11th July - written in the past tense.
Today was the day I had been waiting for. The day that I had planned, all on my own, that was not a real touristy thing to do. Not from my research anyway. The day that we would finally get to hike through mountains right next to the Mediterranean Sea!!
We didn't wake up at 5 a.m. as planned, according to my schedule (well, we did all think it was a good idea to get up early to begin with). We woke up at 7ish, and quickly got ready for the day.
After eating a healthy breakfast: heaps of fruit and other goodness like that (a.k.a nutella pastries), we packed our bags and set off for our first stop of the day.
And then we remembered that we needed to book trains for the next day ...
So at around 9 am we left, with our train tickets booked, and a change of swimmers for when we finished our hike.
As repetition of yesterday, we winded down the mountain. We then headed onto the highway, after realising that something was wrong with our Nav Nav and taking a wrong turn. Boy, the highway was
so peaceful after all those windy roads!!
We turned off the highway towards Agerola, and up we turned onto the beginnings of another mountain. Winding, winding, beeping and waiting for car doors to be closed to squeeze through narrow lanes.
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| Winding up the mountain. |
The amazing view of the mountain
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| Winding through the narrow streets of Agerola |
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| Almost there. . . |
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| We finally reached the small town of Bomerano! |
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| Here we parked the car, and found the entry point for our hike called "The Path of the Gods" |
Mum wanted to go to the info, so we went there to check if we had everything we needed. Check :D
Mum started telling the guide that we would be going to Positano and back again, but the guide was very insistent that we could not come back again along the hike. haha ;) She suggested taking the boat to Amalfi and then the bus back to Bomerano. To be honest, at that point we had no idea what we were really getting ourselves into ...
Here is the map of our hike:
So we bought some sandwiches at the local pub, as one does on long hikes, and went to the bathroom. Different signs said different lengths of the walk, so we were not sure how long it would take.
After filling up our bottles of water, we set off.
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| The first part was basically just getting to the main path we would be walking on, so that was lovely. |
Harri and I were hungry, so we stopped to eat our sandwiches. At this point we had got to the mountain top, which is the path we would be following for the next couple of hours.
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| Our view while eating lunch |
As we started off again we noticed this lovely little nook with little doors in it. I wonder if people actually live down there? ;)
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| The little nook that inspired imaginings of dwarf homes ;) |
Now the path started getting less paved, and more rocky. I
t was lovely at this point, because we still had the energy to take pictures while walking ;)
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| Walking, |
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| Walking, |
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| Walking. |
And then we reached a pitstop, where you could turn off to the coastal town of Praiano. By this point we were starting to feel the heat of midday, and the first drops of perspiration were falling from the hairline of my forehead.
Like a mirage, and just as we were feeling thirsty, we happened upon a drinking fountain to fill up our water bottles.
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| Pitstop ;) |
Here we met another couple who came from the opposite direction, and were now turning back to go Positano again like us. We asked them to take picture of us, which they kindly did, and how far it was to go to Positano from there. They said that we had done nothing yet ;) I think they then felt bad, so they said this wasn't that bad, just to lighten the harshness of their words.
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| The fellow hikers kindly took a family photo in this lovely location |
After walking through a lovely lush pathway, we descended on rocky stairs.
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| I HAD to take a flower photo :D |
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| You would think here that we were in some national park or something, not walking along a mountain. Well, we were walking along a mountain ;) |
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| Such cute paths!! |
That was when it REALLY began.
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| The beginnings of the rock steps, |
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| which were really steep, and huge. The people who made these must have been giants ;) |
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| This picture is bringing back so many hard-felt memories... |
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| Catching our breath from the hike, we stopped to take in this amazing view |
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| This is how far up we were. The water was so translucent; you can even see the bottom of the water bed in the picture!! |
After this point I was sweating too much, and the person walking in front of me was flicking dirt up on me, so I thought it would be best to put my camera away. I will just have to tell you about the amazing difficulties that we went through.
Well, the rest of the way we walked in and out of forests, up and down steep rocky stairs, and along the most narrow of paths that if we had moved a fraction closer to edge I am sure we would have fallen. But it was all worth it to see the amazing view.
We did stop again for a fruit break, where we discovered that the nectarines we had packed were at the bottom of my bag and, therefore, squished. But we didn't mind. I think we may have been too exhausted to really care about the squashed fruit ;) It still tasted the same, actually even better because it was made in Italy ;)
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| Panorama shot nearing the end of the hike |
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| Getting closer to Positano, which is the town in the centre of the image |
After some more extremely steep rocky stairs, we came upon a cafe. This was like another mirage. Because just as were sweating like anything and in need of a cool refreshment, we found it!!
The owners of the cafe really had an opportunity there to sell to the hikers!! I mean, there IS NO competition for them ;)
They were lovely and hospitable, and when we walked in they handed us all a paper towel to wipe the sweat, or should I say ', ' off our foreheads, and then they aimed the standing fan on us so that it would cool us down.
We then bought some lemonade and water, and just sat there drinking and feeling exhausted.
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| We were gulping down those drinks like they were the last drinks we would have for a LONG time ;) |
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| Artistic shot |
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| The view of the sea from this cafe |
It is amazing, though, because when we got up again we had more energy to keep going!!
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| Here we are all refreshed and ready to go again :) |
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| Walking under grape vines. They had heaps of these grape-vine-covered-paths throughout our adventure through Italy. |
We were now in Nocelle, which you can see on the map is very close to Positano.
What you can't see on the map, however, is the 1700 stairs that you need to go down to reach the city.
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| The stairs!! Doesn't look like much, but when there is staircase after staircase ... |
Now, that is a whole other story!! The stairs were really the leg killing machine!! Just from a few steps our legs were beginning to shake! I think it was probably because of all those steep rocky stairs from before ...
Here we were all complaining in our head. It was REALLY difficult to find a comfortable way of going down those stairs!! Harri and I tried cantering our way down the stairs but that didn't last long ... Mum tried pointed her leg after every stair to help her knee, which helped her. Dad alternated between different techniques.
That was BY FAR the most difficult part of the hike. It was definitely not a cool down ;)
At every bottom stair of a staircase we hoping like anything that around the corner there would be no more stair cases ...
But they just kept coming.
And then we finally reached the bottom!!
Only to find that we still had to walk a while to get to where we all wanted to be: The Beach.
Walking along the roads and paths to get to the beach it felt like we were wearing heavy snow boots.! The backs of my legs were feeling super heavy, and when I stopped walking my legs felt like jelly, so I just kept walking.
Harri did get me to stop for a quick selfie though ;)
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| Looking all fresh from the hike ;) We did NOT feel fresh in this picture at all! I am very surprised by this picture ... |
On we went, and we started walking through a lovely market place with shops selling everything from leather sandals (what Positano is known for) to gelato. Oh, and the clothes looked amazing!! Mum and I were so annoyed that we could not look into the shops, or touch anything, because of our sweat-mixed-with-dirt yucky feeling.
Dad put it in to perspective. We were like Mr Bean looking for the beach in France. You know, in the movie called 'The Holiday'. I know truly understand why Mr Bean walked along the trucks and cars, down those surfboards and the backs of those poor sunbathing people, to burst out into the song about finally reaching the sea!! LE MER ~ I truly was singing it in my mind when we were almost at the beach.
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| The beach!!!! |
Mum had to quickly get changed into her swimmers, so we stopped off at the bathrooms for a quick sit down and change from our dirty sneakers to the heavenly, cool thongs. It was an amazing feeling!! While writing this I am overwhelmed by the emotions I feel then.
And then sinking into the sand ... ARGH!! It was boiling hot!! I had to quickly put my tongs back on ;) The sand was huge pebbles, which were boiling hot and difficult to walk through ;) We were extremely determined, so we plonked our bags on the beach and waded into the most relaxing Mediterranean ocean ~ ~
~ pure bliss ~
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| You can see the pebbly sand, and the crystal clear waters. An equation for happiness :D |
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| The city of Positano from the beach |
After eating some gelato, and buying tickets for the boat, we boarded the boat from Positano to Amalfi.
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| Positano from the boat |
This was amazing!! We could see where we walked along the mountains ;)
More rocky mountains
A cute little bridge there going between a mountain
It looks really mystical here
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| Cute little coastal town :) |
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| Dad, mum and I on the boat |
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| Dad and Harri with the mountains in the background |
In Amalfi, I bought some blue shorts, Dad bought a print of the coast line, Harri bought some thongs, and we all got some small savoury pastries. Mine was delicious!! I don't know what it was called, but it was a crumbed outer filled with macaroni and mince. Mum had mozzarella inside, Harri had pizza inside and Dad had the same as me.
We then boarded the bus to take us to where we parked our car in Bomerano.
As soon as we boarded the bus, we were off speeding along the Amalfi coast. Dad enjoyed it some much, because 1. He got to see the scenery while someone else was driving, and 2. there was a dog in the seat in front of him which looked very much like our auntie's dog called "Lucky".
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| The Lucky look-a-like. Here you can see how fast the bus is going, while driving along the narrow mountain roads. |
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The full bus! Mum and I were sitting in the back seats, where I felt like a kid who finds enjoyment just from sitting at the back of the bus ;)
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Arriving half an hour early in Bomerano, thanks to the amazingly confident fast driver of the bus, we walked to our car and drove to our hotel.
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| Driving back to the hotel |
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| While chasing the sun ;) |
When we arrived back at the hotel, we had a lovely shower with a lovely, new, fixed shower head, and went to bed. We had to wake up early the next day to begin the journey to Rome!!
Now you are uptodate,
Laura
xoxo
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