A day from hell on the Cinque Terre

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Friday 23rd October
A day from hell on the Cinque Terre
Our hotel high up on the hill meant there was no traffic noise and we had a very good night’s sleep in preparation for what we expected could be a physically challenging day.
It was cereal and croissants for breakfast and a cup of strong coffee that should hold us for the morning. The plan is to have lunch at one of the villages as we do the walk.
The weather is rather overcast with high cloud but out to sea it looks like it is clearing so we are hopeful that by the time we get to the starting point of the walk the sun will be out.
We headed off to find a car park for RR near the railway station retracing our steps of last night but this time finding the station by following the signs. The streets around the station are all one way which made it a bit easier to see whether there was a free park as the cars were all facing the same. By chance we found a space big enough to squeeze RR into,put our money in the meter to keep us honest until 6pm and set off to the station just around the corner.
There was a train leaving in a few minutes after we arrived and we brought our tickets to Riomaggiore the first village on the pathway from the southern end.There were a good number of people all with the same idea as us who boarded the train.
It is only a 10 minute ride to Riomaggiore and 8 minutes of that is through a tunnel!!!The station at Riomaggiore is in the open but both end of the platform are in tunnels.
Our first disappointment of the day came when we went to purchase our day pass to do the walk.There was a notice saying that due to the wet weather of the past couple of days the pathway was closed after Manarolla which is the next village and only a 20 minute walk away.We could pay our 5€ each and walk to and from Manarolla but that would be it for the lower track.
We had come prepared to walk with a backpack full of snacks and water so we decided we would do the #1 track which was free but would mean a climb up to 700 metres above the village and then take the ridge path dropping down to one of the other 4 villages wherever we felt like it.We thought we could get as far as Corniglia which is the third of the 5 villages and about half way if we were doing the bottom track which of course is closed.
We left Riomaggiore behind and started the climb which was virtually straight up!!It was mostly up steps some of which were easy to negotiate and others that were pretty rough which required some care not to go over on an ankle.Needless to say our progress was slow with regular stops to catch our breath and look down to admire the view that was opening up all the time as went higher.We felt that our mountain climb with Di and Sebastion in Switzerland had put us in good stead for what we were doing and we felt confident about making our destination in good time.
About half way up we came across a piece of the path that had been affected by a savage fire that had gone through the area about a month ago.The path was still in relatively good condition although at times we had to clamber over an obstruction like a small log from a burnt tree.
The last third of the track to the ridge was the easiest as the path was less steep and height was gained mainly by way of a zigzag making our progress much better.
We made the top of the ridge in just over 2 hours which was about 40 minutes less thanwhat the map had said it would take.We were very pleased with ourselves and felt buoyant as we took a breather and checked the route along the ridge to where we would drop down again to Corniglia.
The weather overhead was holding although it wasn’t clearing to be sunny like we had hoped and the wind on the top of the ridge made it a bit cool.
We set off along the ridge on a trail that was easy to walk and we made good time to the next checkpoint on our map.Along the way we did see a sign that made reference to wild boars in the area and we were able to put two and two together about the ground that we had passed where the soil had been dug up!!I reassured Gretchen,without any real knowledge,that the wild boars would only be active at night!!
We reached the point where we started downhill on trail #7a which would take us down to Corniglia which we estimated we make by 2pm for a late lunch and then we would catch the train back to La Spezia.
The trail was straightforward down to the road that runs high above the 5 villages and by reaching this point we were halfway down to the village we were aiming for and we could see it about 300 metres below us.
The only problem was as we emerged from the bush onto the road the track did not continue offosite.Should we go left or right to find out where the track continued?We went right.
As we were looking down the bank off the road an English speaking German couple emerged from the bush.We had a chat and they were heading in the same direction as us.There seemed to be a path of sorts heading off down into the bush and the German couple looked like they knew what they were about so we joined them.
The ‘track’initially looked to be genuine and we dropped down quite quickly with the village when we could see it appearing to be getting closer.
The guy was blazing the trail ahead of his female partner with the two of us trailling along and keeping them in sight.But things turned to custard when we hit the old terraces which 10 or 15 years or so ago had supported either olive trees or a vineyard but was now completely overgrown.
By the time we got to nearly the bottom of a steep ravine the German couple said the path ahead was impassable because of thick growth and that we would have to retrace our steps and try and find another way down a little further north of where we were.
We headed back up the hill now realising just how steep the area we were in was.The German couple were going to try another track down but we had had enough and feeling tired after an hour after emerging from the bush onto the road and meeting up with the German couple.So we headed back up to the road deflated after our earlier part of our walk had been so successful.
Even a late lunch now looked out of the question and worse was to come!!!
We knew that there was a road down to Corniglia and although this was the ‘easy’way to get to our destination we thought we had had enough adventure for one day and we were buggered!!
So along the road we walked and eventually saw the sign for the turnoff to Corniglia.
However before we came to the actual turn off we came across the trail marked #7b.This was the other trail down to Corniglia and not the #7a that we had been searching for when we met the German couple.A quick look at our map showed that the road would twist and wind its way down to Corniglia while track #7b was a lot shorter in distance and here was the entry point from the road.
We made the fateful decision to take the track!!!At least we made this decision on our own so we can only blame ourselves for what eventuated!!
At first the track was clear and we were making progress downwards with the village looking closer all the time.
Then our luck ran out as we entered the area which was burnt out totally in the recent fire.Here the damage was worse than what we had gone through briefly when we were heading up to the ridge earlier in the day.The grapevines had been burnt out but had left stalks and the vines had sharp pieces like thorns which made climbing through them to take the easiest path very difficult.
The fire had been fought by helicopters dropping water picked up from the sea so steep was the hillside that getting a hose down to fight it was impossible.In doing so the volume of water being dropped in one spot had washed out any trace of where the track had been and so we ran into another dead end.There was nothing else to do but go back to a higher point and try a route further over.
We had both had enough by now and yet the village was tantilisingly close.
As we climbed back up to the point where we decided to follow another route adjacent to where a trolley rail line went down the hill we heard voices above us.It was the German couple!!They had obviously given up hope of finding a path through and done the same as us taking the road to then find the #7b track.
They quickly caught up with us and carried on ahead.The girl muttered something about how we should find our own pathway as they didn’t want to lead us astray again.Well we certainly weren’t going to follow them again and we let them go although we did keep an eye on their progress as they followed the trolley rail line down too.
By now with all the scrambling through the burnt out vines we were covered in soot and Gtrechen’s jacket was ripped and all we wanted to do was to make the road below that we could now see led to the village.
With no trail we kept on the downward movement by walking along the terraces and then sliding down the bank to the next terrace at the easiest point.
Finally at nearly 4.30pm over 3 hours after leaving the top of ridge we jumped down from the track onto the road!!Our legs immediately felt the change in the surface and slope we were walking on and we hobbled on into the village.
There was a bar open but neither of us felt like stopping and we carried onto the railway station although we had one more challenge and that was the giant zigzag track from the village down to the station.We felt each step of what seemed like several hundred!!!
We looked like we had been fighting the fire yet the other people on the station all still looked neat and tidy.All day we had only seen two other couples on the hill tracks we walked,one up on the ridge,and we don’t know where they were actually going to, and the other were the German couple.
To add to our potential woes was that there had been a train strike for 3 hours in the afternoon and the timetable was not running to order so we couldn’t be sure when a train to La Spezia would arrive.Finally one did and we collapsed into the more comfortable seats on the train probably covering them in soot from our clothes.
We needed something for dinner and after finding RR we drove to the supermercati and brought a large amount of pizza and cask wine.The queues for a cashier were long so we joined the self checkout queue and then had the bloody machine keep talking back to us that we had not checked an item through.This day was getting too long!!!!To add to it all and the final trial for the day was that we didn’t realise that the parking under the supermercati wasn’t free and the ticket wouldn’t let us out without paying money!!!!
We were so relieved to be home where we could drown our sorrows and scoff the pizza down after only having had snacks during the day.
The Cinque Terre and all its beauty is out for us!!!!

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Photos

Top of the ridge and don't we look happy
This wasn't to last!!!!!

Comments

[Chris]

Dare I ask
Are you still travelling together? Just remember you are on an adventure and you have to have some interesting tales to tell. It's not all glamour and touristy.

[diny+wim]

hahahaha
oh,oh,oh. it's been a funny day for us as well. first a friend of ours finished up with a traffic fine and now your story to much..... Next time just follow your own nose and not the other tourists. the NZ nose is 9 of the 10 times, far better. you should know that!!!!