|
Val Ciamin |
September 16, 2014
As I write these notes, the noontime church bells are pealing; and they persist for a full ten minutes. I assume that this is a normal daily event. Something rings every fifteen minutes thereafter.
Our room turns out to be okay after all; in fact, it has certain advantages over the others, such as a nice patio facing the sun. Perhaps some of our laundry actually will dry here. The shower is nicer than the others, and I am able to utilize a table brought in from the patio for working on the computer underneath a real light fixture.
There is no Internet access from this facility, however; and that is a
substantial drawback. When we check in, the proprietor feigns ignorance
of the meanings of the terms "Wi-Fi" and "Internet", claiming that her
English isn't very good. A short walk from here, though, is a cafe that
supports access to the outside world, and it is open until 8 p.m.; so our
evening ritual is to march down there, order something to drink, and perform our
electronic magic. On our first visit, the bartender had to go upstairs to
get the password; but now our devices remember it.
At breakfast, it is not clear as to just what the juice is; but it has a nice, bright orange color and tastes better than the flavored water we had been getting. The coffee is good, and a scrambled egg shows up without any prompting.
Dave has big plans for tomorrow's outing; so the idea is to take it
easier today — not that we need additional rest. Two different buses
wind up through the hills, frequently on one-lane roads; but these drivers
are very good at their jobs, and we survive the journey.
The trailhead's nature park visitor center!
We will be trekking beside a creek all the way today. The climb is quite steep at first, with many stone and wooden steps being involved.
This is a true rainforest
Occasionally some sunlight peeks through the clouds
Beside the trail is the niftiest water fountain ever, cleverly hewn from a single tree root. A couple of strategically placed stones equalize the flow among the three channels.
A signpost invites us to drink, so we do.
Another wonderful fountain. Who thinks up these things?
The Eastern Harvestman Spider has the longest legs I ever saw
A big clearing signifies the end of today's walk. There is a rifugio farther up, as always; but we already had planned to forgo that difficult ascent on this occasion.
Rechter Leger — a nice place to sit down and contemplate one's existence
Rifugio Bergamo is way up there
Several folk are lounging on benches here, content to read or nap or whatever. Because there is plenty of time due to the bus schedule, Dave and I do the same.
We keep hoping for the tallest peak to show itself, but it won't
This one resembles Switzerland's Matterhorn
Downy Gentian
Star Gentian
Just after we leave, the big spire does come out of hiding briefly:
Looping back to a village well below the trailhead
There are half a dozen of these man-made falls, function unknown
Our walk ends at San Cipriano, which is just another typically gorgeous hamlet:
This is why I go hiking
§ This was a very pretty walk, as expected. The views of the spires at the top of the valley were largely obscured by clouds, a condition that has become the standard for this vacation.
| Scenery |  |
| Difficulty |  |
| Personality |  |
| Solitude | |
