APAPS 19.2: Ilha do Rosário – a little bit of Change and not much Decay

Below is the Wednesday morning sky that greeted those intrepid Travellers from the West who, in obedience the Leader´s exhortation to be ready for a 7 am start, had set off at the crack of dawn in their search for that enigmatic Being from the East.

Just to remind you of the reference:
“Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan´s Turret in a Noose of Light.”
The query in last week´s blog was “who was the Hunter of the East?”
I had two identical answers, logical, it has to be said but poetically unappreciative. They both told me that the Hunter of the East went by the name of “Lo”.
(Maybe the Dragon Empress´s ancestral forebears were a tribe of mighty Hunters.) The poetical interpretation and correct answer is “the Sun.”

But now enough of that; the Starter photo was duly taken at 7.00 am sharp and, after one or two alarms and excursions – mainly in the direction of the ladies´ loos -  we set off at 7.07 am – not too bad, thanks to all who came.

Starters: Janet, Ingrid, Jill, Chris, Myriam, TerryA, JohnH, Antje, Hazel and Paul; plus Becky and Sascha.

This walk was , of course, along a very well-known trail which requires very little description from your Blogger, but the first change from the normal routine was that we had with us a new official photographer in the person of Hazel who kept busy trying out her brand new camera.
Here is her first shot of the group:-

and then, after she had mastered the art of the zoom lens, her next three;

Also captured was her shot of a headless snake:

a subject  which Paul elaborated on later to artistic effect:

It´s not clear why or how the snake lost its head –maybe it ran foul of the lesser grey canal rat (ratus canaliensis), an endangered species mainly because of its dietary predilection for eating only the heads of its prey –but that is our ration of decay for the time being.

Nearing the Clube Nautico, we found that the flimsy little entrance bridge over the canal has disappeared; the challenge is now not that of avoiding breaking the bridge but that of jumping over the canal without breaking one´s leg. In the Clube, the bar was, as always, closed, but the Clube´s  philosopher-in.residencee had clearly been very busy since our last visit with lots of new “quotations/pensées ” for us to study.
The Dragon Empress/Huntress took this shot of a quotation attributed to  Mr Lhamo Thondup, a.k.a. the Dalai Lama.

and later she asked your Blogger to find if the quotation is genuine.

Well, the internet is full of “inspirational” quotation sites; there must be a whole industry devoted to digging these up or (perish the thought) to making them up. One such site has “150 of the Dalai Lama´s most inspirational quotes.” It also has “42 of Michelle Obamas´s most inspirational quotes” Not as many as His Worthiness´s, it´s true but then she has not been at it as long as he has.  Donald Trump is also in there, naturally; he being a world leader in how to deal with criticism has this gem:
 “Criticism is easier to take when you realize that the only people who aren’t criticized are those who don’t take risks.”
So, for what it is worth, the Dalai Lama´s version of carpe diem is there, in English as well as in the original Portuguese.

But is it genuine or not ? Who is to say? Attributed to the good old DL is also:

Ah well, whatever turns you on.

Also spotted were:

and

a reference to Gilbert and Sullivan perhaps, and a touch of Swahili with hakuna matata and pole pole – no problem and take it easy.

For some reason which I can´t now recall , as we walked away from the Clube towards the camp site, Paul, Janet and I  pondered on the words “Change and decay in all around I see” which we thought possibly came from Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver´s Travels and A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick – both always worth reading. But in fact the source of the words is that somewhat lugubrious poem, now the hymn “Abide with me”.
But back to the walk: it was here that our group split into two.

If you look at our track, the red line shows where Chris, Antje and Janet took the Low Road, while the rest of us tackled the High Road over the hill, marked in blue. This hill is called the Cerro da Rocha Branca according to the Carta Militar and e were going to try to suss out where on the hill the proposed 700 bed 5-star hotel, sports complex and golf course, recently announced by Silves Camara, was likely to be situated. 

There were some changes to be seen as we went. 

The rather seedy caravans once seen above the camp site have been replaced by much grander constructions; several paths that once were more like barriers to progress than means of access have been cleared of boulders and brambles – there are certainly signs that somebody is taking an interest in the land. But will this bit of the Camara´s development plans ever come to pass? Don´t hold your breath.

At the top of the hill we paused for a rest while the well-known cryptic crossword clue “two girls, one on each knee” ** was given a new interpretation as Ingrid grabbed the support of two extra knees and Paul´s blood pressure peaked.

After this, three of us left the bench quite quickly, but four, TerryA, Jill, Myriam and Hazel, were slower off the mark and as a result missed an obvious right turn and went the wrong way  and were well down the hill until a phone call from Paul corrected them. The yellow line in the track picture shows their misjudgement –the statistics that follow later don´t take account of their extra effort. Perhaps because of the slight delay here, when we reached the planned rendezvous with the Low Road trio, they like Macavity the Mysterious Cat were not there. They had gone ahead without waiting for us, mainly I suspect because Antje wanted to do some scrumping for plums or damsons. 

No problem; in the event we were all back at Mira Rio in good time for the 10 am breakfast service. Prompt , very prompt, as usual. They must post a watchman in the tower to look out for our arrival to get the food ready so immediately.
 

Conversation at breakfast was civilised, Janet very quickly putting an embargo on any Tilley Hat sales talk.

Paul´s statistics

The Leader´s statistics:
Total distance: 8.63 kms; Total time: 2 hrs 41 mins;
Moving time: 2 hrs 02 mins; Average moving speed: 4.2 kph;
Ascent: 289 metres; Unbroken eggs: 19.

This link may give you a bit of "Hakuna Matata."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIdeSo1FD0

Post script:

The results of Antje´s scrumping:_

the fruits of her labours, one might suppose.

APAPS 19.1: Encherim Start, or I didn´t know that hill was there.

For those regular readers of the WAGS blog who have revelled  in the richness and diversity of Paul´s animadversions week by week over the past WAGS season,  the APAPS breakfast walk blogs, with their ever-so inevitable and boringly similar photos of bacon, eggs and tomatoes, will come as an anti-climax. Your APAPS blogger cannot possibly hope to match the range of topics covered by Paul. In the month of June alone, when he had a rush of blood to the head or a burst of creative energy, take it as you will, he has ranged from Confucius (on walking companions) to Francis Bacon (on breakfasts – Bacon on bacon?), from the efficaciousness of Arnica to the sadness of shuttered cafés; he has pondered on the exorbitant cost of SMS  messaging and the variety of cross-breeds in the family Equidae, not to mention the variety of pizzas it is possible to squeeze onto a 2 metre span of beechwood. Chinese numerology, Latin quotations, cod philosophy, true philosophy, not to mention the purported benefits to the human brain of the HyperKewl (sic) Tilley hat - it´s all there and more. In case you missed any of it it, click on:-
https://w-a-g-s.blogspot.com/2019/06/wags-05062019-it-seemed-like-good-idea.html
https://w-a-g-s.blogspot.com/2019/06/wags-12062019-nada-de-nada.html
https://w-a-g-s.blogspot.com/2019/06/wags-19062019-back-and-walking.html
https://w-a-g-s.blogspot.com/2019/06/wags-26062019-season-finale-and.html
Anyway, back to the present. Most of last year´s APAPS regulars indicated their interest in continuing these summer morning jaunts, forced drop-outs being Ros who is hors de combat with hip problems and Yves who is training for a male nurse qualification. When the first walk and breakfast menu were announced there were stirrings of interest. One message which your blogger received
 “One egg, tomatoes and hot buttered toast, a book of verse and thou,  beside me in the wilderness.....please” 
certainly made the heart beat that little bit faster. 
(Editor´s note: make that "One unbroken egg..".)
And then, on the very morning of the walk, at 2.09 am to be exact, the blogger´s iPhone received confirmation from the Whittles that they would be at the breakfast. (Luckily, said iPhone remains in sleep mode until about 6.30am so that was not a  problem.)
Then Leader first to be at Café Prato at 6.37 a.m. for his bica cheia, is immediately greeted with more stuff from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (Edward Fitzgerald translation)
“Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.”
emailed by Paul at 6.50 am and followed up with the query
“Who is the Hunter of the East?”

First, there was one.

Then there were three

Then five.

and then, after some last minute technical adjustments to Janet´s bootlaces,

we had the eight starters.

These next two did not start but, this being a photo specially submitted by Yves to mark the occasion, may be taken as symbolising the envious non-participants watching from afar.

(Copyright Yves Photos)

Which one could be Yves, which one Rod?

At last, we got underway , some obviously being under the misapprehension that the WAGS´ traditional flexibility in observing starting times also applies to APAPS ( it shouldn´t), but we were almost immediately called to a halt for a flowery picture at Encherim Jardim no.2.

In the garden, the collection of village worthies´ chairs was now increased to over 15. 

Instinct now made the Leader step on the gas as he decided to divert from the normal path down towards to the canal, but taking this route presented the group with the first challenge of the day which was to clamber over a wall into an orange grove. 

Judging from Paul´s photo, Ingrid can´t believe what she has just seen; Maria didn´t climb over the wall - she just kicked a hole through it.

and Janet took full advantage of the breach.

The orange grove was cool and the canal was beautifully still in the morning light.

But it was shortly after this stretch that muttering in the ranks began to be heard. Then Terry A took me aside and had a quiet word in my ear. “You are going far too fast, my lad” or words to that effect. And he was right: I looked at my gizmo and it showed that we had being going at over 5.2 kph! The only solution was to put Paul and Janet at the front to bring things back to normal. We were by then passing along Lingerie Lane but, of the delicate set of ladies underwear that had hung there for the past three years, there is now , alas, no sign. Maybe a charitable lady amongst the APAPS/WAGS group will  present a replacement? The conversation then dwelt for sometime on related topics and l learned something new, namely that at English Girls Schools in the years before the swinging sixties (I think), the young ladies wore bloomers (am I correct?) as underwear, voluminous cloth creations with handkerchief pockets in them. Well, I never! We do indeed live and learn. And from this, we moved on to discussion of a newish technique for removing wax from ears with a sort of vacuum cleaner. So engrossing was all this non-stop  conversational richesse that I completely missed  a small sideways path where I had intended we go and which would have taken us comfortably along the valley floor. Five or ten minutes later it was much less comfortable because we were having to climb steadily uphill, on a steep track which I had not known existed. Honest to truth, Gov! I did not know. 

Eventually, and I do mean eventually, we overcame this second challenge of the day and emerged onto the familiar upper level routes where we saw one of the Algarve Way Founders marks. 

All that unplanned climbing had certainly slowed us down, all of us, that is, except for TerryA and Jill who continued to race ahead. Bit rich really, the  same guy who had cautioned me to slow the pace was now going like the crackers himself. A bit like a cricket umpire warning a bowler against running on the wicket and then himself dancing the Highland Fling on the pitch. (More cricket references to follow later). By the time we had worked our way back down into the valley again and turned towards base, we were running late; we certainly were not going to be able to make it to Retiro dos Pescadores in time for the scheduled 9.30 am breakfast. But luckily Maria was able to make contact with Pescadores via phone with Hazel (non-walking for the time being) and got things re-scheduled.
Towards the end of the walk, TerryA, who naturally had finished ahead of the pack, brought his Mercedes 4wd down the track to pick up two stragglers (who shall be nameless) and we all managed to get to Pescadores by 10.00 am, where Chris, Antje and Hazel were waiting.

Hazel and Maria did their usual great job helping out in the kitchen and the meal was served quickly. Yves being absent, it was Paul who was the first to get his food and, although he got only one egg to start with, it was unbroken so he was happy. There were lashings of bacon and tomatoes, bread toasted and untoasted.

Paul eventually managed to get a second egg and, double happiness, that too was unbroken.

    
                                                Unbroken egg no.2

In comparison, see how a broken egg lets standards slip.

Myriam, as usual ,risked life and limb to take a group view;

 if her photo reaches me, it will be published.
With their usual generosity, our Pescadores hosts provided us with fruit to finish – melons and oranges.
Somehow, the conversation got on to cricket and I found myself explaining to Antje that in a proper cricket match, there are two sets of wickets, each consisting of three stumps, one wicket at each end of the pitch. I think that she had been imagining some sort of rounders or French cricket with only a single wicket. I may have helped her to understand how it is that the bowlers can “throw (her word, not mine) the ball” in alternate overs from each end. I think that I managed to explain clearly the difference between the actual and the metaphorical usages of the word “wicket”, which otherwise could confuse, for example, how it is that one side is out when it loses 10 wickets, when there are only 2 wickets to be seen out there on the pitch (or wicket as it is often known).
The following will bring clarity to those who need it.

      Cricket explained.

• You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
• Each man that’s in the side that’s not in the field goes out and when he’s out comes in and the next man goes out and goes in until he’s out.
• When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and then the next man in goes out and goes in.
• When the side that`s in are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
• Sometimes there are men still in and not out.
• There are men called umpires who stay out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out.
• Depending on the weather and the light, the umpires can also send everybody in, no matter whether they’re in or out.
• When both sides have been in and all the men are out (including those who are not out), then the game is finished.

So that being perfectly clear, next week maybe we can move on to discuss over breakfast the more arcane aspects of the modern game, such as “Net Run Rate”,  “Duckworth- Lewis”, “Umpires Call”, or even, for those nostalgic for the old days, “Sticky Wicket”. 

Now the Track and the Statistics:

Leader´s figures
Total distance: 9.60 kms. Total time: 2 hrs 41 mins.
Moving time: 2 hrs 12 mins. Average moving speed: 4.3 kph.
Total ascent: 273 metres. Eggs consumed: 22.
(One assumes that everyone had two eggs.)

And what is the answer to Paul´s early morning question “Who is the Hunter of the East?”
Put your answer in your reply to the next APAPS breakfast email.

To conclude, something to do with the WAGS from stand-in philosopher Pauladev (Aristotle being otherwise detained):-

"WAGS Ethos: I think this points at the Nirvana the WAGS are trying to achieve."

Postscript


Myriam´s photos have now arrived and, as promised, here they are:-