24th April 2017

Day 2: Maggiatal / Valle Maggia – Ticino, Switzerland.

frauhallo Hiking Mountains, South Switzerland, Switzerland, Ticino, Wanderweg 3

Destination: Broglio – Prato Sornico – Broglio Rundweg – Elevation: est 379 m – Distance: est. 7.9 km – Duration: est. 4:09:48 hours

>> READ: DAY 1 | DAY 3 << 16TH – 18TH APRIL, 2017.

We woke up in the morning feeling hopeful because the first day was positive. The weather was still amazing. Sun light creeping into our window on our upper floor bedroom. Trees and flowers were dancing to the rhythm of the wind. It was a mark of a wonderful start. The scenery was so captivating for me that I took so many pictures and videos of the view from our room window. We woke up and went downstairs. The living area was warm already as the fire has been burning at the fireplace. What a wonderful feeling being able to sit by the fire during cold days. A bliss indeed!

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER ADVENTURE.

As soon as we had our breakfast, I went out to the garden to take some pictures – again. Can never get enough of the garden. The wind was breezy but cold. The weather condition in the valley is so different. When we deboarded the train at Locarno, we saw people wearing shorts and T-Shirts. The bus to Broglio was stank with sweat and uhh, armpit odour. In the valley, the temperature was chilly and windy. We initially thought it would be warm since it lies in the south so we didn’t exactly bring our warmest clothes. It gets warmer when you are moving but if you stay stagnant, then the chills get to you. Imagine this chilly wind during hot summer days. As the Germans would say it “WUNDERBAR!!”

Our Strava activity log can be view here.

Broglio - Prato Sornico - Broglio Rundweg. Map from https://map.geo.admin.ch.

If you click on the expand button, it will lead you to Google Maps where you could download or zoom in on the map.

I can't remember what flower is this but I was so drawn by it.

Can’t choose which picture to post because they are all so pretty.

We started our hike from Broglio at around 11:00. The trail was not so steep. We were heading to Monti di Rima – an old settlement in the mountains. The area around Maggia has a strong Catholic influence. Altars can be seen along the trail. It seems that this same route is also a religious procession route from Broglio to Monti di Rima chapel (maybe?). I wish I have more information to share but I couldn’t find any in English. There are stone houses on the peak of Monti di Rima as well as a chapel. Our host told us that some time in the year, the (caretakers) of the chapel does food auction. I can only guess that the proceeds would go to maintenance of the chapel.

After taking what seems to be a hundred pictures of the opposite mountains and valleys which you could see on the featured photo, we descended and passed by a group of sheep and lamb. We followed the tar road until we reached the woods. The woods lead us to Prato-Sornico, another beautiful medieval stone villages with strong Italian essence. The village seems really quiet. We saw only a handful of people along our way. We walked through villages where the trail lead us. It felt like we were in a small Italian suburb like in a Godfather’s movie.

We re-entered gravel trail after Prato-Sornico. Along the trail, stone houses can be found in the oddest places. We then passed a small bridge leading to another mountain chapel, a secluded one that is. Under this bridge lies a canyon. The view of the canyon from the bridge we stood was not exactly the best. We still could sort of peek through trees to see the details of the canyon. Water was gushing through the crack of the stone walls. The canyon was deep and lined with moss.

[adinserter name=”Block 5″]

WHERE AM I?

Am I a character in a fairy tale?

Across the bridge lies the chapel and a house beside it. The house is definitely occupied but the chapel looked unused. I truly wonder if these houses in the mountains have an address, a house number. How do they receive parcel and mails? We made a small snack stop and sat on the bench in front of the little chapel. There was a grave beside where we were sitting as well.

The trail after the chapel was an interesting one. Many ancient trees lined along the trail. We could see the “history” of the tree from it’s bark. Wrinkles and cracked like how a human would age. Some trees were covered in moss and some were in odd looking shape. Upon exiting this wood, we came to the prettiest waterfall. The water was so clean, you could drink from it and made us want to jump in for a swim (we wished!) but the water was way too cold for even a short dip. We spent a reasonable amount of time at the waterfall. We reached Broglio again at 15:00. After some coffee & my favourite Italian sweet bread – Panettone, we headed to the river to collect some stones from River Maggia for our secret project which will be reveal in due time.

That evening, we had lamb for dinner. The lamb was cooked with a solar oven placed outside our hut. Our host put the lamb in the oven before the hike and it was cooked by dinner time. We realised that there are plenty of ways to use the source of nature for our daily lives. For eg;- wind & solar. This trip does give us a lot of ideas and thoughts on being environment friendly and still have a quality life.

>> READ: DAY 1 | DAY 3 <<

x Frau Hallo

Note: We usually upload different set of photos on Instagram.