WAGS 26.02.2020: A Walk of Two Halves

      I had prepared a walk using Google Earth starting at the Hello Goodbye Car Park above the Barragem de Bravura and to the N and E, over about 9+ km  The problem with GE recces is that you never quite know what undulations you will have to surmount, and whether it will remain within the criteria, or whether it will prove to be NSFW (Not Suitable for WAGS). As I was mentally rehearsing the route the night before, I decided to check on ViewRanger, and there it was - a route in the same area submitted by an English walker, John Leeming, a circular of about 8.5 km on the map, graded 'Medium'.  I thought it would be good to try to follow a route on the App for the first time, so determined to go for this one.
    In hindsight there is below the track map a full description of the walk. What I hadn't read is that in the middle of the walk, the description lightly states " In due course you come to an extremely steep section, looking almost vertical." And, Reader, it was. And we were totally unprepared to ascend Mont Blanc in the middle of a WAGS walk.

The Approach to Mont Blanc

After the walk I passed the track of my first intended walk over to Rod who looking, at a glance, pronounced that it was very similar to a walk we had done before (but that I hadn't been on it) and there were some undulations indeed.

   Anyway back to the walk on the day. The instruction was to meet at Cafe Lopo (depending on how you pronounce it Lo Po means 'Old lady' in Cantonese, or more commonly used to refer to a wife of long standing)  in Odiaxere opposite the windmill, at about 0900 hrs to move to the barragem car park at 0930 to start the walk. Only a few of us made it for coffee, some turned up at 0930 and were disappointed to find us heading for Bravura, and Janet and Peter went direct to the start before 0930.

     An above average quorum of 13 and Becky and Sasha were there for the Starter photo.

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

  I immediately lost 3, Antje, Chris and Peter, who opted for a WWWAGS Walk (Walking Wounded WAGS) having seen my intentions, and Janet decided that discretion etc. after about 200m and turned back to join them. Now we were 9 and I had become the holder of the unenviable record of Leader who has lost most WAGS within a minute of the start, weighing in at 30.77% Lost In Action.  If any leader disputes that claim and has lost more then please submit proof in the Comments section!

   This walk turned out to be a walk of two halves, metrically, and 1/3 to 2/3 chronometrically. The first almost 5 km was down hill on tarmac, and accomplished in a tad over an hour. The second almost 5km was  mostly on earthen paths and included not only Mont Blanc, but also an attempt to do Le Tour de Mont Blanc, which proved more difficult than the real thing and resulted in a volte face, and the ascent, and took a bit under 2 hours.

The first half - downhill.

Soon we came to the left turn at the bottom, still more tarmac but a change of colour as far as the pumping station.

Maintaining close formation........

.......along the aqueduct which replaced the river in this section and which was finished in a newish waterproof quality lining.

From the pumping station we went on to an earthen track and there were 8 information boards over the next kilometre, sponsored by Lagos camara. Unfortunately they had neglected to specify anti-uv coating and those that faced the sun were brown and unreadable.

3 out of 8 still legible!

Then we reached the real scenery.

This looked like an abandoned squatter camp. We didn't inspect the motorhome for corpses, but this was part of our attempt to avoid the big climb.

Myriam was asked what she thought about the ascent of Mont Blanc!!

The going got a bit rough however, and we reluctantly opted to return to the main approach to Mont Blanc.

Hazel did a bit of flower photography - some wild wisteria......

........ and mimosa.....

....before posing at the stepping stones.

Who needs stepping stones.

Some tak the High Road.........

........and some tak the Low Road!

Yves refused to throw himself headlong into the stream to provide the paparazzi with the picture of the year, but very nearly made it anyway.

And then the slog up the hill.

John summitting.

Terry and Jill won...

Steep ..... or what!

Hazel taking a break and view of the dam from the top.

No time to dally as stomachs were rumbling in the anticipation of bifanas and TMs so we headed down back to the east side of the dam. I took an executive decision to take a short slightly steeper path down rather than the original tortuous loops described by John Leeming.

Yves who had somehow fallen to the rear in his pursuit of artistic photographs, was worried about the bifanas running out, so attempted to make haste to catch up.  However he was foiled by two ladies who insisted on a picture..........

........and then continued to block his progress by stopping to pick flowers. By this time the vanguard were almost approaching the cars.

Once over the dam they took the shortcut up to the rear of the Hello Goodbye cafe, which was still not open.  The barragem is very low, and rains do not seem imminent. Meanwhile UK is battling severe flooding and snow storms!

   And so back to Cafe Lopo where we were greeted warmly by the proprietor and his staff,  and food to order was served quickly and efficiently, in stark contrast to last week.

Chris, Antje and Janet were at the Cafe when we arrived, having done their own walk on the barragem path. Peter had gone and Janet didn't stay long.  Hazel dispensed some fine €1 avocados for charity.

A fine bifana with tomato.......

....... and an impressive TM with tomato for Rod.

 Hazel and Myriam went for the veal stew to avoid cooking in the evening

and the spare chips went down very well with the men and Sasha.

Yves guarding his bifana with a fourchette. (look that up in Wikipedia!!)

Myriam sleeping, Rod admiring his new colourful Tilley T4MO-1 with HyperKewl evaporative technology, and Paul demonstrating the cucumber sandwich method of eating a bifana'

and of course a profile of the proud owner of the Best Hat in The World.

The Stats:  As it was a ViewRanger walk, I followed it on the App, and amazingly it recorded our own version as I walked.

Garmin had it slightly differently:

a bit more distance and a higher moving speed.

Consensus was that it was a reasonably taxing walk, but we would prefer to avoid the lengthy tarmac downhill for the first half,  (and the mountain in the second half),  although I personally enjoyed it as a warm up and was glad that we did it first and not at the end as the author of the route had .

And as is now becoming a Bloggers bonus, a little ditty that could sum up the WAGS refrain after a long hard walk and a good lunch

    Show me the Way to go Home