WAGS 2025 02 19: Return To Mira Rio

It was a pleasant day for walking with the wind coming from the east and so keeping the Atlantic rains at bay.  

 Six of us met up at Mira Rio, with Rod there especially early to do the honours with the 9.30 coffees. 

 The Starters were JohnH, Myriam, Lesley, Rod, Maria and Hazel. When we set off promptly at 10.00 hrs,  we could see that the old ruined house belonging to the restaurant family that we had watched getting slowly restored over the past two decades  or so was now occupied, and decorated with traditional blue colouring plus the not-so traditional Mercedes Benzes.

We walked along the canal and, for once, did stop at the Ilha da Rosario miradouro as we used to in the old days for a group photograph.

 

The gardening enthusiasts then admired a blooming bush and then enquired on WhatsApp what it was. Quick as a flash, Paul who had not previously revealed the extent of his horticultural expertise, came back with the answer that it was Roldana Petasitis also known as the Californian Geranium. Lindsey confirmed that he was indeed correct with his identification.  

Then this picture appeared in the WhatsApp, the Spiny Flower Mantis, aka Pseudocreobotra Wahlbergii. Not sure how it got there, but Yves chipped in to say how lucky we were to have seen it and to have photographed it. Well, I don´t think we did see it on our walk (although I may be wrong.) The only one of us likely to have seen it before will be Lesley because it is a native of southern and eastern Africa

Moving swiftly along, we came to the Club Nautico where we tried but failed to decipher this painted sign.

The Club and all its sporting and other facilities were closed for the winter.

Even the chairs were chained up and inaccessible. However we did have a rest while Myriam outlined her plans to increase the number of WAGS walkers and diners. Watch this space.

Just as we were leaving the Club, a trio of officials came down the track but they were not interested in us. One man was carrying a bucket, another man was carrying a sampling tube and a stern-looking woman was wearing a hi-viz jacket as symbol of authority. They had come to take a test sample of the river water. This did not take them long and then three of them drove away, each separately, one man in a water authority car, the hi-viz lady also in a water authority car, and the second man, incredibly, in a Sixt Car hire rental vehicle.

Maria could not believe it -on e sample, three officials and three cars. But rules is rules - one takes no chances of cross-pollution with water samples,does one?

But then we had other things to think of, the first of which was the ascent of the steep hill leading up to the Cerro da Rocha Branca that our Leader was determined to inflict on us. In fact it was Rod who showed us how, scampering up the slope like a teenager despite it having been his eighty-somethingth birthday just the day before. When he did pause, and we were able to catch up with him, we admired the view and speculated on the use of the fields in the distance. Rod opined that they had been rice fields at one time and this is in fact corroborated by the Carta Militar de Portugal which describes them as "Arrozal. Terreno que cobre e descobre."

Further up the hill, at the spot called Atalaia, we were able to study a large threshing floor, the second such floor in two weeks.

Then it was simply a matter of going gently downhill, passing through Vale de Lama village where there was some free fruit on offer, and so back to the Restaurante in reasonable time for lunch. 

Track and the Statistics

Nothing out of the ordinary.

The Lunch

Carapau very much on the menu; I think that there were three different carapau dishes to be had.

We had Carapaus Alimados

and Carapaus com favas.

The carnivores went for the frango and the costeletas.

Rod abstained from food, even from his usual soup, have dined sumptuously the evening before.

There was the customary high-class and intellectual banter throughout the walk and the lunch, what with Biblical and Shakespearian references, with Myriam receiving a gentle ribbing from Rod.

and we were given a preview of Antony´s Burns Night photographs too.