A nice stroll to Estombar 

Spring! ...

... and the only 'riot' this week was that of flowers, blooming furiously after the sun-and-rain treatment of the last few weeks.

Yves, Frank, Martin and Rafa, David, Karen, Sue, Jan, Marian

We gathered outside Silves' finest restaurant, for a prompt start at 10am. 

However, we were all far too busy at 10 a.m., so we made a start at about 10 past, and sprinted northwards, heading in entirely the wrong direction for our intended destination of the 'Parque Municipal do Sitio das Fontes' in Estombar:

It was difficult to keep up, but Martin had a dog and a holy sprinter to help

Crossing the Ponte Romana (which isn't really a Roman Bridge, you know), we finally turned in the required direction and proceeded past the two concrete hovels, with a sad-looking dog and three happy-looking puppies amongst the rubbish. 

After that we passed the splendidly-named 'Kill-the-Moors Farm', which I gather does wine tasting sessions for those who are not (for some mysterious reason) satisfied with a box of red from Lidl:

... past a 'stairway to heaven' (which we eschewed, not needing one at present):

and commenced our walk by the bonnie, bonnie banks o' the Rio Arade:

Turned out nice again

... passing through the fast-expanding 'Arvad' vineyard, which I gather does wine tasting sessions for those who are not (for some mysterious reason) satisfied with a box of white from Aldi:

.... down a bit where the proper path had been blocked off, but allowed us to enjoy more flowers (these were ... yellow ones)

but there were also, um, red ones (did I mention I'm not an expert on flowers?)

We went on a little tour of the flat lands beside the river, where we saw a lot of majestic storks, a egret, an heron or two, (but it might have been the same one twice), and a flock of little brown birds (did I mention I'm not an expert on birds?)

So anyway, we presently achieved our objective of reaching the aforementioned Parque Municipal etc., but a bit too early for lunch!

Not sure what was going on here, but there were a lot of schoolchildren about, and a wicked-looking grandmother

So I arbitrarily decided that it would fill the spare time splendidly if we went to look at some nice mud:

Glorious

... and we then returned to the picnic spot, but didn't allow Frank or Marian to sit anywhere near us, just in case:

We then returned via a carefully-chosen short-cut, up the only hill of note on the entire route:

... and, as I had predicted, were assaulted by a ravenous horde of loose canines:

Frank showed them dogs he was not to be trifled with

...  then retraced our steps, passing an expensive-looking mindfulwellbeingness resort called 'Pura Vida' (which we eschewed, not really fancying one at the moment), past the hovels (by now with a person in 'residence'), over the fake Ponte Romana again, and back to a welcome beverage at the second-finest restaurant in Silves, near a convenient playground.

Route and Stats:

Terry Mace

Thanks to all, and to Yves for the best photos. You can tell which ones he took 😒

Alps blog. Grigna Meridionale, Lake Como. 26/3/22

 

Participants, Sergio, me and myself, plus the entire city of Milan.

 Last Saturday I thought of joining a group of hikers who were going up a mountain to a refuge called Rosalba at an altitude of 1730 m.

When I saw the number of participants, around 40 people, I decided to go it alone and it was a good decision. Not only because of Covid but also because going up a steep and rocky mountain in such a crowded group spells danger.

The mountain in question is called the Grigna Meridionale, 2184 m high, and it’s situated just to the right, mid-way up Lake Como. (the Grigna Meridionale towering above the town of Lecco).

 

When I arrived at the starting point at Pian Resinelli, 1182 m, I had a shock. The vast car park was totally full, the nearby roads were also full of parked cars, there must have been the entire city of Milan there, hundreds of cars parked everywhere.

 

 Going up to the refuge was not fun because I had to overtake myriad of people who were just strolling upwards in a leisurely way, going nowhere fast. Typical city people.

 

Finally I arrived at the refuge Rosalba. As crowded as the center of Milan.

 

View West, Lake Como below. 

I saw a couple of people venturing upwards from the refuge, so I decided to continue towards the summit, away from the crowd. From then on, it was a totally different story.

  

Finally I could breathe again, the crowd disappeared the further up I went. Almost nobody there.

At some point it became necessary to rock climb, no other easy way up. And here began the essence of the mountain, pure rock and the hardship of rock climbing. In places there are some iron ropes but they soon became more sporadic.

    

View from the South face of the Grigna Meridionale.

    

The paths became very narrow, more rocky, covered with ice and snow as the altitude increased. The level of rock climbing was relatively easy, a similar difficulty and hardship as climbing up a ladder, the rocks offered an easy grip, both for the hands and boots, although it was imperative to avoid the many areas still covered with ice. Fortunately, my Salewa boots offered a near perfect grip. In retrospect though, I should have carried my rope and worn my helmet, something that some other climbers did.

 

Near the summit. View North-West.

 Photo taken on the summit. The nearby Grigna Settentrionale, 2410 m, pure rock. On my climbing list.

Finally, I arrived at the summit. Yep, the Apollo mission did land here before going to the Moon.

After that, it was a long, arduous and tiring way down. When I got to the car the tips of my fingers were so worn out because of the cold and rock climbing that I had difficulty unlocking my phone because it could not recognize my finger prints.

Unfortunately, as you might expect in these conditions in the Alps, there were some casualties that weekend. I learnt later that the organizer of the group I did not join fell and broke his legs and was heliported to the nearby hospital of Lecco. Plus I read on the local paper that one person died and another was seriously injured in hospital.

Because of traffic jams, it took me well over 2 hours to get home, about 60 km away. It would have been faster on a bicycle.

Total for this hike: 11 km, 1200 m climb and descent, about 300 m of which, rock climbing. Mighty hard for and old guy like me. I burned about 6,000 calories on the day and then I spent the following two days eating everything and sleeping. Marvelous.

Do I miss the Algarve? Oh yes. Above all I miss the great fun I had with the AWW. Keep it up. See you soon.