What is planned for this year beyond the normal routes?
IS: We are doing the first pedestrian crossing of Porto Santo. It is one of the goals of the program this year. We started at one end of the island and ended up at on the other. The trip this year unlike previous programs will not be outside the national territory. Exceptionally we are going to Geres, because economic conditions are not the best. These trips have always in the background walks. We do not just do site seeing. We go through mountains as Geres that is a little corner of Portugal with the purpose of doing many walking trails, this has much to do with our identity. Like every year we are keen to go to the desert island and are not as easy as it appears to be. It's different. It has no much accessibility as you might think. The crossing of Madeira, which is another of the initiatives of the club will have its 12th edition.
Of all the walks you did throughout your life there is one that scored more?
IS: Those trips that mark us most are those who normally present more problems. When everything goes well, is forgotten soon after. No one ever remembers. I am saying this because I was in a place where a lady recognized me and remembered a journey it rained a lot and there was some difficulty in reaching the end. The walks were we have to overcome some obstacles and difficulties the ones we remember the most. I do not know if it's positive or negative. This a walk between Pleasures and the power station of Calheta. It is a flat course, but it was raining a lot and the flow of some streams overflowed the banks and some people had more difficulty in overcoming this barrier. I remember I had to put myself in the middle of the river with my stick deep the river bed to help people move. Some were more afraid what is natural, not all are so adventurous. At the end we were all wet from head to toe.
Recently you been in the Alps, what attracts you in this kind of tour?
IS: It's the adrenaline, the different landscapes, a degree of difficulty is much higher, are tracks that require more of us. We have to walk 3 to 4 days autonomy, i.e., carry with all the equipment, from the clothes to the most basic equipment for that kind of cold temperatures that occur at altitudes above 3000 meters. Are not negative, but require special equipment and that means knowing what to takes, the essential, given the weight that you will carry.
Requires preparation throughout the year?
IS: It requires great preparation, but the walks throughout the year help on this matter. Give some training accordingly.
The regional routes, there was a change for the better or not?
IS: We had the enormous problems after the 20th of February, because nearly all tours suffered with the storm. Fortunately some recovered, others are yet to improve. Before we begin a new route a week in advance a team will check the path and if it is necessary to have created conditions in which people can go smoothly. We do recognition of the routes and we've had to do sometimes the cleaning of some sections to allow access for walkers. The club is not limited to the paths marked by the regional government. We walk some of these pathways, but we do different ones and they often are not clean so we do this work of cleaning.
How do you find them out? These routes that are not marked?
IS: I did not discover. They already exist. They are covered by vegetation, they are rarely used and few people passing by. There are even paths that disappear due to invasion of the forest.
But you find them through maps, or reports of older people?
IS: In most cases older people indicate us these courses and I also have experience I've been walking for 40 years, is already a walking life. There are routes that I did as a young man who sometimes are so covered, that simply we stopped doing them.
What is your favorite?
IS: I have no favorite. What I like is to walk. They are all beautiful. If we are to the north coast we see the laurel forest on the south we have a totally different landscape. The walk to the pier of the Sardine, in Caniçal is more rugged. In Madeira we managed to have a bit of everything and so I like to walk it thru.
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