I love the mountains! The soul-recharging tranquillity while you walk through the woods; listening to the song of the cuckoo, or the roaring river below. You feel the breeze rustling through the trees while you watch motorways of mountain ants building their nests.... I say mountain ants as they are huge, and I am sure that if you stand still long enough they will carry you with them! So my latest week of vacation, I chose to visit my favourite mountains not far from Turin in Italy; mountains I have had the fortune to have visited since I was little, as my family live there.
There are so many walks that you can do around here, so I will highlight my top ones (from this trip) in this blog.
All the walks started from the village of Bousson.
Val Thuras
Duration: ~6 hours Distance: ~18-22km Difficulty: easy - medium
This easy to medium difficulty walk takes you up to Val Thuras. From Bousson, take the road heading towards Lago Nero, then turn left on the bend, following the old road to Chabaud. This lovely path initially winds through the forest on a gentle incline passing through areas of sun and shade. You follow this quiet road for about 1 hour and then you cross the bridge towards Rhuilles. Once over the bridge, bear right and carry on along the valley with the river on your right. If you notice while you walk along the valley, you cross a little red ferruginous stream (if you want to know about the geology behind this, check out my future blog). You keep walking along the road until you reach the point where it starts to climb. Here you have an option.... you can either stop at the waterfall for a lovely refreshing break (or lunch if you want a shorter walk), or you can continue up to to Val Thuras. The road up is long and windy but steady. It is stunning up in the valley in the month of June-July when the flowers are in full bloom. The cows are brought up to pasture here in the summer months and you may be able to see them grazing while being watched over by the 'margari'. Overall it will take about 3 hours up to Val Thuras. From there you can continue to the much longer route up to Col Thuras. If you plan to do this much much longer walk, then be sure to leave very early in the morning as you should aim to get there for lunchtime.
Cima del Bosco
Duration: ~8 hours Distance: ~30km Difficulty: medium - difficult
The walk to Cima Bosco is a long walk which at times can be quite challenging, but it is oh so rewarding when you get to the top! You walk up towards Thures (not Thuras as written in the first walk of this blog) but taking a little path up through the forest up to Ceres which cuts out about 30-40 minutes if you were to simply follow the road up. Make your way up to the little village of Rif. The main walk starts from here. At the chapel turn left and you follow the path up - just keep going. On the walk up this year, there were so many trees that had fallen down from the weight of the snow. I have to say that walking up it was like a mini scene of devastation, but still peaceful listening to the birds tweeting away. The walk up starts to get quite steep after about 3 hours of walking and just as you think that you have reached the top, there is another curve of the path. It is worth the walk, but I am glad that I had little snacks to keep my energy up as we walked. There is a lovely little chapel at the top of Cima Bosco dedicated to the six people who died in a helicopter crash nearby in 2003. The beautiful little building is a great shelter for a break, away from the wind, before you start to make your way back down. From there you can walk up to the Gatto Nero which sits under the taller Gran Roche for an even longer walk, or you can start to walk back down via the lake and Champ Quartier. We were very lucky in seeing a herd of around fifteen chamois grazing by the water near Gran Lao. Truly special. I am sure that you can imagine that after the day, sleeping came very easily that night!
Lago Nero
Duration: ~5-6 hours Distance: 12km Difficulty: medium
Lago Nero will always hold a special place in my heart after I spent 5 weeks mapping the area for my geology degree. It is therefore of no surprise that it features on my list. You can drive up to the lake with a 4x4 (approx. 1-1.30 hours) and then there are lots of walks from there. If you want to stay there for a longer period, then I recommend that you stay in the lovely Capanna Mautino. I have to say that after mapping the area, I would not have intentionally planned to walk up to the lake from the village of Bousson - it is a long walk! Not necessarily in km distance but in apparent time. However....from Bousson, if you follow the road up it is a relatively gentle but long walk. There is a path that you can take which cuts out about 3km of road; a picturesque yet steeper route following the Rio Serviettes river upwards. To get to this you follow the path as if you are going to Thuras (my first walk in this blog) and then when you get to the first bridge you take the little path on your right straight up. You do eventually meet the road and continue this up to Lago Nero. The view as you round the road onto the lake is breathtaking. It is a very pretty spot for a lunch picnic and if you fancy a bit more time up there you can follow around the lake and around the 'Parete' (or wall) and see over into the French Alps. What I love about these mountains is that the boundaries between countries are literally barbed wire remnants from the war, or more commonly now, little granite blocks with an "I" on one side representing Italy and an "F" on the other for France. Ultimate freedom.
Check out my next mountain-based blog related to the tasty mountain water that you can drink straight from the ground. In the meantime though, check out some other pics from my beautiful mountains.