The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Hiking up in the clouds

We like this area so much that we've extended our stay. We were supposed to leave this coming Thursday, but now we're here the whole week. We'll move on Saturday the 25th.

One of the things we like here is the number of different walks we can do right from the village itself.

And yes, we're in the Cinque Terre area, which also means that there are a lot of things to do within an hours drive. But we've been saving the popular Cinque Terre village hikes for a nice sunny day...and we didn't want to do them on the weekend. It's been a foggy overcast weekend, but the sun is shining this morning so we're going to head to the coast today.

But for yesterday, we decided to go for a hike in the fog to the top of Monte Dragnone!

Cloudy and cool, with a high of about 10C (50F), but no wind at all.

We were going uphill, so it was no problem staying warm.

Kevin, with an odd big rock.

Uphill, every step of the way.

Lots of pine trees.

Nice view, but starting to get up into the clouds.

Me!

Made it to the top of Monte Dragnone.

There's a building at the top that is like a big church sanctuary of some kind. The markings over the entrance way say that it was built in 1866. It was all locked up, so we couldn't see inside. Amazing how they got all the building materials up here way back then.

There's supposed to be a beautiful view from here!

The trail down the other side has what are called "stations of the cross". About a dozen of them.

On the way back down.

At the base, there was another shorter trail leading to Monte Castellero where there used to be a medieval fortress. It's all gone now.

A bit of a view.

This is what they think used to be here. 
It's too bad they don't explain why it's not there any more!

You can barely make out the rock outline of the base.

We had a 4 legged companion for part of the trail!

Heading back down.

I took a short video for you...


And then we headed back home. We had done 7 kms (4.2 miles) and we were gone for three hours.

Here's our house in the village...

They say it's 800 years old!

The entry vestibule is brand new though.

Nothing fancy, that's for sure. But it's home for now, and we kinda like it!

So...gotta get going. We want an early start to get to Cinque Terre before the crowds! Looking forward to showing you some beautiful photos tomorrow! In fact, check out our Instagram account at 
https://www.instagram.com/travelwithkevinandruth/ and maybe you'll get a preview as the day goes on.

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Big price drop on the Thermacell mosquito killer. We love our Thermacell. Get one now and be ready for the little buggers...





8 comments:

  1. You are enjoying the area, nice to hang out in one place for a while.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it is nice and we are fairly close to the things that we want to see and do in the area.

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  2. Cinque Terre is beautiful. Beware the western exposure on a sunny day, it can give you a good sunburn even in winter. Great photos.

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    1. We didn't have to worry too much because shortly after Kevin mentioned about the sun shining in the post, the clouds rolled in again but we did the hike anyway and it was nice weather except for not seeing the sun until we turned around to hike back and even then it didn't stay out too long.

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  3. Glad you are enjoying your stay. Looks like a nice place to hike. At least it was not raining only cloudy. Looking forward to more adventures!

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    Replies
    1. We are really loving it here, this is our type of village. Agreed, there wasn't even any wind yesterday, other than the fog it was perfect hiking weather.

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  4. Hiking up into the clouds is fun, and it usually guarantees no crowds! But, geez, tromping along on those ankle-busting rocks is unkind, agree?

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    Replies
    1. It can be fun, just wish we could have gotten even a tiny bit of a view from the top though. Photos, can look very interesting with fog in them.

      We only had a very tiny bit of those rocks, just where there had been more or less a landslide at one time and it really wasn't hard to walk on.

      Delete

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