He'll be walking round the mountain

Walking in the Sud Tirol series links: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Tuesday 20th Sept 2011 - Sud Tirol walking day 2





The view from my room...



...and again











Today was a free day and I'd resolved to get up 'when I was ready' and try to get to the nearest cache to the hotel; one which I knew was quite a way up a mountain.

More snow had fallen overnight and from my estimates the snow level had lowered from a normal 1800m down to about 1600m. Of course I didn't really know this at the time and altitudes/snow lines meant nothing to me as I'd not left the bottom of the valley - I could see some rather big 'hills' all around, with snow 'further up' but it was all lost in the distance, the vastness, the epic scale of the landscape.



St. Jacob (I think) - the next village









Despite a few fizzy pops in the gasthof bar the evening before (my last real drink of the week) I was up bright and early and after a slow breakfast and taking my time to get ready I was all set to go by 10am.

Following the arrow on my GPS I set off on the adventure of a lifetime! I walked a short way up a road leading to another Gasthof and then diverted onto a farmers track and up a fantastically steep path. I say path, but it turned out to be flattened grass where water and sticks had cascaded down the hill during the rain. Eventually I arrived at a road barrier and I was back onto a mountain road - if only I'd walked around!

I stuck to this road for a mile, working my way up the mountain, and taking in my first views from altitude.

I was heading to a cache located near a monument to an aeroplane that had crashed in the Second World War, with loss of half the crew. It was a nice thoughtful place to stop and I actually saw a couple of deer very close by but didn't have my camera handy.

The well kept cache was quickly found and I left a decent length log thanking them for it. It hadn't been found for several months which surprised me - I know it's a little out of the way but I figured the area would be popular with tourist walkers.

I kept walking up the mountain, eventually hitting the snow level and losing all signs of paths or trails. The air was clean, the sun was burning and aside from streams and the wind it was utterly peaceful. I'd not seen a soul for two and a half hours and could easily have been the only person alive.

At this point I had to stop - an altitude of 1790m. Although the snow was very cold underfoot (of course), the sun was baking hot and causing it to melt quite quickly. Consequently the going was treacherous because the grass, under the snow, was very wet and slippery. I didn't want to risk an accident especially with being out on my own.

Incidentally, according to my GPS, at this point I had been out for 2.5 hours, with 1 hour stopping time (rest, food, photos, refill water bag) yet frustratingly I was still only 1 mile from the hotel! I had actually walked 2.8 miles - a testament to the gradient I was walking.

I started to descend along the same route for a while and then diverted along a bridleway heading west.

Dropping down, down and further down, out of the snow the sun once again became more apparent. 



I patiently waited here for the
tractor to return on his loop







So today I'd had an adventure of my own. I'd found a cache, walked 7.1 miles and climbed 600m.

Best. Day. Ever.

The route I walked. North is about 2 o'clock.

Rotated a little, here I've added a red line showing
roughly where the snow level really was.

An elevation map of my route.

From the dawn of time...

From the dawn of time we came, moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you.....

...until now.


OK so I stole the opening to Highlander for the opening to my new blog but it did seem quite appropriate. Apart from the fighting :-)

This blog is really for me, it's my own way of keeping track of my travels as I geocache around Yorkshire. Of course there are logs and comments that you post with each find, or did-not-find, but often I find myself trying to remain polite when I've been drenched, cold and scrambling around in grotty places at the behest of a cache-owner who should know better.

I once read something on the official forums along the lines of "Look at the place you're placing your cache. Why would someone else come here? If the only reason is to find your cache then you're placing it in the wrong spot." Simple words that I find very moving. I've had the urge to place several caches but I've held off (from the four I currently have) purely because I can't find the ideal spot for someone to visit but also one that is quite easy for me to maintain.

Maintenance. Another bug-bear. Why do people place caches and then ignore DNFs?, ignore notes about soaked or cracked cases? Geocache ownership brings with it some responsibility and it's a better sport all around if those responsible ARE responsible.

Anyway that's the intro to the blog. Now I'm going to write an intro about my Geocaching...