Rod led the WAGS walk on 21st September in the environs of the Bravura Barragem. We started at 10 am and finished at the reasonable hour of 1 pm and a wee bit. And so it was that I had got back home mid-afternoon and there I was relaxing, with not a care in the world and nil on the agenda, when I was confronted rather abruptly by a delegation of AWW ladies complaining vociferously about the photography in the recent AWW 20th Anniversary Blog. This delegation of two had actually diverted by some considerable distance from its normal way home in coming back from that day´s proper AWW walk over in Estoi purely in order to confront me in my own den!
If it had just been Janet voicing her disappointment that I had ruined the Alambique group photo for her by sticking my hand in front of her face just as the shutter did what shutters do, well, then I could simply have accepted the blame and conceded mea culpa. (That´s Latin, by the way, for “I´m the first to put my hand up”. In fact, Janet was graciousness itself about that incident.) But this was an altogether different kettle of fish.
The complaint had been lodged with the AWW Police (a.k.a Ingrid) and they were now onto my case. The Police alleged (with some justice, it has to be conceded) that Ingrid had been given insufficient exposure in the photo album of the Anniversary Lunch. “What was I going to do about it?” was the clear message. Feebly, I tried to explain that, due to Ingrid´s habitually retiring nature, neither of the expert photographers on duty that day had been able to capture a sufficiently well-focussed and characterful portrait of her. All to no avail; I had to do something. Luckily for me, Hazel came in at that point and served tea and cakes, saving me from further embarrassment and allowing me to escape.
The only solution that I could think of to mollify the AWW Police Force was that I would go back to the Blog and doctor it somehow to provide the additional vital exposure. (You can get to the results later.) And just to think - there I had been - congratulating myself that, after the 20th special, I was done with blogging for evermore.
And then, on top of this trauma, I get an email from Rod the next day presenting me (!) with his Leader´s Report and suggesting oh so gently that I was to do another blog, this time for the WAGS. It was at this stage that I mentioned to Hazel that I had been hoping to be done with blogging for good. Not much sympathy to be had there. She came out with a real put-down for my blogging; she called me a Glorified Intellectual Donkey –a brilliant bit of phraseology, enclosing as it does one word of, possibly, admiration within two of pure ridicule. A bitter pill with just a wee drop of sugar inside. Ah well. GID it is.
The Track
The Profile
Just look at that slope at 2.25km
The Statistics
Time: 3hr 17 min. Distance: 9.55 km. Total climb: 310 metres.
The Leader´s Report
John & Hazel, Chris & Antje, Peter, and Maria, plus Peter´s spaniel Davinia. This select band set off from the Barragem de Bravura parking place under Rod's guidance. The Hello and Goodbye bar was showing signs of opening but not to the extent of the Hello part! The walk was in the hills to the south and east of the dam.
It involved a rather steep and slippery descent (but maybe better down than up!) and then a rather more gentle ascent to the long ridge to the east.
Steep and slippery it certainly was.
We passed the rather gloomily signed track to Miséria ……
Oh! the burdens of Leadership
but in the event the area has been made more cheerful by the construction of a large irrigation dam holding a surprising amount of water.
On to the ridge top and we then wound our way down to the lake and back to the by then fully functional Hello and Goodbye. The price, which always puts Paul off, was not that bad....at least the Tostas came with a bit of fruit!
The distance of almost exactly 10k and the time of 3 and a bit hours was just about spot on the WAGS norm.
Well, it would have been interesting, if Paul had been there, to see what he would have put out on Trip Advisor about Hello Goodbye. The the all-enveloping warmth of the Filipina hostess´s welcome will be a lingering memory to start with. The number of instructive or prohibitory tri-lingual notices pinned on the walls particularly in the washrooms gives the visitor ample educative reading material. And definitely worth the visit is just to see how steep some prices can be; one welcomes and learns from such an experience. Euros 4.50 for a caneca shandy could be said to take the biscuit, if it weren´t for the fact that that is the same price they charge for a simple tosta. No pão caseiras, but the fruit was nice. VAT on the food as well as on drinks was levied at 23%, but it may be allowed that the news that VAT on restaurant food has been reduced to 13% hasn´t yet had time to penetrate such remote areas. But, hey, the car park was free!
And now if you wish to see the blog of the 20th Anniversary Lunch newly embellished with a portrait of Ingrid, you can find it exclusively on the WAPAPS 2016 blog site at:-
http://hopejohnh.blogspot.pt/2016/09/aww-20th-anniversary-part-2-lunch_19.html
That should keep the AWW Police off my back; I just hope that their legal advisors don´t find something amiss.
And that´s it; another blog done, without too much waffle, I hope.
GID
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