To A Balsa

Slow start but easy walk mostly downhill. Beautiful view down into cloud-filled vslleys. Blue sky all day. Stiff climb up to a great cafe overlooking the value below, had a huge old dog - one of the bull mastiffs used to guard sheep - wandering about trying to cadge food. Lovely walk through farmland and forest - some of the nicest tracks and views so far - but a long downhill, down to Tricastella. Met up with Heidi and Joe and the American family (Court?). Joe shouted us lunch! He asked that we think of him when we cross the bridge at Portmarin.
Walk from Tricastella to A Balsa easy and gorgeous through quite country lanes. Watched a farmer walk slowly to check his cattle. (They leave the bull in with the cows - what's that about?)
A Balsa is a tiny rundown Hamlet of maybe 20 people max and that's probably generous. The auberge is the only significant thing apart from farming, plus an English painter - obviously eccentric. He wasn't in his studio but we spotted him sunbathing in a deck chair. We didn't call out as we reckoned the was a good chance he wasn't wearing anything.
The auberge is a classic. Stone. Wooden bunks. Stone shower. Stone basins. Very filling veg food.
Great forest hammocks.Read more