

but we didn´t go to the end of the board walk as ordered, since there were by now one or two sore knees, and so I took a chance and headed across country. As luck would have it, we stumbled on a small path which I sort of recognised from the past and this took us, on a bit of a short cut, in the right direction. 

En route Myriam spotted some conscientious German campers who believed in taking  their used plastic bottles home with them. Applauses.

and I was able to take the group back via the widely-renowned Salgados Graffiti Art Centre.

and so back in good time to the Café where we joined Rod and Jim who were relaxing over a quiet beer.

The Track (reconstructed guesswork)

Distance: probably 6.2 kms.

Chapter Four: the Lunch.

additional photography by Hazel, Myriam and PaulaDev

The menu choices were: 

Boudin Noir - French black pudding. 

Not at all bad. No oat meal in the pudding as in a Scottish black pudding, but the baked apple accompaniment went very well as did the onions and the "smashed" potatoes, to use our host´s description.

Boudin Blanc - French white pudding.

Quite how Hazel managed to get that pic past the censor, when what she said to Rod about the pudding did get censored, I simply do not know, but I heard no complaints about the dish itself.

Cordon Bleu -chicken with ham and cheese filling.

Antje found the filling a trifle meagre.

And then a reasonable selection of sobremesas.

Epilogue.

After lunch, the decision was to take our coffees outside at the front of the building where the sun was. and it was out there that we found Paul auditioning for his Clint Eastwood impersonation and finding new ways to say:-"Make my day !"

But he needed the assistance of two partners for this.

 And how did that one t past the censor? 

and he did all of that on half a glass of red wine !!!

To sum up, not a bad lunch, served with un petit peu de je ne sais quois of Gallic charm, but a trifle expensive compared with our usual venues. Once in a while, maybe.

The Coda

Good to have Ros and Sue with us, casting an AWW Inspector´s Eye over us as they did, to see that we are still doing things proper. Hope we passed the test.

Blog thanks to those who responded to last week´s appeal for more  and varied styles of photographs. Welcome back.

And for the closing music, we will continue with  the "Walking" theme. The response to the last three week´s music choices has been utterly overwhelming - sheer silence -  so I am guessing a bit. Try this one.