Come 7am, though, the rain had eased a little and had changed to a finer, lighter drizzle. The canopy over the exercise/bike repair area was actually enough to protect me from the worst of the rain this morning and I managed a half-hour spin on the turbo trainer in the relative dry.
After coming back in, showering and having some breakfast, I logged onto my work emails to try and fit in a half hour or so of work while waiting for the call from the Phillipses to let us know whether or not we were on for our day out. Since the Orrido di Botri nature reserve is over an hour's drive away, and the weather was a bit iffy (to say the least), they were going to phone the gorge at 9am to find out whether or not it was open - no point in trekking all that way only to find it closed.
As we waited, we noticed a distinct improvement in the weather - by now the rain had dried up, and there were even some small patches of blue in the sky. Sure enough, the call came, giving us the nod - we were on! That meant action stations - I fired off a pre-prepared email to my work colleagues to let them know I wouldn't be answering email all day, and we quickly threw some slices of bread into a sandwich box, made up some flasks of squash, gathered the bags of spare clothes that we had already packed, and headed out the door.
First stop was Chris and Sue's and, after following them through town for a couple of short errands, we were on our way.
Our destination, the Orrido di Botri nature reserve, is in the mountains beyond Bagni di Lucca, so our journey involved following the road towards Lucca then peeling off towards the mountains. The journey felt very familiar to us, as it took us through territory that had been our temporary stomping ground on our summer holiday last June (when, incredibly, just 15 months ago, the idea of living in this part of the world was still just that - the beginnings of an idea - and we made our first ever visit to Pescia).
The journey did indeed take over an hour, with the last section seeming to climb up and up into the mountains on a small and winding road for an age. Every now and then, as the road switched back one way or another, we were afforded a magnificent view back down the valley, while at other times the peaks of the high mountains popped out from behind cloud - very dramatic and absolutely stunning scenery.
We eventually rolled up at the gorge just before midday. First things first: coffees all round, courtesy of the small cafe based there.
Feeling fortified from the caffeine, we prepared ourselves for the walk and headed to the cabin to pay our entrance fee and get properly equipped.
Incredibly, the entrance fee is a mere €2 per person (with children up to the age of 13 free of charge). An absolute bargain. There are a couple of rules - you need to return by 6pm, need to leave some form of ID with the rangers (who take a note of how many people are in each party), and everyone must wear a safety helmet. Complete with very fetching hairnet:
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| And now for your tour around the cheese factory.... |
All kitted out with safety gear, we headed into the gorge. The Orrido di Botri gorge is a deep limestone gorge carved by the river Pelago. The walk along it basically takes you all the way along the river bed - you are guaranteed to get wet at the very least up to your knees (hence the bag of dry clothes to change into later) and you need to be wearing footwear with decent soles (and that can get wet).
As we set off into the gorge, the weather was beautiful - we could see blue sky peeping from between the steep sides of the gorge, and walked in dappled sunlight for a while.
At the start of the walk you pass through a gate next to a house. Sitting outside the house were two dozing dogs and a very young-looking cat, who seemed interested in us. As we walked past we gave the cat a stroke and walked on. The cat followed. We walked on a bit further. The cat followed. We crossed the river. The cat followed. We carried on along the path. The cat followed. We stopped for a sandwich. The cat stopped with us. It seemed very happy jumping across the rocks in the river and scrambling up the banks and enjoyed being fussed over by Henry and Erik. It also seemed to enjoy finishing their sandwiches. In the end we named the cat Dave. (Despite the fact that it was clearly a girl cat.) Dave came with us all the way as far as the point at which there is no other way to continue than to get into the water. We were quite concerned by the fact he (she) had come so far from home, so we hope he (she) managed to find his (her) way back again. The alternative was to put Dave in a rucksack and carry on, but we thought that might not work out too well.
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| Dave helps get the sandwiches out. |
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| Dave happy on a rock. |
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| Dave hides in the undergrowth. |
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| Dave crosses the river. |
Anyway, distractions of the additional members of the party aside, the walk through the gorge was simply beautiful.
The walk is split into four 'stages'. Stage 1: 'Guadina' is fairly simple walking, although with quite a bit of rock-hopping. You can pretty much do this without getting your feet wet. Stage 2: 'Le Prigioni' involves about 500 metres guaranteed to be covered (knee deep) in water. Stage 3: 'Salto dei Becchi' is a limestone shelf with some intense erosion, and from that point onwards, the route becomes a bit more challenging, with sections where you really need the ropes that are strung up on the rocks to help get around sheer rock faces with deep pools of water beneath. Finally, Stage 4: 'Piscina' is a beautiful pool with waterfall.
When your feet first go in the water it comes as quite a shock. The water is COLD. When you then end up knee-deep (sometimes above the knee) in the water, it really takes your breath away. In fact, the pain of the cold, cold water felt like having what I call ice-cream-headache (or brain freeze) - the intense pain you get in your head when you eat something really cold too quickly - but instead of in your head, in both of your legs. The sense of relief and comfort on wading out of the water at the other end was instant and intense!
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| Going in. |
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| Knee deep. |
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| Out the other side. |
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| Superhero. |
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| Stage 2 done! |
Over the course of the trek every member of our party slipped and fell into the water at least once, apart from Henry and me. Stuart managed to do it three times. I put my steadier feet down not to a superior sense of balance (as if!!) but to my trusty, tattered old trainers.
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| Battered and worn out they may be, but my trainers have seen a lot of action and remain faithful. |
Stage 3 involved a little more clambering:
But Stage 4 was really the goal of the day. The Phillipses have been to the gorge twice before over the course of the summer and hadn't yet made it as far as the 'Piscina' and the waterfall, so that was the main aim of the day today. Sue, who has suffered with hip problems since breaking her hip a few years ago, was an absolute inspiration. It was clearly considerably harder going for her than for any of the rest of us - I felt somewhat phased by some of the clambering, and can't imagine how much determination it must have taken Sue to make it up some of the scrambling sections.
Stuart, Henry, Erik and I were the first to make it to the Piscina - we were thrilled, and it was touching to see Henry rush back to make sure that Sue wasn't going to give up as the end point was so close within reach. We were all delighted when Sue and Chris rounded the corner and all six of us had made it to the waterfall - mission accomplished!
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| The waterfall! |
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| Made it! |
Of course, boys will be boys. You can't walk all the way along a gorge to a waterfall and not actually touch the water of the waterfall, can you? Apparently not.
All four of the boys stripped off to dive into the icy, icy cold water of the pool and attempt to touch the waterfall. Sue and I looked on, from the relative warmth of our only-slightly-damp clothing.
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| Hmm, looks lovely, doesn't it? |
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| WHY?! |
It had taken us just under three hours to get to the waterfall, and with a deadline pressing for getting back to the bottom, we dried the boys off as best we could and did an about turn.
I was quite surprised by the fact that some of the sections making our way back down seemed harder than going up - and with everything looking slightly different from a different angle, it was sometimes hard to remember which way we'd scrambled. Thankfully, Henry and Erik were like little mountain goats, hopping across the rocks effortlessly and always seeming to find the best way across - with the pair of them in front of us, we made our way back down with ease and some time to spare before the 6pm curfew.
About half an hour before we got to the bottom, we noticed we were getting wet not just from the bottom up, but also from the top down - it had started raining. And, as we plodded onwards, the rain became heavier and even treated us to a rumble of thunder, just to complete the whole experience. And so it was that when we arrived back at the hut to return our safety helmets and report everyone back safe and sound, we were sodden from both river walking and being drenched by heavy, heavy rain.
Our first priority then was to run back to the cars and head to the cafe to change into dry clothes, closely followed by having a hot drink and a very welcome sit down!
We had a couple of coffees and a beer each, before deciding it was time to hit the road. The gorge closes for the winter at the end of next week - not only are the winter water levels too high for it to be safe, but I can imagine that the temperature of the water any later into the year would be unbearable - probably dangerously so! The gorge re-opens again in June - we will definitely be back for another visit!
We followed Chris and Sue all the way back into Pescia and to their house, where we all stumbled in, feeling rather weary. Sue treated us all to delicious home cooked egg and chips (eggs courtesy of their chickens) which was just what the doctor ordered after a long and active day. We ended what had been a fantastic day with a lovely relaxing evening chatting, eating, having a glass of wine - the perfect end to a perfect day!
Somehow it had got to almost midnight by the time we left the Phillipses and wended our way up the hill and home to fall into bed. What a day!
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