Vatolla to Torrente Fiumicello
Distance: 35km
Müesli with melons and apricots, scrambled eggs, bread with homemade marmelade, fruite juice and two capuchino. I take my sweet time today.
After saying goodbye to my wonderful hosts, I hit the trail just after 09:00. The rain has stopped and the sky looks rather friendly as I make my way through picturesque villages along quiet roads. A pleasant walk. Eventually, I am leaving the hills for the coast again. Busier, generally uglier looking. Still, the sea is nice and I go for a quick swim. As the coastline is steep, the road climbs again. According to Google maps it's closed. I am slightly worried because if couldn't walk the road, it would mean a looooong way round. An additional day at least. The road is closed indeed. Big concrete blocks blocking the way. But on foot, easy to navigate through.
Since it's already 18:00, I decide to use this quiet stretch of road to camp. Unfortunately, a heavy rain shower is passing through just before I want to start pitching my tent. I wait. I get soaked. I curse. Such an unlucky timing. However, I am glad I waited. To soil is hard as rock. I am not able to hammer my pegs into the ground and need to improvise. In the end, after hard work and getting bloody fingers, the tent is standing. Nothing more. If there's going to be wind... That won't be fun.
Anyway, for now, I am happy to have found a spot. Not an easy undertaking when following the coast here. And I am also happy and relieved that the weather should finally improve. No more rain, no more thunderstorms. And it should already be like this from tomorrow onwards! Fingers crossed it will really happen!
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Fredy Koster (Thursday, 15 June 2023 20:49)
Wow, this is a really dark sky. No wonder you are worried about the weather. I really hope it will change for the better. Bleu sky and sun and the villages will look nicer too.
By the way on the second picture, where you see the see, the bush on the right is a oleander.
I love them.
Oh yes you got a pot, you could plant some oleander and bring it back, smile.
Now have a good night.
Good luck and take care.
George Mills (Thursday, 15 June 2023 21:31)
Bad luck with the downpour. Hope the tent held up. After the rain comes the sun and hopefully another swim.
Rob (Friday, 16 June 2023 03:02)
Tenā koe Sandro. What a wonderful breakfast and lovely people. Just what you needed!
I hope the wind stayed away for your overnight tent and favoured you with a good night sleep. Well needed, and well deserved.
I was just watching a documentary on TV of 7-8 Americans dropped off on a remote stretch of coast, of Greenland. They were there prospecting for gold. They were helicoptored in, along with their supplies hanging from under the helicoptor. EVERYTHING they needed for 6 weeks had to go in with them.
To cut a long story short, so much of what they did on arrival was sooo wrong! They each pitched their tent (like a village) in a bowl flat between two steep sheer mountain faces, and on the outside curve of a steep fast flowing stream., and between 2 streams. They may as well have camped in a wind tunnel. Their first night, they had a horrendous storm. Suffice to say their tents blew down. Everything got saturated. The streams rose. They were lucky not to have their village and themselves washed away. The next morning was a clear blue sky and sun. They had to dry everything, but had no line or bushes. No trees. Just bare lichen covered already wet, damp, and cold rocks. Nothing really dried.
They then built quite a sizeable wooden hut. Remember all their supplies was helicoptored in. The hut was big enough to sleep 6 TAs comfortably I thought. They ran out of screws and nails! It was such a make shift hut. No foundations! Nothing to secure it to the ground. Nothing to stop it from being blown down, or being blown away - out into the fiord! Oh yeah, there were small icebergs and ice flows in the fjord. It was sheer horror to watch these men, create their shambles.
Makes you wonder eh!
I had to remind myself 'they're American!'