Seven stroll by the Sea, WW 07.06.2006

Leader: Paul
Present: Myriam, Janet, John, Rod, Lindsey, Andrew
NO DOGS!!!
Walk: Ponte de Piedade and past Luz and return (22 km)
Time: 5 hrs 15 minutes walking (Total time 6 hrs)

Before Mike pulls me up on the discrepancy between the Title and the lead photo, ace cameraperson, Myriam has not mastered the time delay shot yet!
In anticipation of a very hot day, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to avail ourselves of the Atlantic onshore breezes, at least on the way back, and try to get out and back without returning on the same path. The overall result was not too bad; except for the section through Luz, and the back way down to Porte de Mos, it was achieved. Had the tide been anything other than at it's highest, mid walk, we could have crossed round the headland between Ponte de Piedade and Porte de Mos in one of the directions.
This was the first walk in living memory in which we were not accompanied by any of our dogs! Regrettably Maio is not up to it any more, and Xana was recovering from a mild bout of tick fever, so they were out. Of Rod's pair, Purdey is in the same boat as Maio, and Pooky was left to keep her company, as it looked a hot day with little opportunity for dog drinking water.
Janet turned up sans socks and had to cadge Andrew's second pair (brave woman!). Fortunately for the assembled team, she seemed to have remembered everything else, and The Magnificent Seven set off soon after 9 am with a tour round the lighthouse and north up the coast for a warm-up on the undulating coastal path. Hardly had we left when Andrew suffered a 'senior' moment, and couldn't remember if he had locked the car, so jogged back to confirm that he had! The route progressed inland after we had confirmed that the tide was too high to get round to Porte de Mos via the beach, and from there again inland through the soon to be completely urbanised area between Porte de Mos and Atalaia. A slight navigational error, during which we discovered the DIY House (photo below) resulted in howls of anguish from shorts wearers as we took a direct route through some overgrown pastures to regain the track. Fortunately the absent Mike was on his way to London for a quick coffee with his brother, so no blood was spilled.
Arriving on the escarpment near the Trig point with the panoramic view of Luz, Janet opined that she didn't care for walking through the town (the temptation of too many tourist shops!!) and would turn back. Bravely she descended from the top to the lower plateau before turning round, thus burning an extra 568 calories according to my pedometer!
We stuck with the coastal path towards Burgau, and admired the newly redecorated 'Arab House', which has lost some of it's kudos with a pale grey colour scheme and a hand-painted floral tile frieze below the eaves. We didn't see Osama at a window, but it is pretty obvious that he is camouflaging his Algarve HQ.
Lunch from a commanding viewpoint gave us a different aspect of the huge orange house
pictured below. We returned to Luz through a mix of earthen paths and undeveloped plots, and the rapidly growing urban sprawl inland, to be faced with the prospect of the scramble up to the trigpoint. I announced to the disbelievers that it was actually only a 4 minute climb and about 60 vertical metres to the Trig point. Andrew, Rod and myself went for two variations of Route One straight up to the top, and the others took a slightly longer and less steep path. The point was proved as I broke my record to reach the Obelisk in 3min. 32 secs followed by Andrew (4 min. 02 sec), Rod, (5 min. 09 secs), Myriam and Lindsey in 6 min. and 20secs, and then John strolled up from another direction looking remarkably cool in 7 min. and 10 secs.
The reason for all this macho posturing came when we reached the Cafe at Ponte de Piedade, and Myriam innocently revealed that she was supplying cashew nuts and Japanese crackers with our drinks, because I had managed to survive another full year on God's Earth, and I had been trying to prove I can still cut the mustard although I must be almost into my Fifties now!! Lindsey made it an even more auspicious occasion by gifting us some Kumquats (for Myriam's Marmalade Factory) and some French beans for dinner! Thanks Lindsey.