Paka Dora charity hike from Benaciate

It’s been a while since I blogged about hiking, but I have just spent a glorious day hiking 27 kilometres around the beautiful Benaciate area between Silves and São Bartolomeu de Messines. I also wanted to give Paka Dora Association – set up and run by the amazing Gabi Shepherd – a mention.

Friends may recall that it was Gabi who came to our rescue when Cleo, a local stray who is imposssible to catch (more on that later), carried her six kittens into our garden at the end of last summer. What started off as a simple sterilisation plan ended up far more complicated when one of the kittens got attacked by a seagull and they all caught the fatal feline panleukopenia.

Today I joined Gabi and many of her charity’s supporters for what ended up being a 9.1-kilometre hike around Benaciate. I checked out the meeting place thinking the Benaciate area was new to me, then Harri reminded me we’d passed through the area on a 30-kilometre hike we were leading in the winter. There really is no hope for me!

A hiking sandwich

 Harri was working all day, so I decided to get up early and walk from Alcantarilha Gare to Benaciate, join the charity walk and then return on foot to my starting point and car. Harri plotted my route, based on that long winter walk and I was ready to go. I rose at 6am, left the house at 7.35 am, and by 8 am I had parked just uphill from the railway station (outside a cafe that I have never once seen open).

And what a beautiful day’s hiking it turned out to be. Sandwiching the very sociable hike between two solitary strolls turned out to be a genius idea, even if I say so myself. A handful of Hiking Algarve friends turned up to support Gabi’s charity and were joined by other Paka Dora supporters and several well-behaved dogs (including GeeTee, a Hiking Algarve regular).

I didn’t know the man leading the hike – and didn’t get chance to speak to him – however he’d devised a pretty 9.1km route with a few hills, which amazingly avoided any crossover with my own route to Benaciete.

Spring flowers

The weather here is warming up nicely after the worst winter many of us can remember – it’s hard to believe we’ve now spent nine winters here. Our reward for surviving those endless wet months has been an abundance of late spring colour, with wild and garden flowers erupting into bloom. Already, we’ve enjoyed the yellow carpeted meadows of the (invasive) Bermuda buttercup, plus a landscape of numerous other yellow and blue blooms. Right now, the predominant flower blossoming in fields and along dry-stoned walls is the stunning dark red corn poppy.

Something I’ve occasionally spotted growing wild in the Algarve are lavender-coloured opium poppies. Despite Portugal’s relatively liberal drugs legislation, it remains illegal to cultivate any plant used to produce narcotics so I’m guessing the seeds of these sporadic poppies have blown in on a breeze.

While the vibrant colours of spring are starting to fade, there remains ample evidence of a very wet winter, not least the profusion of flowering grasses everywhere. I noticed that two writers cited hayfever as their excuse for pulling out of Lisa Selvidge’s writing workshop today. I’m on the antihistamines every day and poor Tyson (the black kitten) has been sneezing a lot.

Hayfever aside, all that grass can make it difficult to spot an onward route on the ground – a particular problem at the start of a track. I (mostly) found today’s tracks, although there was some confusion and ‘rewinding’ when it vanished in the middle of an olive grove and my lovely Indian lady guide on Outdoor Active kept shrieking at me ‘You have left the track’ and ‘You are going the wrong way’. Strangely, on my return hike (exactly the same route), I navigated the olive grove perfectly and got disorientated near Alcantarilha Gare. It happens – and it’s far more likely for this hiker to go astray when my onward route is obscured by vegetation.

More about Paka Dora Assocation

This was only meant to be a short blog, however I recently wrote a half-page article about Gabi’s charity for Tomorrow magazine, which I’m posting below. All proceeds (unfortunately, not a lot) were obviously donated to Paka Dora.

The Christmas Miracle

While most people were sitting down to Christmas dinner, our thoughts weren’t on turkey and Brussels sprouts but on Storm, our little miracle kitten, who was finally well enough to be discharged from the Hospital Veterinário de Portimão.

Storm, one of six kittens brought to our garden at four weeks by their feral mother, had almost succumbed to the cruel feline panleukopenia virus that had killed her brothers Zorro and Moonface six days previously.

Three months on, Storm is now healthy and thriving, with a quirky habit of tapping us for attention. Her siblings – Nettie, Midge and Tyson – complete our contented little feral family.

Our story has a happy conclusion; however, things could have turned out very differently had it not been for the Paka Dora Association.

We first approached the charity set up by Gabi Shepherd for help to sterilise the kittens before they reached sexual maturity – the conditions set by our local câmara made its offer of help impractical and impossible to accept. Gabi had readily agreed to help when tragedy struck. Midge was attacked by a seagull, leaving her left eye badly damaged. Paka Dora paid for the removal of the eye, and the sterilisation of all kittens. We were provided with a cat house and food.

When, barely a month later, the kittens seemed lethargic and off their food, it was to Paka Dora I turned. Again, Gabi demonstrated her commitment to the wellbeing of the Algarve’s street cats, turning up at 7.30am to help.

One of the vets who treated the kittens told me that feline panleukopenia is on the increase in Portugal, specifically because of the increase in feral populations caused by irresponsible owners not sterilising their pets. In fact, this virus can be tackled head-on if every cat owner sterilised their pet, male or female.

“We don’t only sterilise street cats; we provide food, medical care and cat houses,” said Gabi. “We also assign volunteer caretakers to feed and monitor the cats. At Paka Dora, we believe healthy animals shouldn’t be discriminated against because they are street cats.”

Paka Dora is committed to improving the lives of feral cats who, through no fault of their own, are often condemned to suffering throughout their too-short lives. It can only continue its important work through donations. Monthly lunches are planned from April.

INFO:
https://pakadoraassociation.com

Facebook: Pakadora Association-PDA 

(first published in Tomorrow magazine, April 2025 issue)