WAPAPS 2016 - 2024: August 2021

You may remember that, in last week´s Blog, we discussed the memory recall capabilities and the sex life of cuttlefish. The first recorded research into cuttlefish was by the philosopher Aristotle (no stranger to these pages). So how was it that a philosopher came to study cuttlefish? Well, Aristotle had been the star pupil at Plato´s Academy in Athens and, when Plato died in 347 BC, he had hopes of becoming head of the Academy in Plato´s stead: But the top job was given to Plato´s nephew so, in a huff, Aristotle gave up philosophising and went off to the island of Lesbos where he spent three years studying the biology, zoology and botany of the island. He was the first to categorize animals etc into species.

A lot of his research was done in a sea lagoon which cuts deep into the island of Lesbos, and there is a very interesting BBC series (which you can find on YouTube) called "Aristotle´s Lagoon" which is very well worth watching.

I don´t know how the Ancient Greeks kept track of time in those days – they certainly did not have clocks or smartphones – but one presumes that they had some way of turning up on time for a meeting or whatever. It is a pity that their secrets in this respect have not been passed down to our very own Aristotle who surprised us all this past Wednesday in not only not being the first on the scene, but the last.

Never mind - a timely reminder that the mornings are getting darker and that we should start later.

It was in fact quite a gloomy morning as we assembled at Para e Fica and took our coffees and the Starter photo.

We began the walk with a scramble up a steep wooded hillside.

It´s a depressing thought, but that was about the only unspoilt bit of wooded scenery we were to come across all morning. From the various viewpoints on the ridge that we traversed after that, all we could see were bare terraced hills.

We tried to amuse ourselves with balancing walking poles on marker stones

with practising Chinese calligraphy in the very thick powdery dust

and, inevitably, with balancing stones upon stones.

But in the end it was all too depressing. After all the logging the Aquas Belas valley will be a desolate scene for at least three or four years to come. There is little point in even taking photographs of what Rod aptly describes as like an opencast mine.

So, without any more of this gloom, it was back to Par e Fica where the five walkers were met by the five non-walkers, in alphabetical order, Andy, Antje, Chris, Hazel and Paul, all ready for breakfast at ten, and where things were a lot more cheery.

Senhora Eva served up the usual ample quantities of bacon eggs and buttered toast. Coffees seemed to present something of a problem, I don´t know why. Is it because Brazilian coffee terminology differs a little bit from Algarvean? But Paul got what he wanted eventually.

Last week, at Mira Rio, Yves had missed his bacon. Here he got full recompense - extra bacon plus !

The Track and the Statistics

I was surprised at the distance – I had estimated that it would be only 6 kms.

And now to last weeks quiz.

Correct answers from Myriam and Paul. Quite what blood groups have to do with NATO, I do not know.

and now this week´s quiz. What is the connection between these four words?

Dead simple – this one.

Finally two bits of video: One a request by Paul for a dissertation on tobacco

and secondly, a return performance by Ray Jessel whose song about his girl friend´s extra bit of equipment Hazel found so amusing two weeks ago. This one is more polite.

A simple question to start with - Do you always believe everything you read in the newspapers?

The reason I ask this is because of an article I saw in The Daily Telegraph recently which went as follows:-

“Mollusc´s memory recall mesmerises researchers.

Cuttlefish can recall what they ate last week until they die of old age, astounded researchers have found. Their memories stay intact as they age and improve when they reach the equivalent of 90 in human years.

Researchers found that they have a strong “episodic memory” and are able to pinpoint precisely how specific events in their lives unfolded.

In humans, short term memories fade if they are too unimportant to be filed in long term memory banks.

Memory decline in humans is thought to be due to the hippocampus deteriorating. But cuttlefish do not have a hippocampus and their brain structure is very different from humans.”

Well, this struck me as being a bit of a tall story. How on earth could so-called “researchers” (unidentified) find out that cuttlefish remember events, such as specific meals. (I often find it difficult to remember what I had for breakfast the same morning). The Telegraph is usually a bit more level-headed in its reporting than that article seemed to imply.

So I decided to do a bit of my own research. First, I established that cuttlefish are indeed molluscs, of the order Sepiida and class Cephalopoda.

Then I found an article in ScienceMag.org confirming the Telegraph´s report. Scientists at the University of Cambridge, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, US A, and the University of Caen trained cuttlefish to eat each meal of the day at specific different locations in their tanks. After three weeks of training the animals showed up for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the right place and time, even if the scientists did not offer them any food. Then they varied the test by offering different meals, dull prawn meat or the cuttlefishes´ favourite, live grass shrimp - at the same times but in two different places in the tank. Then they varied the timings. If the animals swam to the prawn area 1 hour after their first meal they´d get prawn meat but no shrimp. If they waited 3 hours and swam to the shrimp area, they´d get both shrimp and prawn. They soon learned to wait the extra two hours each time to get shrimp.

And apparently the older cuttlefish recalled these matters quicker than the younger ones. They don´t have a hippocampus like us but a vertical lobe - a structure related to learning and memory – and that appears not to deteriorate with age. This bit of memory is called episodic memory. And all this has to do with sex. Why? Because cuttlefish don´t mate until very late in life, just a few weeks before dying in fact. A certain Miss Alexandra Schnell, leader of the study team, speculates that, because the main goal of the cuttlefish during the breeding season is to mate with as many partners as possible, the preservation of episodic memory helps them to remember who they have mated with - and where - and when – so that they don´t waste time mating with the same individual more than once. Miss Schnell says “They go out with a bang.” So, whatever else, Miss Schnell does have a sense of humour.

And now to the week´s walk, during the course of which Yves took this shot, not of cuttlefish, but of frogs; now there´s a line of speculation you may care to follow.

The usual modest number gathered at Mira Rio on a mercifully cool morning after the extreme heat of the week-end. The Starter photo was duly taken and we set off.

There was laughter all round soon after when JohnH realised he had left his camera at the Restaurante.

Yves gallantly dashed back to fetch it for which my thanks.

The last time we did this bit of country (APAPS 21.3), we had noticed that work was being done to widen bridges over the canals.

These works are now complete. Maybe it´s all part of Silves Camera´s plans to promote tourism on Ilha do Rosario and we can now expect to meet tourist buses there?

Our route then took us away from the canal and up through the Vale de Lama village. We noticed an old ruin that had recently had electricity meter panels installed by its doorway – encouraging signs that the building may be due for renovation.

Whether its decrepit occupant has any chance of renovation remains to be seen.

We will monitor the situation and keep you posted.

In the distance the sprawl of the solar panel installation above Café Oriq could be seen.

A gentle stroll then ensued during which varied signs of bird life were seen

This eventually brought us to our customary midway resting-point in the peace and quiet of the Clube Nautico.

There the Leader broke the sad news that, because of minimal numbers, he had not bothered to pre-order the Full English Breakfast at Mira Rio. That gave us all food for thought, as we speculated on what the Restaurante would be able to provide instead of the FEB.

No bacon? No worries.

Our route home then took us down a track we hadn´t ever taken before, and across a large area of open land before some scrambling and a last ascent which necessitated a bit of a rest.

More widened roads - Before

and After

Beside the Mira Rio house that has been under repair for the last ten years or so – now nearing conclusion - a couple were busy gathering alfarrobas. Apparently alfarrobas can fetch up to €18 per kg, up from €12 per kg last year, due to a shortage in the Moroccan crop.

Rod estimated the weight of this lady´s sack at 20 kg so that´s worth some € 300 plus.

Alfarrobas used to be sold by the arroba which my Measurement Guide tells me is 15 kgs in Portugal but only14.688 kgs in Macao and 11.5 kg in Spain. The mathematical symbol for the measurement is “@”, while the internet symbol “@” is called arroba in Spanish and Portuguese (in English, the At Sign).

Back at Mira Rio, we found Hazel enjoying a coffee and some home-baked cake. She entertained us to a somewhat risqué song, revealing a side to her that not many had seen before.

As for the breakfast choices, the good lady of the Restaurante, despite her rather grumpy demeanour, came up with some perfectly respectable fried eggs and tomatoes; although Yves lamented the lack of bacon, the others didn´t really miss it.