I was invited around to lunch on Thursday by Fausto. It was his birthday not that this meant any fanfare only a bowl of fresh pasta mixed with some walnut pesto (yum). They were meant to be heading off to the mountains the night before but didn't quite get there. Both Fausto and Catherine are tired, although both won't admit it!
It was suggested that I might like to see some more of the mountains and because they were leaving later that afternoon, maybe i'd like to join them.
Instead of going with them in the car, I headed off pretty quickly and rode up towards the Parco Nazionale. After 2600m of serious serious climbing I made it. The stars were closer because I was so high, the air thin and the fact that this is a big lie means I can't write much more about it....in fact I put my bike in the car and we took off up into the mountains. I had no idea what to expect really.
http://tinyurl.com/mrqtfk is the route. Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ajoest/TheMountains#
It was relatively late in the afternoon so if I did want to ride back, which was plan A, I only had a hour to look around before needing to head off. After seeing the Refugio (the alpine hut) and the surrounds I thought it crazy not to stay and see a little more notwithstanding the novelty of waking up in the mountains and do some hiking. So I decided to stay the night. It's not cheap but a nights stay includes dinner and breakfast. They work on a strict time regime in the Refugio Chivasso. It got a bit out of control but i'll write about that later. Dinner was at 7:15 so I had an hour to wander off and check out some of the area. I took lots of great little photos of the flowers. Unfortunately I tried taking large landscape panoramas but with a little camera none really represent the expanse of the place at all. I came across another Refugio and also a shephard watching over his cattle. I was inspired by the place that I built a little stone statue in the middle of the valley alongside a creek as my gift to the mountains gods. Before long it was time to head back for dinner. It was also getting cold and considering I only brought a light jumper I was worried that might have been a little foolish.
Dinner was a three course extravaganza. Buonissimo!!! A hearty minestrone soup to start, a plate of polenta, potatoes and chicken and for dessert - wow....a buonet (?) a mousse made with chocolate, coffee, amaretto...seriously amazing!
After playing cards for a little, Fausto asked whether we could have a ......(i'll track down the word for it later)...coffee liquer type thing. This caused a bit of a stir because the Refugio manager didn't want to break tradition and serve this drink out of season. Fausto reasoned with him saying that I was all the way from Australia and that it would be a nice gesture. We got the drink with a lot of grumbling. The ......came in a friendship mug. A large wooden bowl with four drinking points. Needless to say, it was worth the haggling as it was a great end to the evening. Lights out at 10pm.
I woke up this morning to a knocking on the door. We had overslept out 7:30am curfew. Our breakfast had been put on the table already deliberately so it would be cold by the time we got out of bed. I slept pretty badly for some reason but Catherine didn't sleep at all so she was not impressed with their 'tradizione'...I was just going with the flow and didn't mind other than the bread was stale and the coffee was worse than International Roast.
Catherine and Fausto were aiming for the Refugio Rossetti (I think) so I joined them for the first section up to Lago Rossett. I was a gorgeous still blue-sky day and so walking into the mountains was an absolute joy. We saw many marmots, birds and insects. The flowers at that alitude (over 2600m) are very vibrant and fun to photograph. The lakes are crystal clear and each has a different hue. Lago Rossett is of an emerald hue while the others darker again. I turned around at Lago Rossett and headed back to the Refugio. Fausto and Catherine headed onwards and upwards. They had to tackle a mountain pass around 3200m high before heading back down into another valley.
I got back to the Refugio and was greeted by the hut manager. He was trying to be nice but in the end gave me a massive lecture on how I had to respect the tradizione of the mountains and that it was not a place to be commercialised. All I had done was lock my bike up. This inferred to him that I didn't trust the mountain people; it wasn't like the city he pointed out. Unfortunately I really couldn't communicate with him, as I would have really like to point out that he moved my bag earlier that morning because he didn't want it to get stolen! This guy was a real grump. He had commercialised his hut as it was the most expensive of all of them and they served lunches for extra cash. It really put me off. I admit I didn't turn up in full hiking gear and wasn't there to hike specifically however it was annoying to leave feeling somewhat unwelcome.
With all of that behind me, I was back in my knicks and punching downhill, deep into the Ceresole Valley. The switch backs were pretty intense with plenty of traffic coming up hill on very narrow roads. Looking down at Lake Surra is equally as spectacular as looking back up to where I had come from. It was 600m of altitude between the coll and Lago Serru (although the road was switching back on itself for all those people who had already started trying to calculate the angle!). People were climbing it by bike but it would have been seriously hard going grinding away.
I was happy going the other way sitting in the 54:11 (gear ratio front: rear!) smashing out some fast speeds particularly through the 3.5km tunnel. It reminded me of the morning we rode through the Heysen tunnels last Christmas with Amber shouting with joy at the top of her lungs in the tunnel. I did the same! It was exhilarating!
The temperature difference was very noticable when I got back to the low-lands. It was cool up the top. I needed a light jumper even in the sun. At the bottom it was low thirties. Suffice to say, I sweated it for the remaining 70kms home once I had reached the valley floor.
Once home it was time for some refuelling. I hadn't eaten since the stale bread and grumpy hut-manager breakfast and was starving by the time I was back just after 4pm. I sit here writing this blog and posting photos very grateful for Fausto and Catherine to take me with them. It is accessible and yet few people venture up the windy roads.
I hope I will continue to get inspired to head up the windy roads and experience more of the open spaces and beautiful scenery in the very near future.
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