Frolic in the Forest - and Floral Grandeur. WW 3rd May 2006

Mata Nacional - Barao Sao Joao.

Leader: Paul
Present: Myriam, Rod, Janet, Ian S, Chris.
Xana, Tiggy
Length: 15.6 miles/ 25 km

I don't know whether it was because I mentioned that this walk traditionally created rain (it was a close thing) or because nobody likes me, but we had a multiplicity of weak excuses for not turning up this week: We had three Gardeners in Granada; two on the Airport run; one supervising a bathroom renovation; one exhausted from completing 41km of GR23 on Sunday, two engaged in house-moving admin; one allegedly in Paris; one allegedly in Germany re-enacting Thelma and Louise; and several winter birds who had the bad grace to fly north for the summer.
And so it was that the Magnificent Six (+2) RV'd at the Barao Sao Joao Cultural Centre on an unseasonally grey morning.
Ian S. had been cruelly deprived of his oats this morning and had tucked into a traditional Algarve breakfast of a bica and a sticky bun filled with gooey yellow stuff in the Cafe Centro before the start. The spring flowers gladdened our passage (photo above) even more so when the sun eventually broke through. I had promised 'four abreast conversations' and we made it, even though there were only two bloggerinas present!!
Conversation was lively, and once we had covered the usual niceties, and maligned the WW's who were not there, we had an in depth discussion on Wayne's foot, and the potential candidates for England manager. I, of course, was too busy concentrating on the Bamboo Diagrams to be able to contribute much penetrating analysis of current World Affairs, but inspired by Rod's production of his North Face (one size fits all) Chinese-made hat, I did manage to brief him, and Ian S. who had been absent from the two previous walks, on the state of play with Technical Walking Equipment. They appeared to be enthralled by my road test report on the Tilley Underpant (Round the World with only two pairs) and the cutting edge Royal Robbins Dot Matrix Technology trousers. Ian S. had obviously read, marked and digested previous blogs, and was sporting an antique Tilley Hat, somewhat travel stained, but still under guarantee. I suspect he plans to enhance his standing in the group by putting a deposit down on a Berlingo, and moving much closer to Lagos.
Chris, recently back from a lucrative trip to Japan, spoke at length about the latest Hi-Tech sanitary ware and dangerous Japanese cuisine. We reached the appointed lunch spot at the 22.5 km house rather later than anticipated, owing to the frequent propensity of certain members of the party (Janet) to stop and admire and even photograph the profuse wild flowers. The cistus in particular were taller, bigger and more sticky than I have ever seen before.
The homeward leg was largely downhill and swift walking, until the proverbial sting, Sculpture Hill, the cultural highspot of any Barao Sao Joao walk, and a new frog sculpture was noted, staring impassively into the man-made lake on the left hand side. We reached the end in almost exactly 5 hours, and repaired, of necessity, to the Bar with the Palm Tree, unsmilingly presided over by Big Maria. Ian failed to get a caneca, Rod's request for a lemon tea was triumphantly met by "so tem pessego' and my own desperate plea for a Sagres Bohemia resulted in a sneer and a standard Super Bock shoved towards me. Later Ian claimed that he had made her smile, but I put this down to a fevered imagination nurtured through years of Boys Only schooling. Still the sun was shining, Myriam had enjoyed her hot chocolate, and I did have a couple of bottles of Bohemia at home to take the taste away!!

On a point of order, a rather callous (I thought) remark by Janet, (reported to me by a 'mole'), that she thought that Myriam must be very good for me, as my central regions had matured to a hitherto unseen grandeur, has prompted me to offer a rational explanation. As Janet only sees me on the WW's, my everyday sylph-like appearance has perhaps escaped her. I can only refer to a conversation on that very walk, in which Rod, who had unexpectedly come across a treasure trove of old book tokens, had invested in an instructional manual on walking techniques and tips. In this highly regarded book, there was the advice that while walking, breathing correctly was of the utmost importance - and the most efficient way of getting oxygen to the parts of the body that it would not otherwise reach, was to practice ABDOMINAL breathing, ie to use the stomach and diaphragm to compress the lungs rather than the largely ineffective upper chest muscles. I had to point out that this was my mantra, and I invariably expanded my abdominals during WW's to sustain my endurance and pace. Don't take my word for it - ask Rod!!


It was noted on this walk, that every walker was using a stick - perhaps not the first time this has happened, but the first that has been noted. And no-one left their stick behind - almost another first! There is a recent article, quite amusing, on the 'Nordic stick phenomenon' which for your edification is at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2006/05/05/elivnordic.xml&DCMP=EMC-exp_05052006