The unpredictable weather is something to watch out for and to warn our walkers about. After a day in broad sunshine, we wake to dense fog and rain that makes any kind of mountain walking dangerous. We decide to look for a new route that will take us down to the coast on small tracks and roads and in fact succeed in creating a pleasant alternative.
Accommodation – Agriturismo – details irrelevant for reasons explained below.
Closer examination of a new map reveals that there is no viable or preferable route to the Via della Costa from Altera – we will have to get back onto the Alta Via. We spend the best part of 3 hours doing so and are rewarded with wide and relatively easy tracks to follow. This is good walking and an introduction to yet more variable landscape away from the thickly forested areas. We make good progress and finally enter Altera where we had hoped to find somewhere to stay, but enquiries at a bar reveal that there are no hostels, albergi or agriturismos in the area. Altera is a dying town, its industries failing and its inhabitants apparently spending a lot of their time in bars – fortunately for us because Nellie attracts the inevitable attention and one man, Emmanuel, hears that we are looking for somewhere to stay. He offers to take Paul in his car to a picnic area nearby, which might be suitable. In fact it is ideal and we quickly install ourselves, attracting even more attention from the families and their children who are spending their Sunday afternoon there – not one of them objecting to our tent in spite of the large sign informing us that camping is prohibited. We have been there no more than half an hour when Emmanuel appears again, but this time carrying a bottle of wine and pan of freshly cooked pasta! Another example of the Italian generosity we have enjoyed so often before. Maybe it is the spectacle of pack horse and dog that interests and reassures people so that they feel they can approach us, or maybe it is simply curiosity about what it is the two old farts are up to, but it never fails to open doors and hands. Emmanuel eats and drinks with us for as long as he can but finally leaves because he has to get back to his wife and baby daughter.
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