Ian's Foia Flirtation - WW 24th May 2006

Don't tread on the daisies!

Leader: Ian S.
Present: Rod, Paul, Myriam, Terry, Lindsey, Andrew, Chris, Antje, John, Hazel, Simone, Thyl
Xana, Tiggy, Pooky

Ian had chosen a sensational day for the assault on Foia, an unnamed peak and Madrinha, and not only did we have the essential cooling breeze, but also we had wonderful visisbility when we had struggled up high enough. The news was leaked early on that the recce for this 6+ hour walk had only taken two and a half hours the previous Thursday, but Ian bluffed his way through it enormously well, only leading the group down one grassy cul-de-sac (well they do all look alike!) on the way up from the Monchique helipad to Foia. The Chief Blogger had a slight S.O.H.F. when Xana arrived at dog heaven - a small farm with loose chickens, which had mysteriously not been spotted on the recce!! Luckily she appears to be either slowing up or has joined the Animal Rights Movement, and no damage was done either to the chickens or my wallet!
It was a seminal day in the history of Bamboo Diagrams as I had recently taken possession of some new technology - a Garmin Foretrex 101 Wrist mounted GPS - which lent a hitherto lacking degree of accuracy to the distance measurements. The crosscheck with my own pedometer proved that the pedometer was wildly optimistic, but Lindsey's proved to be slightly more accurate.
We welcomed Simone back after an absence of some two years. She is as fit as ever, and hopes to join us next week too.
On the higher slopes we visited, there are still plenty of flowers, while the area below is becoming increasingly brown. The views were fabulous and lunch was taken on the rocks at Madrinha.
The round trip took 6 hrs 40 min, elapsed time being 20.8 kilometers and a walking time of 5 hrs 11 mins. (Thankyou Garmin). Yet again no Sagres Bohemia at the end in the appropriately named Cafe Descansa Pernas, but we were thirsty enough to make do with the less sophisticated offering without too much whimpering.

Geocaching: As the walking season comes to an end, and consequent to the acquisition of our new GPS, Myriam and I have taken up the 'sport' of Geocaching. We have found our first cache - at Ponte de Piedade, and are keen to rack up a good score as well as plant our own caches in the near future. You can read all about it at http://www.geocaching.com and it is fairly easy to get a list of the caches in the Algarve. Try http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?lat=37.105683&lon=-8.679967 All you need is a computer, a GPS, some tough gloves and a lot of patience.There is a whole new vocabulary of 'muggles' and 'Travel Bugs' to be explored. Good hunting!!