Return to the Dolomites

In the late 80s and early 90s I was enjoying my former life as a schoolteacher and had the opportunity and encouragement to take my first school expeditions overseas. As I had a small number of young people who were already capable and adventurous climbers I chose to bring them to the Italian Dolomites, for the 'Via Ferrata' routes on the steep limestone faces.

Alpine Gentians flowering in a high meadow

Now, more than 20 years later, I've returned to lead some walking tours for Explore. I've been in Dobbiaco for 6 days learning the routes and reminding myself of the culture of South Tyrol. My first group arrive tomorrow.
It's been a busy week, not least for the buses. The integrated public transport system here is fantastic. You can go anywhere. Buses link up with one another and allow you to move around the area into some otherwise inaccessible places, and when you eventually arrive back at a road after your walk... there's another bus along in just a few minutes to whisk you back to your starting point. The only downside is that you need to be an Advanced Road Services Expert (ARSE) to read the timetables - after a week I am a bit of an Advanced Road Services Expert.
Anyway, enough silliness.
Thursday's walk took me up and past the Tre Cime de Lavaredo. In German they're the 'Drei Zinnen' or Three Merlons. Merlons are the names of the parts of castellated battlements that stick up - the gaps are called Crenels... I've lost the plot again - back to the walk:
The Drei Zinnen are the most fantastic, huge battlements soaring up to 3000m above rocky alpine terraces. The rock is blinding white limestone broken by grassy meadows which, in June, are covered in beautiful alpine flowers. It's a landscape designed for a film set.

Dwarf Valerian with typical steep Dolomitic Limestone peaks

I walked around the peaks from the south to their uncompromising north faces. The central Cima Grande begins with some hundreds of metres of overhanging rock coloured a pale ochre orange, whilst the upper half leans back to be a very steep slab, blackened by running water.

Tre Cime de Lavaredo - north faces

The whole area is a tourist walking paradise - a road gets you high up and in to the Rifugio Auronzo. Paths which are not excessively difficult ring the mountain, taking in the Rifugio Locatelli on the north side. The approach to the Locatelli was incredibly busy with walkers making the best of the wonderful weather.

Too many people approaching the Rifugio Locatelli 

From the Locatelli I hastened on through to descend the 1000m on the east side of the mountain to regain the road where I found my bus waiting!

Céret in the French Pyrenees

Amalfi seems a long time ago. Since then I’ve had a week in the Pyrenees and am now in the South Tyrol. Before I get on to writing about the beautiful Dolomiten mountains of the Tyrol I need to report on my week in the Pyrenees.

 This year was the 8^th year in succession that I’ve taken the ‘Pacemakers’ away for a hiking holiday and they have become close friends in that time. It’s always lovely to meet up again (usually in ‘departures’ at Stansted Airport). Every year it’s somewhere new and I was confident that we’d all love our stay near Céret.

Hotel Mas Trilles

I’d discovered the Hotel Mas Trilles which is a beautiful retreat down by the Tech River a couple of miles outside Céret. Even better were our perfect hosts, Amparo and Stefan who went the extra mile to make us welcome and smooth our progress through the week. The food has always been an important part of our trips and this year our tour of the best restaurants in the area included Le Bartavelle in Argelès Sur Mer, Atelier de Fred in Céret and 66 Sur Vins in Maureillas las Illas.

But the walking is what we go for. My favourite walks were the contrasting mountain walk on Canigou and the rocky Catalan coastline.

Carpets of wild flowers

We didn’t climb to the summit of Canigou, which would be a bit hardcore. Instead we walked a small loop from the Refuge of Batère. An eagle circled over the shoulder of the mountain as we set off, climbing steadily through carpets of flowers – a lofty ridge walk with spectacularly open views all around.  A storm broke on the heights of Canigou although it never spread to our part of the mountain.

Climbing towards Canigou

And two days later we were on the coast. The walk began with a hitch as we’d hoped to take the train from Port Vendres to Banyuls sur Mer.  A train driver’s strike put paid to this plan but we were not to be denied. On a scorching hot day we upped and downed, passing rocky coves and steep cliffs and sandy beaches. Coast walks can lead the uninitiated to imagine a flat progress but they can be quite vicious! 

Another 'undulation' on the coast path

We stopped for a swim half way along and it felt quite difficult getting started again after lunch.

So that’s a brief summary which can’t quite do justice to what seemed a wonderful escape. Where are we going next year?

Mules rule in the Ferriere State Park above Amalfi

Amalfi coast walking mostly follows medieval mule tracks built to transport goods through the steep mountainous terrain of the Sorrento peninsula. Most of the travel between the 9^th century and the 14^th century was by ship, through the trading port and city republic of Amalfi. However, the city’s need for timber and fresh food meant that mules were vital in supplying the city.

Some of the area’s mule trails have been maintained and improved whilst others are fallen into various stages of ruin. Just occasionally, on foot, you may be lucky enough to encounter a 21^st century muleteer and his mules, working on the old trails.

During the four weeks I spent in the area for Explore we had a three such encounters, once on the San Lazzaro to Amalfi path, once in Nocelle with mules bringing bags of cement to a house along a tiny lane and once in the Ferriere State Park.

This last, in the remote woods of the park, was a glimpse into a long gone past.

I had noticed that the footpath was churned up and took a moment with my group to do a ‘Mule Briefing’ – an explanation of the tradition and also a safety warning. Mules may know how wide they are but they are unlikely to be aware of how wide their pannier loads are and to be struck by a passing mule’s load of logs would result in considerable paperwork for the unfortunate leader.

As we walked on I noticed that the path was scored by small furrows and concluded that the mules were dragging log poles, rather than carrying panniers. Barely moments later a commotion in the forest ahead signalled the oncoming mules and one appeared, without muleteer, dragging three 8 metre long logs up the steep and narrow track. It saw us and stood, uncertain, 15 metres down the track.

 I urged my group up the steep bank and out of the way.  As I was fussing the muleteer arrived and held the mule right on a tight bend in the path. It’s usually better for the mule to be held still while the walkers proceed past, but on this occasion there was a group sized layby but no room to pass the mule, which was now being followed by another, similarly loaded.

The coppiced logs swung wide at the bend with a hooked machete stored safely away.

From our perch above the track we watched the heavily loaded animals coaxed, snorting and stumbling but powerful, along the uneven, rocky path, the leading edge of their chestnut pole loads swinging wide as they turned the corner and the trunk tips dragging new furrows in the surface.

A third mule appeared with its load, which this time included a muleteer standing on the mule’s harness.

He jumped down to take the corner and the whole train disappeared up into the forest. We could hear their snorting progress upwards (the mules, not the guys) for some time afterwards.