WAGs 2025 04 23: To the Pier´s End and Back
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.
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| The Walking Wounded |
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| Does anybody understand these signs? |
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| Dung beetle ? Not like the African ones. |
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| "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 spotted a bird she had not seen yet but her clever app
identified for her. (Probably/possibly a Red-legged Turnover or some such.)
JohnH then sat down while the three lady adventurers pushed on to the very end of the rocky breakwater.
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| Maria caught some marine creature. What was it ? Answers to Maria, on a postcard please. |
Earlier, we had taken a considered look at the state of the causeway when passing it heading for the end of the beach.
We had also seen people’s seemingly easy passage across it so we decided to walk across it to return by
the other side of the lagoon. Well, it was not so easy and your Leader felt very
relieved when everybody had made it across without even a stumble. Some wet
feet were the only casualties.
It then was an easy walk back to the start followed by a short drive for lunch at Tasca da Lota by the station in Lagos where Myriam , Paul and Chris were waiting.
The Track and the Statistics
Incidentally, if you look at the map of the lagoon and estuary, there is a caption which reads "Ria de Alvor, Site of Community Importance." All the more pity that the causeway has been allowed to deteriorate so drastically. It need not be open to vehicles but foot passengers should be able to access it more easily.
Maybe Myriam can get a petition going ?
The Lunch
The Lunch
There were good bits and some not so good. Paul´s suggestion to choose a bottle of the Borba was good. The bacalhau a bras was up to standard with plenty of cod. The belt fish looked fine but I heard nothing to say it was special while the swordfish got low marks for dryness.
The spare ribs gave Paul something to get his teeth into.
The Latest News
As long-term and regular readers of this Blog will know, ever since the Grand Guru Paul founded it goodness knows how many years ago, it has never ever shied away from exposing the truth, however bitter that process may have been. We have had harrowing descriptions of bouts of gastro-enteritis, heart-rending homilies on the callous ill-treatment of innocent guinea fowl, humbling exposures of the pretentions of the lesser rugby-playing nations of this world, as well as uplifting commentary on the increasing excellence of contemporary Scotch Pie artisans.
This week, however, while world news has tended to concentrate on the occasional war, a state funeral or two, a dose of reality from the UK Supreme Court, and of course the ongoing economic maelstrom, there was something special that really should have grabbed your attention and that of the headlines too, which was - something that really took the biscuit - the damning disclosure from McVities that, for the past 60 years or more, we have all been eating their Chocolate Digestives the wrong way.
I have been as guilty as anyone - putting the thing into my mouth with the chocolate side uppermost. How wrong can one be!
The correct way is chocolate side down to eat the digestive. This way, the chocolate starts to melt as soon as it meets the tongue and you get the essential flavour of the biscuit immediately.
As they say, just watch this video or read this Blog, and it may change your life.
Photo credits: Antje, Lesley, Maria.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePity I was not walking on that beautiful day. But Chris, Paul and I had a very relaxing morning at Bar Quim! I did enjoy a lazy-nothing-to-do morning! I even managed to doze off, sitting upright on that not-very-comfortable chair! We moved away from there only to meet the walkers at Tasca de Lote. Lunch was as jovial as always.
ReplyDeleteHow to eat a chocolate Digestive doesn't bother me at all! I only like plain ones!!
What was wrong with Paul’s comment? Always apposite.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI have just learnt , at much cost, that if you leave the comment page to add a quote or some other action, whatever you have written so far disappears into cyberspace. This insight was gleaned after 5 attempts to write a pithy comment in the small hours yesterday, which heretofore have been my most creative moments, although not conducive to accurate typing while laying recumbent in bed with Jasper butting my phone with his head, and attempting to procure my stylus.
ReplyDeleteAnyway to the Blog. Excellent to see at least a temporary return to the original style blog with full report, stats, pictures, and colour commentary, and a separate endpiece on a topic of interest.
First, I think that the 'Pier' in the title should read 'Mole', not least because many years ago I published a Geocache entitled 'Mole Mathematics' based on the numbers of large stones used in the construction. I believe it has since been archived but it is still accessible and during its life was quite successfully solved by the better geocachers.
Next, the beetle which is incorrectly identified as a dung beetle by the CB, and rejoices in the common name of 'pedunculate ground beetle' or more correctly Scarites buparius. There are many sub species of dung beetle all of whom are rounder, shorter and weaponless at the front. They handle the balls of dung, pushing with their hindlegs presumably to get away from the smell of the dung!
Maria's marine creature looked to me more like a man snorkelling in a wetsuit, but when I passed it through Google Lens it identified it possibly as a basking shark, so who am I to pour cold water on the sighting!
Yes the causeway has deteriorated badly compared to when we skipped lightly across as AWW's on previous walks, and I suspect that since the vehicles which were used in the construction of the mole itself , and were the raison d'etre for the causeway, were no longer required, it has been allowed to deteriorate to prevent the great unwashed driving across to access the beach and bespoil the dunes,
On the question of the method of consumption of chocolate digestives , I was very surprised that the CB, a practising dilettante, in his 80+ years on this planet, had not heard of the standard schoolboys approach to the consumption thereof. That McVities had only just released this information is probably in the words of the Donald 'Fake News' and probably more fake than many of his previous assurances. I myself, when I used to be less worried about my waistline, invariably ate the digestive chocolate side down.
I am not sure why John identified the scabbard fish as a 'belt' fish, but I presume it is an archaic Scots means of describing it, though Google translate itself is very confusing on the difference between scabbard fish and sword fish, a totally different fish, which is clearly named on restaurant menus and in the fish market. For me 'Espada' is sword fish and 'espadarte' is scabbard fish of which there are two varieties black and white consumed with alacrity in the Algarve. Belt fish translates as Peixe-cinto, which appears to be a product of the CB's imagination rather than a real fish!
Anyway, enough drivel from me. No one but John, Myriam and I ever go back to the blog to read any comments, unless they read the blog after the comments have been published If you regularly do read the later comments then drop John a WhatsApp message and you may find your fame by being named in the next blog.
Correction, I was wrong! The silver scabbardfish, also known as the frostfish or beltfish is a benthopelagic cutlassfish of the family Trichiuridae found throughout the temperate seas of the world. It grows to over 2 metres in length.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I looked up 'bentHOPElagic' Don't even ask as I may be accused by someone of being derogatory!