Follow the Mountains : Italy - Day 15: Sun, roads and a camping catastrophe

Friday, October 15, 2021

Italy - Day 15: Sun, roads and a camping catastrophe

It got very windy and cold at night, so I delayed my start in the morning. Since it was forecasted to be dry, I put my solar panel on my backpack.

The trail was going through different forests and open parts. And although it was windy, cold and overcast in the morning, the sun managed to break through, so I sat in the sun during my lunch break. But even afterwards, I was thinking of wearing gloves because it was rather cool.

In the afternoon, I walked through a nice beech forest, but sadly for over 6 km on a road. I reached the last bit of forest before the town of Girifalco so early, that I decided to continue. The weather was too good and the forest not very nice for camping. I took the risk that the next forest (and thus camping spot) might be 15 km away.

Girifalco seemed to be a nice town but the next hours were road walk again, with lots of wind turbines. I shortcut once the road, ending up climbing some kind of sandy canyon land until I was able to find a way along wind turbines back to the road. That could have been a potential earlier camping spot, but this way I knew I will have to walk until sunset to reach the forest near Caraffa di Catanzaro. Turned out to be a bad spot fir camping. I walked another nearly 2 km along houses, fenced in gardens and wind turbines, until I decided to walk through an open gate of an olive plantation and set up my tent in the bushes. Really bad spot: VERY close to the road, houses and a wind turbine. There are also endlessly barking dogs, my spot is pretty unevenen and I might have a little private driver very close to my tent - it was too dark to see when I pitched my tent. At least it is supposed to stay dry tonight and at around 300 m elevation it's not too cold. But I think I will have to leave REALLY early tomorrow morning in order to not get discovered!