WAGS 22.04.2020: Quarantine Diaries Week 6

     Today, April 22nd 2020 just happened to be Earth Day.

Google Doodle marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 with an animated graphic and celebrated "our planet and one of its smallest, most critical organisms, the bee." The special doodle features a bee hovering over green surroundings that represent nature.
      The original is an animated interactive game, which you can access by going to 
THIS LINK and opening the Doodle for 22nd April, pressing the start arrow and pollinate away to your hearts content.
Many other interesting Google Doodles are accessible via the above link, commemorating all sorts of obscure and less obscure celebrations. Well worth a visit.
     

  WAGS Lagos Branch, Town Chapter.

   Today we (I) decided on a largely ceremonial walk (para Ingles ver) mainly because I clearly hadn`t had enough time in my TV throne with my legs up, resting from the rigours of last Wednesday, and my left leg was pretending to be much older than my right leg.

A deserted Avenida, and the OnePlus 7 Pro camera has picked out an interesting area of pink sewage in the water.

We set off on a quick round which was hardly interesting at all and shown in these stats and graphic.

The Stats were not so impressive, and even the Garmin would not have inflated it much over 6 km, if I had activated it.

Nevertheless, I believe that Honour was satisfied, and that the deficit from the current WAGS parameters balanced the excesses performed by Rod and John. The time showing at 2 hrs 17 takes into account a little opportunist shopping at the fruit wholesalers where one has to take a ticket and wait outside the door for someone to leave, and a stop at the Indian shop for canela and the hope, (soon dashed), of buying some Sriracha sauce, which is running dangerously low in our kitchen.
        A few items of interest on the way round.

The storks are nesting, even though they no longer have the full support of this palm tree dying of red beetle infestation.

 

A George VI Official Wall PostBox, no longer in active service but appropriated by the owner for his domestic mailbox. I wonder if any unsuspecting tourists have dropped postcards in?

Another cast-iron  Post box in the same street.

A nicely worked calçada octopus guarding the entrance to this street.

One of the nicer entrances through the city walls with an ornate Kiosk/Guardhouse just inside, which in the season mainly sells tourist tat.

A piece of Chinese graffiti, which appears to have been copied and printed from the internet, and which Myriam tells me means 'Kill the Dream'. I doubt it was placed there by a Chinese and I wonder if the person who did so knew what it meant!

A more traditional piece of street art/graffiti, which has a message for we technophiles!

Don't Take the Bait............

and at home, after the shopping I did, hook, line and sinker. The two halves of my subsequent WAGS brunch, a bacon and egg roll. The roll was centeio, freshly baked at Delicias this morning, lavishly spread with KerryGold butter ,with two slices of unsmoked back bacon from Denmark via Iceland, and a free range egg from our local supplier.  All that remained was to add the HP sauce to transform it to a Bacon Manwich, fold it carefully together so that the egg remained on the inside and to take a massive bite and savour the yolk, bacon fat and melted butter running down one's chin!!    O Paradise  enow!.

 I hadn't intended to write a traditional account of our doings this week, rather I was going to follow John's lead of last week and launch into a monogram on a subject that might have warranted discussion had we not been Quarantined for the 6th week. As I suspect there may be several more weeks of this I will perhaps save it for a rainy day.

However, as I contributed and bought the NHS Charity single version of this wonderful song, by Vera Lynn and Katherine Jenkins, I feel justified in including a visual version by Dame Vera and Katherine for your listening (and watching) pleasure.

We'll meet again.

And now over to one of our Silves correspondents.

April 22^nd being World Earth Day, as we have already been reminded, the Silves Gardening Group were out in force on Ilha Rosario Nature Reserve in celebration. The Reserve´s Superintendent did, however, insist that they were escorted throughout their excursion by an experienced wild life expert because one can never be too careful when venturing into the woods. Remember the cautionary words of the old song - "It´s safer to stay at home."

The Gardening Group Meeting Their Escort

Just as well he was there! The canal was totally dry and to fall in could have been nasty. 

And as a lot of work has recently been done to cut back undergrowth along the canal and open up views of the river, there were a masses of fallen canes lying around, perfect camouflage cover, as the wild life expert warned the ladies, for the dreaded Silves python (python molurus silviensis). 

We see no snakes

Of course, the ladies simply laughed this warning off as being one of his extended April Fools – he never gives up. Little did they know what was in store.

The pace was slow because there were many rare flowers to examine, identify and photograph while all the time maintaining strict social distancing.

The Clube Nautico was in lockdown but was being quite philosophical about it.

 Time was also spent the traditional gathering of garlands of the more common yet colourful spring flowers

and then there was time to rest.

There then followed a struggle up to the top of the hill where the challenges to be confronted were swarms of mosquitoes and massed ranks of bee hives. 

The ladies survived these hazards and had started to relax, believing that they were about to return to comparative civilisation, when suddenly the wild life expert´s warning came true – there in a tree dangerously close to their pretty heads was the PYTHON !!

True, it was the Lesser Spotted variety of the reptile, but a python nonetheless. The wild life expert did what was necessary.

After that narrow escape and salutary lesson, a cooling beer at Mira Rio was very welcome (refreshments provided not by the Restaurante which was of course fechado - fermé -closed, but by the aforesaid Nature Reserve´s Superintendent.)

And from Snakes Alive to the more prosaic:-

to the somewhat convoluted path taken by those intrepid Silves Gardeners and the statistics.

I don't know if John was aware, but his 'Wildlife Expert' undertook to submit his version of the Curious Incident of the Snake in the Tree!

Yves wrote:

The Sstrange and ssilly sstory of the Ssilvess Python…

Now, deep in the Ssouthern region of Portugal lies the ssmall town of Ssilvess atop a hill and boasting a very old fortress. Lost in the ssandss of time, BC¹ to be precisse, persissts the legend of the Ssilvess Python

Caledonian bards are fond of re-telling the apocryphal (q.v.) tale of some mythical long-leggetty beastie inhabiting the dark depths of some cold water ponds but Sscience has established that such tales are based upon false perceptions induced by excessive imbibing of the ‘Water of life’.

Be that as it may, these dark tales have jumped o’er Hadrian’s Wall and in time have reached the tranquil city of Noocasstle², like, man! Thuss, it came to pass that when the Bonnie Geordies ventured oot o’toon, like, to the Ssouthern region of Portugal in January and February when the Ryanair fares drop to tuppence each way –Ne’er mind the spare keks, get some dooty-free, man!- they heard the locals disscussing the fauna: “Tudo bem Luis? Look at the tits on that tree out there!” and such³. Ssuch trivial banter led to fierce arguments and so was born the sstrange and ssilly sstory of the Ssilvess Python⁴.

Which bringss us to the true-life incident what happened recently. Unbeknown to many locals and Geordies alike, herpetologissts have long ssusspected the existence of a rarely seen large predatory reptile (a ssub-sspeciess of the colubridal-pythonical-constricting ssnake) feeding mostly on Frogs –the basstard!

That bright morning, slightly overcast but with only 12% prospect of rain, a small group of enthusiasts⁵ set off bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and light-hearted into the uninhabited hinterland of Ssilvess. As they made their cheerful way along empty levadas (q.v.) the more observant among them noted that large numbers of tall reeds had been hacked down and rested in large and untidy piles –it was indeed the untidiness that caught her eye. As she asked casually why that should be case, she was informed that the few locals often re-create the natural habitat of the Ssilvess Python in order to control the joyous and noisily exuberant Frog population –the basstards!

Try as she might, our budding ssnake-sspotter failed to sspot a ssnake: their natural markings mimic hacked reeds perfectly! Sso, she dismissed the whole sshambolic sstory and ssprinted sspiritedly to re-join the resst of the party.

Lo! As the group made its way towards ssome dwellings, observing as they passed some empty javali nessts, the leader stopped in his tracks, raised a sstick and pointed to a tree where indeed, curled up in the ssoothing ssun was a Ssilvess Python, ssnoozing away the exertions of the previous night. He was alone: apparently Mrs. Python was rather hissed off when he ssatissfied his lusst, rolled to one sside and sstarted to ssnore… She prodded him but to no avail, sso she packed her Louis Vuitton ssnake-print bag –‘Alas, poor Ssiegfried, I knew him well’ she lamented, took one last look, sshrugged her sshoulders and marched off…

Sscientific curiosity was ansswered and an attempt was made to obtain a photographic record of the event; watch this sspace, when the negatives are dry, there may even be ssome prints forthcoming…

The party then retired to an accommodating hosstelry that provided chairs but no beer; fortunately a forward-thinking individual had packed the vital nectar just in case and all was well that ended well…

Must dash now and hide: there are some men in white coats coming up the stairs…

¹ BC: Before Coronaviruss;

² Not so tranquil of Friday nights around the Bigg Market when the lasses brave the bracing NE wind wearing almost nowt but a smile, like;

³ Google Translate is not all that ssubtle on occasions;

⁴ Graphic details cannot be recounted here, decency forbids;

⁵ Enthusiasts must not be mistaken for fools who indulge in the same way but at stupid o’clock;

Ssilvess Python at rest…

And just before publish time the WAGS Lagos Branch, Rural Chapter sent a couple of photos,  taken during their morning and afternoon walks with Sasha.

Morning

Afternoon.

 I must say I am a bit worried about Antje and her iPhone - both photos (now edited) were flying right wing low. Unless of course it was an attempt to prove that there was plenty of uphill walking.

EVEN LATER at 2017 hrs on Thursday evening , to be precise, and just before I sent off all that I have so far, Rod managed to find enough leisure in his busy lockdown schedule to send me his ViewRanger Track and Stats, and a hopeful 'Blurb and fotos following tomorrow with luck'

  Rod's Funcho Track

And now its Friday 24th: Rod's script and photos have arrived, superbly formatted and I suspect the hand of Antonio de Montanha in that.

.

WAGS WALK - 22 April 2020

JRF & ASF - NE Funcho

I feel unable, or indeed unwilling, unless I have some particular cerebral provocation, to unload any tenets on the meaning of life, literary allegories or subjective rants on whatever annoys me (of which of course there are many) my contribution this week is confined to the by now somewhat unusual subject of a WAGS walk. How boring you might opine...but then you don´t have to read it!

As the Honkeys were put out to pasture, a glorious spring day beckoned a WAGS outing…

I was joined again this week by Antony now recovered from his back spasms, and strong enough to once more carry and operate his drone which does provide amazing photos.

The casual reader, assuming there are some, may notice that this walk broke no records either in terms of length or speed but with a height gain sufficient to exercise the cardio vascular system. That we took so long (even longer in fact since I remembered to push the pause button on Viewranger a few times) was due to various distractions and diversions. Most of these were to admire the splendid views of Funcho Lake and the surrounding flora and indeed fauna that this relatively short walk affords. 

A brief glimpse of a corço and some flora in the late light of the day.

A further distraction, indeed probably the longest, came a bare 200m from the start. An old friend of Antony´s  had built a house way back in the early noughties in what what was then pretty wild territory....somewhat less now since in the serra opposite an extensive replanting of something or other is evidenced by expensive fencing and comprehensive access tracks.

The house now sadly abandoned shows little evidence of having actually been broken into but the outside facilities have  clearly been used by squatters of some sort. Sad really. But a subsequent contact by Antony confirmed it was still his but a number of misfortunes in life caused him to abandon it for some time but he was now intending to renovate it....good luck to him; some job!

From there it was a steady climb circling round the hills and opening up ever changing views of the lake and serras all the way to Picota and Foia with  foregrounds of  plentiful flowers now at their springtime best.

We swung further round hillside and the main body of the lake hove into view. This gives a panoramic view of the far side of the lake and the track along which we have many times walked right up to the bridge at the head of the lake where the R Arade enters.

Some aerials of our walk…

Whether its a good thing  or not, depending on your point of view, there has been quite a lot of construction activity going on in the way of property improvement and in particular a large area which would appear to be an impending camping site. The south side where we were continues to be undefiled, but cleared with the obvious intention of encouraging the numerous cork trees to prosper.   

What appears to be the development of a campsite on the northern shore.

Only one house has been attempted along the southern stretch and that appears to be largely abandoned.....along with its boat, which would never have been legally allowed on these waters anyway.

Noah agua sufficiente

Shortly after this, in the entrance to a side track, we came upon a Toyota masquerading as a VW Camper van, recently parked clearly, with windows ajar and a large fishing rod lying alongside.....no sign of life! We contemplated looking in the window but decided social distancing discouraged that and if there was anyone asleep within then we left him undisturbed.

Up the next hill and round a further bend appeared the architectural masterpiece of Henley Welch Jr.   It was clear from an open door, that an occupant was at home. The barking dogs eventually brought the master of the house himself to the door to see what the fuss was all about. We were considerably further away than social distancing demanded, outside his boundary indeed, so identifying ourselves required a shout or two.  The ensuing chat took up some time of course, and he was informed that were it not for social distancing, we would have invited ourselves in for a beer.

There was little else to distract us after that, save a beautifully crafted well dated 17.07.2005....so back to the car and homewards.

And with that rather abrupt ending, Rod and Antony signed off.

And I too will sign off with this rousing piece.

 Start thinking about next week's outing, always keeping our motto in mind

“In solis sis tibi turba locis”.