PSP Algarve Ride 2001

Daily Tails - DAY 2 - Sunday 7th - In which we pass on to Alcoutim for the start of the ride.

We were blasted out of bed by shotgun apparently outside the window! Oh - yes - it's Sunday and so they are all out hunting. The sun is rising and John is bashing the bike into shape so "up and at 'em" is the cry! Well - not quite.

Meet Sue who will look after the place while Jinny is away. Sue's broken leg is slowly healing; hang on I think, I wonder if the horse that broke her leg is coming on the ride, if so can I ride it as at least I'll be at the right end of the kick, if somewhat unpopular!

To work, to work, though. John & Alex go off to Faro to ferry people to Alcoutim. Shirley is cooking lunch for the next couple of days, and Elaine is helping groom the horses, I'm hitching the trailer to the jeep and greasing everything in sight including myself quite liberally and checking the oil and water in the horse-box.

James arrives to drive the Jeep to Alcoutim, along with his SO, Faye, who has kindly lent her horse for the ride. Shirley and I get aboard, and off we go - rats despite all that cooking, we forgot lunch so were glad later to be offered a share of Faye's lunch. Fill up with air in trailer tyres as they look a wee bit low, all horses loaded into Frank's big red Box, as Jinny's green one is full of hay, feed, tack and all sorts of other necessary bits and bobs so leans desperately over to one side!

Off goes the convoy back along the motorway, to within sight of the Spanish border. Then turn left and up the road to Alcoutim. Pause at a café to allow Jinny to catch up and have a coffee and a beer or so. Then onward via the old road, as apparently the new one had a bridge washed out and hasn't yet been repaired. The old road is quite spectacular as it goes alongside the river Guardiana for a lot of the way, with great scenery all around. However, a minor problem develops in that it appears my Greasing has been too efficient and the trailer brake mechanism stops working causing the trailer to slam backwards and forwards despite James' best efforts.

Finally we arrive to find that while the jeep and Jinny's lorry can make it into the corral area, Frank's wont, but can get close enough to make it easy to lead the horses along and give them a nice drink at the Praia Fluvial. (Hey -real Portuguese I can guess the meaning of - "the beach on the river!") The electric fence is rapidly erected, but a minor calamity occurs when the charger unit refuses to function. Desperate calls go out to all and sundry and eventually James flies off to pick one up from another helpful friend! Interest locally is aroused and some children turn up to watch what we are about. Very nice and polite, and relatively quiet. One goes home and grabs granddad, quite obviously having said "You have got to come and see these mad people in the quarry!"

One or two horses decide that the bushes the other side of the fence look MUCH better and make a break for freedom, but are soon caught and put back. Odd one ends up tied to a tree, but seems to be happier like that.

Then - major calamity - Jinny's box is stuck in reverse and isn't going anywhere! More and more people are arriving with their horses, which are added to the corrals and seem to get on ok. A few more riders turn up to join in the fun. We meet Lottie and Judy again, having met them in the Pub, then Daphne with whom we've had a merry conversation via E-Mail, Kay as well and Lisette from Holland whose Web site I'd seen and enjoyed, and last but not least of the overseas riders, Tim and Jeannie who are just down the road from us in the UK!

Then the grand issuing of the tack occurs and we need to make sure we remember which is ours - so I inscribe "Purple/French" on my hand in biro, as I have a faded purple lead rope on the saddle d, and a French link bit! Easy to remember. Get the boots right too!

Off to Estalagem De Guardiana, Alcoutim, where we were staying to find nice rooms surrounding a pool overlooking the river. And a nice bar, with good beer, munchies and aaah! Olives! Meet up with more of the local riders - Rod & Sue Frew, Zoe, Mike and Melanie from Pine Trees riding centre. Rod's son Tony along with colleague Matt will be videoing the ride from another jeep which sounds quite exciting.

Dinner is along the road in a fascinating restaurant, The Alcatia, but is very good and filling and is accompanied by a fair amount of wine. Rod (our leader) gives us a run-down on the objectives of the exercise - get all horses and riders to Cape St Vincent in good condition - seems pretty sensible to me - and have as good a time as possible doing so. He hands out sponsors shirts - tomorrow will be PricewaterhouseCoopers subsidiary, Abacus - nice polo shirt indeed.

Seems we'll need to crack on a bit at times 10 to 15 minutes of trotting. Eh? Ho hum - I suppose that's about the same as a Park Saddle class. Except 10 times a day! Aaargh. Rod produces maps and also interesting charts indicating heights on each of the day's rides.

Check the first day. 48 Kilometres. Hmm. Quick bit of maths - 30 miles! Oh dearie me! And up and down too! So Elaine and Lucy set out for the Horsebox and the rest of us head back to the hotel for a night-cap but tragedy! The Bar is closed! So we watch the news on TV for a bit.

And so to bed, with the clocks in Sanlucar de Guadiana over the river chiming Midnight and those in Alcoutim chiming 11:00 p.m. It appears that the Portuguese like the UK so keep our time, while the Spanish prefer to be on Continental time so are an hour ahead! Strange as being from an Island, we can't quite get our heads round rowing across the river into a different time zone, not to mention country!