Apologies for the rather flippant title, this was a very serious matter, but it is over now, Yves was lucky, and salient points have been driven home.
Before I get on to the usual (embroidered) factual report, we need to reiterate a few things in the light of some comments fired off since the walk. Of course these are a personal view as ever, and I would be disappointed if ‘The Board’ voted unanimously that I was completely right in all aspects.
The AWW has been going in one form or another for at least 17 years that I recall. We are all in it for the pleasure of companionship, getting out in the fresh air and beautiful countryside for exercise, and of course the social side including some very memorable gatherings and events over the years. During that time you might expect some incidents, accidents and not a few spats. Except for the spats, we have fortunately and largely, through common sense, been incident and accident free. There was one broken ankle ( Anna Rose, Madeira) and a broken wrist (Esme, Barranco Velho) a couple of minor falls into holes (Jim and Myriam), a spiked varicose vein (Rod) a few minor slips and falls only wounding pride, and several bee stings. This is a remarkable record, and indicates not only the general fitness and ability of the walkers, but also the common sense generally exhibited.
The leader has only responsibility for choosing the walk, and broadly advising those that voluntarily wish to accompany him or her of the salient details. We are all same day, same way walkers responsible for our own conduct. No one has ever charged or made money out of leading walks. Everyone is responsible for their own insurance and decisions. In practical terms, and as has been demonstrated on many occasions the leader has no authority to command obedience from the followers. We have guidelines to set out what is sensible, but no enforcement. The decision to join a walk or not is one for the individual.
New walks are usually recced in detail. If a leader has led a particular walk before, then he or she will be aware of potential problem areas in terms of vegetation, agricultural change, or water levels. Sometimes there are unforeseen changes, but such is the nature of our environment that there is always a solution to circumventing the problem. I cannot support the view that if a walk is to be led it must be rewalked by the leader in detail shortly before the group goes. Many of our walks haven’t altered significantly in years. Last Wednesday, even though Myriam was notionally the leader, everyone knows that the route was chosen by me, and perhaps surprisingly for such an established area, I made the effort to go over the route, so that Myriam could lead it with the area fresh in her mind and the help of a GPS track.
John D was kind enough to accompany us on the recce, as it was possible that I wouldn’t walk on the day, and to give Myriam more confidence if someone else knew the route. We checked the whole route for obstructions and overgrowths except that it was high tide, and we were unable to view the beach between Cordoama and Castelejo. As it was going to be a very low (0.71 m.) tide at the time of the walk, previous experience told me that whatever the condition of the rocks on the beach, it would be a better route and would be passable, albeit with care. We have walked this beach at least 10 times on previous RTC’s and on other shorter walks as well. There has never been a problem, except I remember that one year Mike strained a calf muscle just before we reached the start of the beach, and had to drop out of the RTC, though he made it slowly along the beach to the Castelejo Cafe.
On this occasion, it turned out that the beach had been scoured by the winter storms, and much more bedrock was visible, but when Myriam paused to discuss whether it would be better to climb up to the Miradouro and over the top, I repeated that the beach was a much better option (for me anyway), with my recent aversion to steep hills. Again, there was no problem with those of the group that followed along the beach, although there was potential for slips and sprains, everyone proceeded at a pace with which they were comfortable.
The dark limestone bedrock, which is predominant in this area is smooth, but not intrinsically slippery except when covered in weed. Loose boulders are more difficult and require care, but most are lodged as a result of tide action. This year the beach had a great deal more exposed rock than I have ever seen, and less sand even at low tide, but it was perfectly passable, and we reached the beach shortly after 11am as planned, at the lowest tide point. High tide was not until after 5 pm.
Enough has been said about Yves foolishness in attempting to go over the top alone, when Myriam tried to get everyone to go along the beach. Indeed if she had not been at the back to try to call him before he set off up the hill, she would not have known that he had gone that way, and it was only because she kept looking up to see where he was, that she witnessed the result of his fall. Nearly all of those in the front had no idea that he had left the group.
A very scary and sobering moment when Myriam pointed out the inert form laying on the rocks high above the beach. If, as it was easy to conclude, he had slipped from somewhere up near the Miradouro, then it would have been game over.
I will not go into the decisions that some individuals made at that point to take their own actions. It is easy with the benefit of hindsight, but the group was well strung out when most were made aware of the incident. There was no phone signal at the beach where most of the group congregated, and ultimately the only sensible thing to do was to go along to Castelejo and call for help, or if that cafe was shut, then Chris had a car there as two of us intended to drop out at that point.
‘Alls well that ends well’, is not an entirely satisfactory maxim for this event. Yves was extremely lucky, the Bombeiros were excellent in support and very thorough if slow in their rescue preparations. Hasty if emotional suggestions to donate the AWW Social Fund to the Bombeiros have been reconsidered, but any of us who live here and may require their support, not necessarily for rescuing from sticky situations, should give some thought to backing them financially. As a group, it may be appropriate to give a tithe of our fund in future towards the Bombeiros, but the principal person who should react financially to this incident is the subject of the rescue.
And so to the walk itself. The weather initially was not as bright as the forecasts had it a few days before, as you can see from the overcast start photo.
Starters: David, John D., Dina, Ros, Andrew, Liz, Ian W., Lindsey, Antje, Yves, Chris, Janet, Hedley, Ingrid, John O’, Bruce, Paul (Myriam (photographer)
The track of the walk, only the solid red line having been walked, the dotted sections were when I forgot to turn off the GPS and went to the Miradouro and up and down the hill a couple of times.We ended back in Cafe Zig Zag, my GPS having travelled 27.9 km, of which only about 9 were on foot, from the start, anti-clockwise to Castelejo Cafe.
The walk started off fairly punctually at 0930, but rather inauspiciously, as Myriam was without her ‘Third Leg’ of the navigators, Rod, who was completing formalities in reporting a recently lost wallet. Never mind, I would be there for the first half, and John D had understudied the route during the recce. Just as well, as I was able to turn the whole group round as Myriam set off from the car park in the wrong direction!
Very soon before we started the descent to Cordoama, more excitement, as the only bee still alert in the Costa Vicentina, unerringly targeted Chris in a spectacular suicide bombing dive.
Myriam was called for to operate her snake venom and bee-sting removing gadget, but the sting was easily extracted with a pair of Swiss Army tweezers.
We reached the beach, at around 11:10 am and were immediately aware that the rocks were more exposed than before. A short discussion between Myriam and myself decided to continue with the ‘level’ walk along the beach, partly because I didn’t fancy the long climb, and also because we had not climbed up on the recce to check the path. In the event the correct path would have been no problem, but the beach despite being rocky and slippery in places was negotiated by all those that attempted without incident.
A view as the group set off along the beach. Yves had just left to attempt the path over the top. Myriam took this photo and was clearly behind at this point. And we know the rest.
It only remains to publish a few photos during and after the rescue with brief captions.
(All Yves’ own photos were allegedly ‘wiped’ when downloading from his phone!)
“There is no danger of developing eyestrain from looking on the bright side of things.”
Thanks Paul for a welcome return of the blog & sensible comments.....how high was the cliff that Yves chose to descend?...there isn't a photo of it.
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