Ian's Bordeira inland walk; 29th March 2006

Is this a forgery!!
A rare find on this week's walk, was this poor copy of one of David's V.A. Cistus waymarks. Not only badly stencilled but sporting a pair of contradictory arrows. Is there a V.A. rural terrorist out there - or could there be a rational explanation. Comment awaited!!

Ian's report below:

Leader: Ian.
Present: Caroline, Caro, Thyl, Paul & Myriam, Mike, Tim & Shirley, Hedley.
Muffin, Oscar, Xana.

A group of 10 arrived at Bordeira for the walk to start at 9.45am. This was more than I anticipated as quite a few of our members were away. It was a beautiful clear blue sky and we set off on time. Within half a kilometre I unfortunately led everyone up the wrong path, but we quickly recovered the situation by finding the correct path and then set off to what turned out to be a very good walk. We walked initially over some high ground with good views towards the sea and then we very quickly dropped down into a valley along which we travelled east for 10 kilometres. This turned out to be very pleasant as the sun was quite warm and we were in the shade. We then climbed out of this valley out onto the high ground again, then travelled south, then west where at 1pm we sat down for lunch and Thyl made friends with a local dog which seemed to take a great interest in him. We then headed west again from the lunchspot and I decided to take a recommendation that Rod had given me last time we did the walk to head west along the track, instead of going north along the original valley. This turned out to be part of the Algarve Way and we saw a couple of the cistus waymarks. After about an hour we descended into a valley with a crystal clear river running. We then headed north again to, hopefully pick up the original westward track back to Bordeira. This we eventually found and arrived at Bordeira at 3.30pm. I think generally everyone knew they had done a walk.

Comment: A splendid green walk, with Algarve at it's finest, sunny, a cooling breeze, and green hills and valleys - wonderful while it lasts. Once again recorded in 'bamboo diagrams' in case Ian and Pam desert us in the future, and a true accolade, Shirley and Tim delaying their return to Dublin to participate in the walk! Still some issues with recorded distances, my pedometer being very optimistic according to learned guesses at how far we had actually walked, and Mike's GPS suffering from narcolepsy! Conclusion was that the walk was 20km +. The Bamboo diagrams recorded a distance of 24.7 km and exactly 5 hours walking time, not including lunch, rests and navigational uncertainties!!

After espying the V.A. waymarks, there was a spirited discussion led by Mike who recalled a capella near Vila de Bispo which was dedicated to a saint, whose name he could not remember (patron saint of walkers?) and which was visited by pilgrims before (or after) they crossed the Algarve. I opined that it should be Saint Paul, who reputedly was on a long walk to Damascus when converted. Another option, Saint Michael was thought to be the patron saint of undergarments, but conceivably walking socks were within his brief too! There didn't appear to be any claims from Saints Ian, Hedley or Thyl, and Saint Timothy was merely a convert of Saint Paul, who at one stage, because of his frail health was urged by his mentor to "take a little wine" for his digestion! What a compassionate person Paul was - and still is!

Late news: Check http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm No one specifically for walkers, but 'wandering musicians' is close!!