Italian Alps – day 3
Bivacco Lidesh – Bivacco Greppi Emilio
9.7.2024 Tuesday
→ 18,8 km ↑ 1551 m – total 58,1 km
Today’s a gorgeous day.
We don’t have much food left, so we need to head down into the village. It’s 5.6 km, so we tell ourselves this’ll be quick, if only it were a normal trail. Again it’s up and down, chains, and I feel like we’re just going in circles.
It takes us almost two hours to reach Finero. Right at the edge of the village two old ladies greet each other from their balconies across half the village, pretty funny how they shout “Ciao!” at the top of their lungs. We sit down for coffee and discuss what next. I suggest heading back to Domodossola, taking the train through the hills and hitchhiking north from there. But Jozef, who’s finally gotten involved in the planning, suggests we just go to the neighboring village of Malesco, restock supplies, and rejoin the route we’d originally planned. We hitchhike from Finero, and the very first car stops for us, a camper van. The woman in the back makes room for us. She took her shoes off when she got in, so we follow her lead, but it wasn’t a great idea. I think she’d have preferred a bit of shoe grime to that smell. Luckily it’s only 15 minutes. We get out at the square and go to the shop. It’s the pre-lunch rush. Surprisingly we manage it fast and with ease. We spread out on the steps in front of the town hall and even find an outlet there. We stay a good while, eat lunch, and I catch up on the blog.
We set off at 1pm. The town’s completely emptied out, it’s siesta. The sun’s baking, so we pull out umbrellas. First we head toward the next village, Craveggia, and then sharply up via switchbacks. We do 4 km with a 20% gradient.
Jozef’s going like a rocket, saying if he didn’t have his pack he’d be running… good thing he does have it, or he’d leave me here. At the top a view opens up over Val Grande, and on the other side an idyllic valley with old little houses.
We continue with a gentle climb to Bocchetta della Cima pass. From the pass we can already see today’s destination, Bivacco Greppi Emilio.
We go down a bit and pass a farm with cows and goats. Looks like a whole family lives there, kids, a dog, a cat, hanging laundry and a bathtub outside. They look at us like we’re some kind of apparition, probably not many hikers come through here. We say hello and climb the last few meters of elevation.
The bivouac’s locked, as I’d expected, but no matter, there’s a perfect tent spot here and a lake. We rest for a bit and go straight to wash up in the lake while the sun’s still out. Tonight we’ve got a two-course dinner, first some little ravioli with prosciutto and sugo (found in a tube today, better than ketchup), and then mashed potato with garlic, tuna and parmesan. It really got to Jozef and he goes straight to sleep. I go wash the dishes and take a few more photos of the tent.
We’re very close to the Swiss border now, so we’re out of internet, since it costs €5 for 50mb here. I try to write a bit more, so I can post it later, but lying down really pulls me toward sleep too.
