WAGS 19 06 2024: And Rod Took Full Advantage

-


 ....full advantage of the "unseasonally cool weather" in leading us on a longer and hillier walk compared to those we have recently become accustomed to.


The Starters at the Honey Café, sitting down to preserve energy before the start. Here is Rod´s report.

A bonus walk, given that last week was billed as the final one of the season, but given the unseasonally cool weather that day it seemed a waste not to use it appropriately. In any event John & Hazel, Maria, Leslie and Rod, Antje having pulled out at the last minute, punctually turned up at the Honey Cafe. It was immediately apparent that Rod had an ulterior motive for the location as he came in armed with a large stainless steel container which he explained was his honey pot requiring a refill.

Anyway off we set up the customary track towards the autódromo.  Nothing much to report here ...little has changed in recent months. We admired our friend's  medronho plantation up the other side of the valley but he did not seem to be there so avoided the temptation to pay him a visit. We paused briefly to admire the rear of the seemingly empty race track hotel and in the absence of any noise emanating from the track there seemed little point in going any nearer. We  therefore immediately swung round to the northern hills. This was towards a circuit  most of which we had done many times before but this time in an anticlockwise direction. We took a slightly different route to get there and on the way admired another splendidly kept medronho plantation....competition for our friend indeed.

Part of that other well-maintained medronho plantation
 The consumption of medronho liquor must be going up for there is little else one can do with the fruit...or maybe there is! So we continued on our merry way...always good views and always different when you admire them from the other direction! And the hills, of course, come in different places!  


The Ladies practised their limbo techniques



Leslie spotted a raptor high up above



 Still, all was navigated without any particular complications but by the end it was warming up and completing what was only a couple of hundred meters or so under 10k was probably enough for the day. 

The old lavandaria

Blood was shed, as in the old days

Maria found a substitute trig to climb

A necessary cooling-off pause

The Honey Cafe is run by a lovely family and their snacks, particularly the tosta tropical, are up amongst the best. The Honey is pretty good too and €105 for 15k well worth the effort of carrying it! Given the heat in the last day or two, maybe this really was the last one of the season...well let's see!

The Track and the Statistics




The Refreshments




Possibly a bifana

Hazel´s tuna sandwich

A burger on a stick ?

and now for the renowned Honey Café tosta tropical. People travel miles for this.


Let+s look inside. Oh my ! What delights! 



The Closing Music

The last one in the sequence of walking music, since this is, as far as this Blogger is concerned, the final WAGS Blog of the season.. It is up to you whether you wish to enjoy it with the audio on or, following Paul´s customary constructive recent criticism, with the audio switched off. It´s entirely up to you.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WAGs 2025 04 23: To the Pier´s End and Back

-
Image
  A good day for walking. Here is Antje, the Leader´s report On a sunny day seven of us met up for coffee at Lagos railway station cafe Waiting for  Chris and Antje’s  arrival were the prompt Maria, John, Myriam and Paul; Lesley soon joined us. We drove to Meia Praia station and walked from there on the road through the golf course to the lagoon. The Walking Wounded Does anybody understand these signs? Dung beetle ? Not like the African ones. "Wait for me !" Once at the lagoon, Chris, Paul and  Myriam, the latter having just had surgery on her wrist, left us to return to enjoy a coffee at Bar Quim on the beach.  We, the remaining four, then walked on to the  end of the beach passing along the  small lagoon which is divided from the oyster beds in the  Alvor river outlet by a walkway (correct word? No. Causeway perhaps). The temperature was perfect with a cool wind  offsetting the warmth of the sun. The views were wonderful and Lesley...
Read more

WAGS 2025 04 02. The Inaugural Meeting of the WAGS Luncheon Club

-
Image
  Minutes of the Inaugural Meeting of the WAGS Luncheon Club Held at Café Silva, Vale Fuzeiros, on Wednesday 2 nd April 2025 In attendance : Frew, R: Hope, J: Lo. M: Newton, M. Apologies: recorded as per WAGS WhatsApp. The Meeting opened at 09.30 hrs. A quorum was declared. Teas and coffees were taken. The meeting then sat watching the torrential rain and listening to the howling gale outside. At 10.30 hrs, more teas and coffees were taken. There was banter. The rain continued. No proposal about venturing outside for a walk was put forward. At 11.20 hrs, Lo, M. proposed staying at the Café for lunch; the proposal was carried nem. con . More teas and coffees were taken. Vismé, P. was summoned by telephone. At 11.55 hrs, Vismé, P. arrived and joined the meeting, which then adjourned to the dining salon. Lunch was served at an all-in cost of Euros 12 per head, the menu including the usual couvert, omelettes, feijoada de porco, vitela estufada, sobremesas, wine...
Read more

WAGS 2025 10 29: Autumnal Thoughts, or The Sere And The Yellow

-
Image
  These blogs have, from their very outset, adhered to two inviolable principles – the first, always to avoid politics, and the second ( as Yves will doubtless testify), never to take the mickey out of the French. However, over these past few weeks, it has become impossible to resist the temptation to override those principles. First, there has been the example of M. Le Président Micron who keeps losing his Prime Ministers and then he loses France´s Napoleonic crown jewels. But we will not dwell on him. Then there was the sight of ex-Président M. N (for Napoleon) Sarkozy, marching off to La Bastille to the strains of La Marseillaise, convicted of trying to borrow money from a dictatorial Libyan called Gaddafi. (For heaven´s sake – no British high-up would ever dream of trying such a thing!) But was that a crime? If so, it illustrates the difference between British and French law. In Britain, one can do what one likes unless there is a law against it; in France, one can only do ...
Read more