Day 3 - Moderate……..My Arse!

We both slept well as we usually do in our tent, despite it raining for most of the night. We surfaced around 8.00am to discover a lovely sunny morning in Camping Darna. We faffed around as most campers do, with several coffees and a trip to the shop for breakfast supplies. We bought 4 rolls, Gouda slices, salami and butter.

More faffing was done throughout the morning whilst we got ourselves properly sorted out. Initial impressions of the campsite are fantastic. It has everything we want and need. The staff are so polite and friendly, as are the other campers who all say hello with a smile. The view of Lake Lugano from the shoreline of our campsite is spectacular.

After breakfast, around midday, we ventured out of the campsite for a planned 5.1 mile walk. This was after embarrassingly demolishing the bushes as I tried to reverse back out of our parking spot.

We parked up in Porlezza & started my AllTrails App which was going to direct us on a 5.1 mile hike described as ‘Moderate’ difficulty. We set off along the shore of Lake Lugano, then headed inland before heading into Porlezza and up the mountain beyond. It started off nice and gently, but soon got steeper and steeper on rough tracks through the forested mountain.

Halfway up the mountain we took a scheduled detour to Began Waterfall, which was pretty spectacular in that it cascaded down to a sun drenched pool. We were the only 2 people at this beauty spot, which made it even more special.

It was after the waterfall that the trail got steeper to the point that we were scrambling up the path often on all fours. The occasional F word started to be heard behind me but before long the F word and every other expletive imaginable had increased in frequency to constant.

We were looking forward to the downhill section but when it came, as most mountaineering people will know, it was worse. In fact it wasn’t just worse, it was horrendous. The path down was exceptionally steep either covered with loose rocks or on a concrete track with marble like stones scattered across it. We slip slided our way cautiously down with our toes jammed back into our feet. We skidded many times, but miraculously neither of us actually fell over.

When we finally reached flat ground it was a massive relief. We hobbled back to the lake shore and walked along until we found a lovely lakeside cafe with a table in the sun calling our name. We ordered 2 large beers that were clearly going to be expensive, but even I didn’t care what they cost. Two beautiful well earned beers arrived along with a bowl of nibbles, so we sat back and enjoyed the view.

My AllTrails app told me that we had walked a distance of 6.07miles (not 5.1), with an elevation gain of 1,604 ft, a moving time of 3 hours 42 minutes, 2,373 calories burnt and a total time 3 hours 59 minutes.

We ordered a 2nd beer each. Sod the expense!! We basked in the sun for at least an hour until we decided it was time to head back to camp for a shower. I suddenly got all nervous about how much our beers were going to cost so I asked Jackie to pay and not tell me how much it cost. As it turned out, they cost just €20, an absolute bargain for the view and ambience.

We returned back to camp and were greeted by our Dutch neighbours, who fancied a chat. We discovered that this was their second visit to the campsite and they were staying 3 weeks. They also very helpfully gave us some recommendations of things to do and see and where to eat.

After a shower and a couple of gin and tonics, we returned to the campsite restaurant for more Sexy pizza. I also ordered a tomato and garlic pizza, which was too tomatoey! We will stick to just the one pizza in future.

By 10pm we were both dead to the world in our tent.

Song of the Day - Slip Slidin’ Away by Paul Simon.Read more