Saturday 14 May was the latest training day for our sponsored walk to Santiago de Compostela.

7 club members took part in a two stage walk around the Alvor and Mexilhoeira Grande areas. Stage one included areas around the estuary with its cooling breezes and flamingos and stage two further in land amongst fields of poppies.

Each part was approximately 7.5km in length and so older members who will walk the Camino as a team were able to walk the shorter distance where fitter members were able to complete the full distance.

Further training walks will take place before the summer and in the early autumn in readiness for the sponsored walk starting in Valence on 23 September.

The club is hoping to raise sufficient money to complete the funding of a sensory room and safe outside area for children between 4 and 9 years with autism, Downs Syndrome and other disabilities in the Agroupamento Silves Sul school campus in Armacao de Pera.

The school has a similar facility on its Algoz campus for older children from the age of 10 upwards.

The club has already raised over 4000€ from the concert at the end of April.

RC Silves has a strong commitment to supporting our community and will continue to make a difference to the lives of those less fortunate.

We had the original baker’s dozen on parade again this Saturday, except Pam and Alan Winn who sent in “sickies”. Today our leader, Philippe, has chosen another scenic walk through the Salgados wetland reserve between Galé and Armação de Pera. A distance of 7 kms which our gang covered in two hours

You may ask what we are training for. Well Philippe came up with the idea of a  Rotary charity walk to Santiago de Compostelo. No, not from Silves. We would start instead from the north of Portugal and walk through to Santiago itself. This is some 120 kms which we hope to complete within a week – that means 20 kms per day, with the last pilgrimage bit on our knees.

So, Philippe is starting slowly with this training programme. Our current walk of 7 kms is just a third of what we will be expected to manage on a daily basis on the course itself. So we need to gear up to a fitness not yet apparent in our dozen, who by my calculations on average will never celebrate their seventieth birthday again. We do not expect to be equipping them with zimmer frames but the odd bengala may be required.

We will be asking the public to bet on which members will manage to complete this Olympian challenge within the week.  To help them, we will be giving details of the participants in the forthcoming weeks during the training and their current physical state. Follow this space