WAGS 29.01.2020: Sta. Margarida Undulations

              



   With the Hopes, Yves and Maria back on the track, and Terry and Jill leading, we had a reasonable turnout of 9 despite Myriam's absence through an unidentified viral/bacterial infection.  Indeed, we were only mildly concerned about her contact with three Chinese tourists at the Adega Marina in Lagos less than 2 weeks before, who shook her hand and breathed, maskless, in her vicinity, as she assisted them in the intricacies of the Portuguese menu. She had omitted to ask them if they were in fact from Wuhan, so we were still pending diagnosis and whether to quarantine the present walkers after contact with me.

 Starters: Paul, John, Maria, Rod, Hazel, Yves, Jill, Geraldine, Terry and Beccy

        We gathered at O Folclore in Alte for the traditional coffee ceremony, and discovered that they were not only planning some tasty pratos do dia, but that they would be prepared to rustle up some TM's for those that eschewed a full vitamin lunch.

     Pleasantries duly observed, we clambered into two cars, and went to Sta Margarida - the start point. John took the starter photo in the layby with Sta Margarida in the background.

   We set off and I was rather alarmed as Terry strode ahead down the road which descended fairly abruptly into a valley. It was a long way down, and inevitably we would pay for it on the way back.
If you examine the detailed stat breakdown below, you may note that in a 3+ hour walk, we spent 1 hr 12 minutes going uphill, 1 hour 4 minutes going downhill and only 53 minutes flat!

John whiled away his time by taking some nice panoramic photos.

It all looks fairly flat but don't et appearances mislead you!!

After about half an hour or so we reached the bottom of the hill, and took a turn towards Conqueiros.

Still on a good surface we carried on........

Disrobing stop

Maria returning from a private moment....

Terry found a nice bit of offroad.........

......and even an obstacle to negotiate.

Conqueiros was a beautifully kept, clean and quiet village which appeared to be deserted.

Like a film set.

Back out in the country, a flock of diverse sheep had cleared a patch of all vegetation.

....and then the long uphill to the ridge. I'm sure they took a short cut!

A tremendous old carob tree, which stimulated a discussion on the derivation of 'carat' as a measure of gold.  We agreed that the weight of a carob seed was derived from another language, and used as an equivalence of weight for gold or gemstones, but were slightly at a loss to explain how it then came to be a measure of the purity of gold.
     Back home I resorted to the Online Etymological dictionary q.v.

carat
mid-15c., from M.Fr. carat "measure of the fineness of gold" (14c.), from It. carato, from Arabic qirat "pod, husk, weight of 4 grains," from Gk. keration "carob seed," lit. "little horn" dim. of keras "horn." Carob beans were a standard for weighing small quantities. As a measure of diamond weight, from 1570s. The Gk. measure was the equivalent of the Roman siliqua, which was one-twentyfourth of a golden solidus of Constantine; hence the word took on a sense of "a proportion of one twentyfourth" and became a measure of gold purity (1550s). Eighteen carat gold is eighteen parts gold, six parts alloy. It is unlikely that the classical carat was ever a measure of weight for gold.

So that clears it up!

A bit further on we came through a hamlet signed as Terca which was a junction on GR13, Via Algarviana, but not marked on Google Earth.  If you look carefully at the sign next to the Terca road sign you can make out a VA marker. Terry and Jill relaxed while waiting for stragglers.

On our way back in to Santa Margarida, ( a final uphill)we met a local lady out collecting firewood. She graciously refused all offers of help to carry the wood, but failed to prevent Yves capturing her character on his phone.

A short pause when we arrived back at the cars to sort out tracks and stats and we came up with this:

Garmin:-

and a total ascent of 273m.

My Viewranger had it thus:

with these detailed stats:

You can see the long steep descent at the beginning  followed by the climb and then the sting in the tail.  Stretching WAGS limits and no prizes for speed' but nevertheless a pleasant outing, and many thanks to Terry for introducing it, as I for one had never done the bulk of it before.

   We drove back to O Folclore arriving just before 1330 hrs, luckily in this season, not crowded and all pratos de dia still available.

Rod, Yves, Terry and Jill opted for the snack menu and Tosta Mistas and were banished outside by our lady hostess, as not suitable to share the VIP dining room.

The Gourmet WAGS Dining Society were seated with full ceremony in the dining room, and a long wait ensued for food to be cooked to order  - two frango, rice and chips and  and 3 Coelho rice and chips.
   The long wait told on those without games to play on their phones, and they had to hold desultory conversations.

Meanwhile the other side of the table was much happier!!

....Maria enjoying a black beer with a good head - among other things!

Outside, things improved with an accelerated arrival of the TM's

which were pronounced (between mouthfuls) to be very good.......

although they manged to keep their joy confined!!

Inside we were filling up on bread and olives while waiting for the rabbits to be skinned,,,

         

  The Coelho

When it did arrive it was well worth the wait, piping hot and cooked in wine with among the best chips in the Algarve.

The Frango

A very enjoyable lunch and almost worth struggling round the walk.

The blog would not be complete without colourful pictures of John's bloomers.....

......and Hazel's bush....

Perhaps Lindsey can identify them - if she can manage to comment.

Also looking for an identification of this fruit, which Maria bravely sampled and reported that it tasted a bit like apple, but the leaves were not similar to apple nor marmelo.

And a final thought:--

STOP PRESS: Just in time, as I was about to circulate the blog, Terry's Leader's report arrived and so as not to break the flow of my colour commentary, I include it below in toto and only slightly edited for facts!!

Well the end of the first month January. The UK leaving the EU, England Cricket team winning the test in South Africa, the Six Nations Rugby 🏉 starting this weekend, and the Wags still getting the walks in, after last weeks two day walk it was back to more mundane stuff with a walk from Sta Margarida, even so no walk can start without the obligatory coffee ☕ taken in “O Folclore” plus arrangements made for lunch, Once this was completed we drove up-to Margarida to start, walk we have done before but with the odd tweaks to try to keep everyone happy, one small stream to cross and not too wet under foot, a long climb up-to the ridge along the ridge to come down to the Vale de Vinagre wandering back the tracks to Margarida, all the tech bits came out at 11.5k so all happy with that. Lunch was calling while those having Prato do dia were allowed to sit inside the Tosta lads and Ladies had to sit outside!! 

never mind it was warm enough to so, the Tosta’s were ok and rumour has it the Prato’s likewise. All in all a good day, now we have to find something else to talk about post Brexit, thanks to all who walked. Terry