WAGS 01.01.2020 - First of the Decade
The call went out but few responded!
"Old men (and old women) forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But (s)he’ll remember with advantages
What feats (s)he did that day: "
And so it was, on the first day of the new decade, a small and hardy group of WAGS arose (relatively) early and gathered at our residence in Lagos, for the traditional arming (with caffeine) for battle. Limbs were still sore with the rigors of 2019. Indeed Maria had only finished dancing at 0530, yet here she was, propped up by our finest Nespresso at 0930!
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;(and sisters)!
It only remained to chant the mantra:-
And gentlemen (and gentlewomen*) in (insert location here) now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods (and feminine virtues*) cheap whiles any speaks
That WAGged with us upon this New Year's Day.
(NB * - Shakespeare was not conforming to today's stringent sexual equality requirements - hence the edited additions).
The First Footers: Maria, Hazel, Geraldine, John, Myriam, Paul
.We set off, at 7 minutes past 10 in the time-honoured fashion. The intention was to complete our rural tour of Lagos work off the necessary calories, and return to the Happy Sumo for a Belt-Straining, All-you-can-eat Japanese lunch with Chinese Characteristics, thanks to the owners, Myriam]'s latest BFF, a nice couple from Shantung, China. To be fair I hadn't reccied the exact route I proposed, but I sincerely thought it was about 10 km - and it would have been except for the first 1.5 km and the last 1.5 km. 13 km in 3 hours was always going to be a tall order, even for such a select group, but we tried and increased our pace to 'brisk', and achieved the 13km in 2 hrs 55 mins (moving time) and 3 hrs 18mins (Total Time), arriving at the Happy Sumo at 1325 hrs.
For the record here are the Garmin Stats:
According to John's instrument we climbed 420m..but the Garmin only recorded 239 of them!
and John's graphic of the track, which shows how much of it was rural.
The final destination.
The others were changing into traditional Post-WAGS dining dress..
Geraldine lent some scale to the work........
.........and the butterfly from last year.
After this we had views from Cerro de Mos, before descending to the rural leg, west of Continente, where we found that Banksy de Lagos had been active.
Lagos tribute to Mannekin Pis
Life imitates Art
and a group photo:-
Next obstacle was The Tunnel, which is normally flooded at this time of year, but luckily only a little mud for about 5 metres at the entrance which was straddleable.
Exiting the tunnel
All safely through without creaking knees nor backs.
A friendly shepherd, Daniel, and his lovely Rafeiro Alentejo called 'Perigoso'.
The extra Prickly Pear
We made our way up through the manicured gardens and greens of Boa Vista Resort.....
....but as you can see the palm beetle had taken its toll.
Soon we were past the rich man's playground and heading for the Obelisk above Luz.
Myriam sequestered a new 'friend' into taking a group photo.
Just a little too hazy to see Hotel Navegador in Sagres, but the finest day of the decade (so far) for walking.
Luz expands every year!
Estimating ETA Happy Sumo. Need to accelerate!
Hitting top speed - line abreast. If you look back at the Garmin Stats pic. you will see a new window - max speed!
A new Algarve wine perhaps!
Last descent to Porto de Mos Car Park
From here it was just a forced march back to the restaurant and downhill after the valley. An unduly long outing for the WAGS but one has to start the year, nay the decade, off well. I was suffering from old injuries and Hazel is still in recovery from her foot injury, but bore up gamely. Maria managed to stay awake but restricted herself to one black beer; John had a nice refreshing half-bottle of red, Geraldine a Ginger Ale, and I a bottle of Sagres finest non-alcoholic beer. Myriam of course imported her own tea from China, while Hazel was driving and stuck to water. Altogether it was less than €15 per head.
It was lucky we had burned the extra 3 km worth of calories, as the 'All you can eat' menu at the happy Sumo has 104 choices and we were so hungry we made a good stab at most of them. Top favourites were the edame beans, the prawn tempura and the sashimi though the chicken, beef and squid skewers had a good uptake as did an interesting seaweed dish..
Edame beans
Prawn tempura, squid rings and skewers
Sesame noodles with vegetables
A good selection.
Geraldine went for the sour and hot soup
Sushi - of which there were many varieties
Fairly replete by this stage.
Nice fresh sashimi
It's like teaching your grandpa to suck beans!!
A good feed!
And the finale......
Hot sesame balls!
Myriam constructed the cappucino of the decade for Hazel:-
Frothy coffee.
It may seem strange that when a high percentage of the population are resolving to cut out or cut back on a lot of things that they enjoy, that more WAGS were not moved to start the year as they intended.
That we had such a blow out, however was entirely in line with my own principles - earn what you eat!
I never make New Year's Resolutions - I prefer to express New Year's Intentions . If one falls off a resolution, it is generally seen as a failure and very easy to give up. However if it is an 'Intention' then as the saying goes 'One blow-out doth not a glutton make!', and you can continue your intention to do more, eat less or be nice to your other half, and you only have to average out better than last year to have fulfilled your intention.
Intend to keep walking and do it!
A good New Blog for a new decade!! And a jolly first walk and lunch of this decade! Let us all walk together into the next decade!!
ReplyDeleteAm I alone in thinking that it is not yet a new decade? The first millenium began with the year one, not the year dot. Ah well! The battle against the use of the word"hopefully" to mean "I hope" was lost; so too will this one, I fear. But mere pedantry can´t spoil a brand new Blog, even if we can´t yet master it lay-out. An excellent walk to start the year and a great lunch at the end. And if the WAGs can ever exceed the moving average speed which my up-to-date SatMap gizmo recorded(4.5 kph), I will be very much surprised .
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