WAGS 12.02.2020: The Full Meia Praia

Not from the walk, but it was at Meia Praia and I like it!

          Before last week's walk, I had some requests for a comeback walk from those who hadn't walked for a while or were carrying injuries, either shorter or with a dropout, and Antje reminded me that this Wednesday low tide would be at 1043am. What could be easier than a short stroll along our beautiful beach of Meia Praia, and an improvised walk on the way back to round up the standard WAGS 10 km.
           We have lived here 20+ years and I had the firm conviction that Meia Praia was around 4 km in length, so making the 10km might require a slight diversion up to explore the new arrangements at Palmeiras Golf Course. I was wrong!! Meia Praia proved to be 5.25 km along its curved shoreline.

Plus the distance  from our start at the railway station, it looked (as I stood GPS in hand at the mole at the Alvor end) as if we were in danger of exceeding the criteria very easily even if we went straight back. And Dear Reader we did!!

Anyway I am getting ahead of myself.  We had a cracking turnout of 13 WAGS at the start, several attracted by the thought of an easier walk with options. We met at the cafe at the new Railway Station, which is an eccentric place, rather Nationalistic.......

                                                                                                                                                                             ..... and the waiter on duty that day didn't endear himself to we locals by charging €1,50 for an abatanado.  ( the boss had only charged me €1,20 two days before when I did a recce (not of the walk, but to check (a) if they would be open on Wednesday and (b) if they would do us bifanas and TM's )(a) They would be. (b) They wouldn't.  However I calmed Yves a little by pointing out that on the cafe price list, an abatanado was €1,70.
       Sadly these are the things that exercise us these days!

                                                                                                                                                                                                           The Railway Cafe                                                   

It did have a fine display of foreign currency notes, but Myriam felt she shouldn't hand over a few Renminbi notes for the collection, for fear of rejection if they were thought to originate in Wuhan.

                                                                                                                                                                                     John, having done a spot of location scouting, decided it would be more  appropriate to take the starter photo at the old station.

                                                                                                                                                                               L-R Peter, Chris, Antje, Paul, Dina, Rod, Myriam, John, Terry, Jill, Hazel, Janet, Yves


Welcome back to Janet after about a 4 month absence (still carrying a crook knee); Peter too made the trip, Chris and Antje are both walking (slightly wounded) I am suffering silently, as is Hazel, but Rod, Terry, Jill,  Yves , Myriam, Dina and John are in relatively fine fettle. We missed Geraldine, who was a regular the last few months, but has returned to Edinburgh to enjoy the fine Scottish weather and prepare for what may come!  (Any disagreement , please attach a medical certificate to your symptoms and describe them in comments.)

Just before we reached the beach, we passed the famous Hotel for the Lagos Ferry Cats. These are stray cats that have been handed in to the animal charity, Nandi, and are relocated to this area, where volunteers look after them (as much as they need it) and feed and water them on a daily basis.

Cat Hotel

   

                                                                                 
The name derives from the proximity to the small passenger ferry that will save you the long walk from Lagos centre to Meia Praia, for the princely sum of 60 cents in the summer months.

The beach walk was just that. Each walked at his/her own pace and we soon spread out. There were great opportunities for photos.

The tide was fully out.

                                                                       

Flat hard sand.

Looking back towards Lagos

The Old Man and the Sea

Janet, Peter, Chris and Antje stopped at Bar Quim halfway along the beach where Chris had thoughtfully pre-positioned a car. Sasha didn't agree with this decision and continued with the group.

Some subjects the photographers saw on the beach:

The Enemy

Bird Flu?

John took this. Possibly Raja Clavata (deceased) a common species of stingray in Portuguese waters.

The rest made it to the Mole at the far end and were marshalled for this historic photo with the exception of John, who had business of his own on the beach, at the time, maybe photographing the fish above..

 At the Mole after just over 6 km

From here we headed towards the dilapidated causeway, which can no longer be crossed by car, and then round the south shore of the lagoon.

On the way we passed the hugely expanded oyster farm, all high and dry at low tide giving the workers an opportunity to tend the beds.

........and pretty maids all in a row!

We walked near the golf course......

....an unattended commercial enterprise, relying on the inherent honesty of golfers and local walkers.

And so we returned along the north side of the railway line. Antje collected Sasha at the end of the golf course.

After reaching the end of the path, we cut inland and passed the Pease residence, where the incumbents addressed us from their balcony.

And back to the station where we drove to Cafe Bairro where Antje was organising a table for nine......

......and we had more of a welcome than at the Railway.

A different NA beer for Chris and Paul.

Not bad, and brewed in Spain.

A healthy bifana.......

..........Super-size TM with tomato.

Gourmet at work. The TM should be be paired with Lipton's Iced Lemon Tea

As I mentioned towards the beginning, we did run over the WAGS criteria a tad, but it could have been worse. The Garmin recorded :

Total distance :                              12.44 km

Moving Average:                           4.2 km/hr

Overall Average:                           3.7 km/hr

Max Speed:                                    6.8 km/hr

Total Time:                                    3hrs 22 min

Moving time:                                 3 hrs.

The ViewRanger track:

and ViewRanger Stats:

John's satellite version of the track

And just before we finish, an Earworm song that might be totally inappropriate these days, but would make a good Male WAGS anthem.

I can almost hear the shrill squeals of protest, so if any Lady WAGS have a suggestion for an anthem of their own, I will gladly publish it!

Inspiration:

and for those identifying as Penguins or Wounded WAGS:-