WAGS 2025 02 12: Lunch With A Difference, or It´s For The Birds

I had hoped to include a Leader´s report in this blog. A forlorn hope, I´m afraid , because none has emerged. Such a report could have had a few words on the seismic shift in lunch arrangements introduced by Rod, as well as a few words from him on Ian Angus who joined us on this latest walk. 

A walk for the birds ??? Well, theories of the origins of that American phrase are many, one being that it originated with the American forces during the Second World War, but an old colourful one dates back to the pre-automobile era in old time New York, full of horse-drawn carriages, when an impudent young boy kept provoking his very prim and proper mother by asking her "what is all that stuff on the streets?" hoping to get her to say a rather indiscreet phrase but she never did come out and say "it´s horsesh´t", instead she always kept on  saying "It´s for the birds." So it became a phrase meaning something worthless.

Not that the keen gardeners among us would agree. Horse manure is apparently much prized among rose-growers.

 But in using those words in the title, I am not in fact using the Americanism. In no way would I imply that Rod´s walk was of little value. No, on the contrary, I am referring to the excellent opportunities it gave us of observing and photographing the birds at the mouth of the Ribeira de Alcantarilha, now pleasantly full of water thanks both to the recent rains and to the efforts of the environmental authorities who have temporarily damned the mouth of said river to provide a lagoon. A good display by the birds including glossy ibis and mallard, the latter providing a touch of excitement with an impromptu display of their submersible mating techniques

Anyway, we gathered in Armação de Pera at Pedro´s Bar, new to most of us.

The Starters: JohnH, Hazel, Rod, Maria, Myriam, Lesley, Antje and Ian Angus.

Ian has walked with the AWWs and the WAGs on several occasions over the past three decades or so.

Initial progress along the boardwalk was slow because most of us were bird watching.

 Probably mallard. Nice mirror effect, Hazel.

Definitely mallard.

Glossy ibis.

And a flying lawnmower.

Eventually, Rod managed to persuade us to leave the boardwalk and we ventured inland  where the broom was bursting into flower

Myriam was not allowed more than a couple of minutes rest on her armchair. We then studied an old threshing floor

and some of us pondered on the purpose of a strange structure... conductor´s podium? observation tower?

We looked for frogs in waterholes.

Then later on, once back on the boardwalk, we met old friends and erstwhile WAGS, Fabrizio and Samantha - good to see them.

Then it was time for more bird life.

Flight of glossy ibis.

Glossy ibis foraging

 

The Track and the Statistics

The Lunch

 It was indeed a lunch with a difference. Rod had carefully reserved a table for the eight of us plus Chris and Paul, and we all sat down and waited as per usual to have our orders taken. We had menus before us - there was no prato de dia but we we prepared to overlook that on this occasion. Nothing happened for a long time; there were staff visible, serving other customers and smiling at us from a distance but making no attempt to approach us. And so we sat. What was wrong? Then one of the more alert among us noticed that each table had a notice stuck on it  and actually made the effort to read the notice which informed us that that one was required to go to the bar to place one´s order and one was also required to PRE-PAY .

I doubt if in the history of the WAGS we have ever been asked to PRE-PAY before - this came as a real shock to the system... we were well and truly out of our comfort zone. But once reality had dawned on us, that we were up against it, Antje very quickly and efficiently took down our orders , collected the necessary cash, and ordered the food.

Once ordered, the nosh came quickly enough and it was perfectly reasonable.

It´s a Wrap. 

There were tostas and bifanas.

And this was a Pedro´s Special. Under the cheese slice, onion and bacon was 100 grams of prime Black Angus burger. Not at all bad.

and the salmon salad looked impressive.

The house red wine even met Paul´s approval, although some felt that the double (that´s mine on the right) was a few centilitres short of the necessary.

Comments welcome.

POSTSCRIPT

The Leader´s Report did eventually arrive and one can forgive it for being a bit late on this occasion because, obviously, the Leader has spent more of his time and used more of his compositional skills than usual in compiling this one.

Here it is.

!!

John & Hazel, Antje, Lesley, Myriam, Maria, Rod and Ian (Angus..a friend of Rod´s from Spain) gathered on a pleasantly warm and sunny morning at Pedro's Bar in Armação de Pêra. A suitable enough meeting place for coffee if one is embarking on a walk over  the new bridge towards the Salgados wet-lands, which we indeed were. The walk was in part memorable as being one of the rare occasions when the three currently surviving, and still just capable of putting one foot in front of the other, members (Myriam, Rod & Ian A) of the original group of seven who first traversed the Via Algarviana in 1998, still meet.

L to R...  Ian Angus, Maurice Clyde, Ian Cooper, Rod, Mark Harman, Tony Webster and, of course, Myriam (actual height and same hat!)

The bridge means the boardwalk, now fully connected to the town, becomes quite crowded. Furthermore since it is actually part of the Algarve Ciclovia it has become popular with cyclists or, rather mostly these days, E-cyclists. Eschewing bells or beepers,  these guys always seem to think you should know they are approaching...must end in tears one day soon. Having spent a while admiring the plentiful birdlife of the mini-estuary, we left the boardwalk at the first exit,

"We are not going to crawl through that, thank you very much."

 having abandoned the idea of crawling under the wooden railings, and set off on the inland loop we have walked before. Nothing really of note. We were a couple of weeks early for the best of the almost unique forest of white broom in full bloom, but it was pleasing to see that at least the worst of the squatters' rubbish has been cleared. We wandered down the side of the Salgados lagoon but the approach to the central access to the boardwalk was becoming increasingly crowded with school children being lectured on the delights of nature, so on we moved. The boardwalk, now quite populous, provided little of note, until at the turning to Carlos´Beach Bar Restaurante we bumped into Fabrizio and Samantha...Fabrizio, despite arthritis now inhibiting his walking, was as bubbly as always.

After a chat with them, we moved on back to Pedro's Bar. We actually arrived before, believe it or not, the 2 non walkers, Chris and Paul, and then had to wait a short while for our reserved table to become free. Finally seated, it was not immediately obvious how best we should order since the tables were engraved with instructions that orders should be prepaid. Antje showed great initiative in persuading them we were not going to run away without paying and to accept a group order. The payment at the end required a further great initiative, this time from Lesley who bravely offered to collect from everyone enough to pay the joint bill; this is a virtually impossible task, naturally, as at the end there is, of course, always somebody who underestimates their consumption but after much haggling she finally managed to avoid bankruptcy.  And so at this point I would defer to our member of The Guild of Food Writers to describe the actual culinary delights.