Its a New Year and that for many means resolutions (usually around getting fit and losing weight)which more often than not are broken by the end of February. I have only one - to drink more water - many refer to me as a 'camel' as I tend to drink very little while walking - but that is all going to change!! I do know from my own body that if I drink more liquid (not alcohol!)then the water retention and puffiness is much less or disappears altogether plus water is good to keep the skin from drying out and less wrinkles - say no more.
I am intending to get much fitter this year as I do not want the problem with my knee ligaments and tendons again so I have taken up Zumba courtesy of a DVD from daughter. Basically it is a combination of salsa and merengue with extra moevements and is perfect as I just love to dance. It is just great fun and the latin beat is totally infectious.
The new year is the busiest time for holiday enquiries and I am spending a lot of time on the computer so a combination of Zumba and walking is a great balance. In the Algarve spring has sprung - with flowers starting to appear and blossom on trees - nature just never stops - it is just so fascinating.

Firstly Seasons Greetings to you all! I hope that 2011 is good to you and lets hope we have none of the travel hiccups that we have experienced in 2010! We managed to sort out travel delays for our clients flying within Europe over this holiday period and now we have problems with those coming from New York and the east coast of the USA - well it keeps us all on our toes but for those that are delayed it really is not a joke.
The weather in Portugal is typical of the winter with plenty of rain - normal for this time of the year but not great if walking or cycling. The Boxing Day walk was a big sucess and even this morning with the rain some die hards turned up for the walk which we manged with only getting wet for the last 20 minutes (not bad considering the terrible forecast).
I wish you all a Happy Healthy New Year!

Apologies for not blogging as frequently as I should but I have been fighting some form of virus for the past two weeks. It could be something to do with going from the freezing cold of the UK to the mild and damp Algarve. Things are still not great and it is good that we are not doing any walks early December so that I can recharge the old batteries and get fighting fit for the new year.
The weather in Europe has been all over the place with excessively cold weather in northern Europe and in Portugal there has been rain, very, very heavy at times plus in central Portugal there was a tornado which passed through Tomar. This took the roof off a local school and brought down power lines but mercifully no one was killed. The office in Madeira tells me that strong winds closed the airport in Funchal for 2 days last week!
I had to visit a new hotel that we are using close to Faro airport last Sunday and there were many people milling around looking lost - the receptionist told me they were the victims of airport closures in the UK and air traffic controller strikes in Spain and they had been stuck since Wednesday!!
Fortunately for us none of our clients been delayed or stuck - we had enough of that in April with the volcanic ash - an experience I think no one wants to repeat.

Tempus fugit - yes time does indeed fly, I just cannot understand where the time goes. We have been very busy with bookings especially the group ones with some already full and so now I have to decide whether to run extra weeks. Plus I have to put together our weekly walking programme for 2011 as we are already getting calls and e-mails regarding when we are starting after Christmas and where we are walking. A brief calculation has shown me that I need to programme in 20 Wednesday walks and 11 Saturday walks - hmmm. The number is actually not a problem its more a case of making sure we cover all areas of the Algarve and some walks are better done at different times of the year than others. Well I will work on this over the Christmas period - so check on the web site before the New Year.

I have walked my little socks off this past week, walking on 7 consecutive days for a good 4 - 5 hours and I have remained blister free!! This is the first time that over such a period that no blisters have appeared and the secret? It appears putting anti-perspirant on your feet does actually work. Not being a fan of aerosols I used a stick of antiperspirant (and deodorant)and smeared over my feet and toes before putting on my socks and voila - no blisters plus the bonus of sweet smelling feet!
I am on clould nine because also for the first time in 3 months my knee has been pain free even with all the walking. The medial ligament appears to have healed itself - to walk with no pain is just unbelievable - perhaps after all age is not catching up with me!

Its St Martins! The actual Saints day is November 11th and traditionally the days before and after the day are marked by sunshine and warm weather - the Portuguese refer to it as 'St. Martins summer'. Yes true to tradition the weather over Portugal is stable, warm and sunny - in the north of the country villages have 'fairs' where they celebrate with roast chestnuts and drinking the first 'young' wine of the years vintage - very similar to the Beaujolais nouveau in France. In the Algarve the hedgerows are full of bright red pomegranates and furry green quince with griffon vultures riding the thermals overhead before they head south for the winter. Last week a walker and keen birder told me there were at least 400 vultures circling over the Sagres peninsula - it was a sight to behold!

Firstly many thanks to all those who have responded to my blister problem - it does seem that a primary cause of blisters is perspiring feet while walking - so one recommendation is to spray the feet with antiperspirant before putting socks on. There is a also a product that you can buy 'Bodyglide' which goes on like a deodorant stick to prevent chafing or if all else fails Vaseline applied to the feet should help. I will let you know how it goes but I always carry the wonderful animal wool that I have mentioned previously.

Well it has been quite a week! On Saturday I went to the National Bike Fair at Santarem (80km north of Lisbon) and yes there were bikes, bikes and more bikes. I never realised that the top of the range bike frames could be so expensive (7 - 8,000 euro!) But there were plenty of bikes at the lower end of the price range and I did learn quite a bit.

This was followed by a short two day trip to Madeira where I had the most brilliant time. It is amazing what you can achieve in two days if you put your mind to it. I visited virtually the whole island, checking out the new flood prevention system, looking at hotels, plus walking a levada which was new to me. None of this would have been possible without the kindness and generosity of Margarete, a good friend and colleague who looks after all our clients who visit Madeira. Margarete if you read this - thank you so much!

I returned just in time to lead the Wednesday walk on the west coast - absolutely fantastic - brilliant weather, scenery and a great crowd of people.

Now it is time to rest.............