Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 28

A month ago today I started this hike. In the last week I’ve enjoyed some of the best days of hiking on the trail so far. At the same time though the temperature has really shot up as the week has progressed, and by this morning I was really beginning to flag, and looking forward to my rest day in Cividale on Sunday.

But first I had one more day’s walking and it looked like a long one – 23 km, 616 metres up and 1121 metres down. Not classed as difficult, but long, and expected to take at least eight hours.

So when I read last night on my blog comments that Edwin and Gerjanne (the Dutch couple that I’d met last week who are also hiking the AAT) had found that there was a once daily bus leaving from Castelmonte to Cividale, I was immediately tempted to make use of it. I’d still be walking the majority of today’s stage, but I’d be able to shorten it by 9 km and a bit of descent. The only catch was the bus left at 12:10. And my guidebook said it was a five hour walk there from Trebil, and often the book’s timings were a little ambitious.

Nevertheless I decided to go for it, helped by a self service breakfast that I ate soon after 6:00. Despite this I didn’t get going til just after 7:00, so my timings were tight.

Broadly speaking the route today ran close to the road, although that wasn’t always obvious. The paths ran through woodland, along the edge of farms, and through a few bits of open pasture. The majority was in the woods, and the condition, difficult and gradient of the route varied hugely.

Some parts were broad wide tracks, but others were narrow little woodland crevices. The descents were often quite steep, where you had to watch every step, and many involved loose rocks and tree roots. So just when you got a pace on, you had to slow down and watch your step. There were also quite a few short steep sections, and although nothing lasted anything like as long as yesterday morning, they were still quite tiring. Added to which, because of the carpet of leaves on the floor, sometimes it was a little difficult to distinguish where the path actually went. Luckily, usually when it wasn’t otherwise obvious there were red and white paint markings on trees to help you along, although a couple of times I still managed to go the wrong way and had to retrace my steps when I found the apparent ‘path’ had vanished.

The villages immediately looked different this side of the border – more Italian in design if you like. Interestingly, some villages appeared from the signs to have dual names – in Italian and Slovenian- proving that borders are never absolute and even where natural features like mountains form obvious barriers there is almost always a blurred borderland in language, if not culture, both sides of any boundary.

The first notable feature on the walk today was a small church perched on the hillside -at Monte San Giovanni. I reached here more or less on schedule, at around 9:00. From here were some lovely views of the wooded hillsides, often hidden in the walks through the woodland.

The area is known for its chestnuts, and although much less common than at one time, the ground was carpeted with dry leaves, which always found their way into my boots somehow, requiring frequent stops to pick them out.

The weather was a bit cooler than yesterday- if the upper 20s can ever be described as cool. Also as I’d started early this made a big difference, particularly in the first hour of walking. Occasionally the sun would go behind clouds too which helped.

There was another church (San Nicolo) and then the steep descent started. I tried to hurry this as much as I could but it was hard with uneven and loose rocks. Finally I could see my destination, of Castelmonte, up on a hill, if only I could get there in time for my bus. After the descent suddenly the route took me up again, and I thought I should make it in time. Which I’m glad to say I did.

Castelmonte is a religious sanctuary, and possibly dates back as far as 1,800 years. Before that it was a Roman military base. It’s quite an impressive sight, helped by its prominent location. But I didn’t really have time to explore.

I caught the bus, suddenly being told that I should wear a face mask- not realising that this is still the case on Italian buses- and began the journey down the hill. As we descended via a series of hairpin bends, the clouds darkened, and by the time I alighted twenty minutes or so later at Cividale railway station, it was literally bucketing down. I was so lucky to have learnt from Edwin about this bus, shortened the hike, and avoided the rain.

Today’s my wife’s annual ‘cat’s away’ party, where she has a chance to have a house party without me being there to moan that I don’t like parties! I hope everyone has a great time.

As for me, I’m struggling to find somewhere to eat here in Cividale but more than anything I just need to sleep and rest and to recharge myself for the final nine days of the hike starting on Monday. As I write another heavy thunderstorm has arrived, but I expect it’ll be back to the really hot weather next week . Luckily, many of the days are shorter and graded easy, so I think I should now be on the home straight. I hope so.