The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

The Mediterranean Steps, Gibraltar

The northern of the twin Pillars of Hercules, the Rock of Gibraltar rises 1400 ft above the otherwise uninteresting (for walking) British Overseas Territory. Attached to mainland Andalusia, Spain by a narrow spit of land, it certainly has an interesting history ever since Greek times. I had been considering a quick weekend trip earlier in the year, before Spain closed its borders to Americans and I wound up here for two weeks instead (see my last blog post).

Fortunately, however, it does boast one interesting hike that any visitor should do: the Mediterranean Steps, the focus of this short blog. Most visitors are whisked up to the top of the Rock in 6 minutes by cable car. They miss the whole experience of the Rock.

Since this blog is notably shorter than most, I took the liberty of appending a few photos from my weekend in Venice in September.

Map of the Gibraltar Nature Reserve. It is known for its semi-wild population of Barbary Macaques, a tail-less monkey. It is also an important resting point for migrating birds. Purple lines are paths, the darker ones roads. The Mediterranean Steps start at the Jews’ Gate, on the right.
Trafalgar Cemetery and a portion of the Charles V wall near Southport Gate. I started my hike from my condo, to the north of the city near the airport. At 2.5 square miles, Gibraltar is not exactly large!
Gibraltar Botanic Garden. A small bit of green in the city. Unsurprisingly, not much was blooming in November.
The start of the Mediterranean Steps.
View from Pillar to Pillar: Jebel Musa, Morocco in the distance across the Strait of Gibraltar.
A view along the Med Steps. With the lock-down in England barring most international travel, not many tourists were visiting.
View out from one of the twin Goat Hair Twin Caves. They were given this name as they were goatherd refuges in the 19th century.
Higher on the Med Steps, the view North to East Beach in the distance, beyond which is Spain.
Paperwhite (Narcissus papyraceus), one of the very few wildflowers blooming
Looking down the switch-backed Med Steps
An unknown white flower. I was a bit desperate for some macro photography!
The gun turret at Ohara’s battery, on the highest point of the Rock. An interesting exhibit, it provided a nice rest after the climb!
Ohara’s gun, a 9.2″ MK 10. Pardon the violent, phallic imagery, but I thought it was a good photo.
View from the glass-floored Skywalk with a Barbary Macaque staring out into the mist. With some precipitation from the prevailing easterlies off the Med, I shortened my walk a bit, skipping the famous St Michael’s cave.
Mommy and baby Macaques. There are about 300 of them on Gibraltar.
The upper portion of the Charles V wall, a defensive fortification dating from the 16th century. The brown lumps on the wall are Macaques.
The Tower of Homage, part of the Moorish Castle. It was rebuilt during the second Moorish occupation in the early 14th century. The pond is populated with tadpoles, frogs, and a turtle.
View from the Moorish Castle. My condo was part of the Ocean Village complex, the tallest buildings seen here. The western end of the airport’s runway is on the right, extending into the bay. The road to and from Spain crosses the runway, and is blocked with concrete barriers when planes take off and land.
Although my second floor condo balcony only had a sliver of water view, this morning the superb sky compensated.

Although I managed to complete the Rock of Gibraltar hike in 4 hours, one could easily spend a whole day, including exploration of St Michael’s cave, WW2 tunnels (closed for maintenance), the extensive siege tunnels from the Napoleonic era (where I spent a half hour), as well as additional paths and roads in the nature reserve. Allowing one day for historical sights in the town, and another relaxing on the artificial Eastern Beach, Gibraltar certainly makes for an interesting long weekend in either the spring with the flowers out or early autumn with warmish water and the birds migrating. Summer is too hot, and the winter from November through February generally cold and wet.

And now for a few bonus photos! My time in Trentino, Italy in September was spent largely in the Dolomites. However, as I mentioned in my earlier blog, when the weather deteriorated at the end of the month, I journeyed to Venice for a long weekend. With three days to wander around the largely depopulated city, I took a number of photos, a few of which are shown below.

Piazza San Marco, about 8.30 AM on a Saturday. I’ve never seen it remotely this empty. Amazing.
Basilica San Marco
Rio dei Giardini, Castello. The gardens are just visible in the distance.
Grand Canal with Gondolas near Rialto Bridge. In contrast to the overcast on Saturday, there was great early morning light on Sunday.
View of the Grand Canal from the Accademia Bridge. The Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute is seen on the right
The Hotel Bauer (left), Grand Canal and Campanile San Marco
A canal in Dorsoduro, one of my favorite parts of the city

I returned from Gibraltar to London yesterday, a couple days early after my flight was cancelled (British Airways is down to only two flights per week to Gibraltar during the lock-down of England). As my overseas options are extremely limited, I have decided to return to the United States. My flight to Texas via Chicago leaves tomorrow. I will spend the Thanksgiving holidays with my brother and sister-in-law. Afterwards, my winter plans include the Coachella Valley in Southern California, followed by 3-4 months in St George, Utah. My very first Vagabond Hiker blog post, from December 2016, was of a hike in the Coachella Valley Preserve. In a sense, then, I will have come full circle in four years.

Which begs the question, should I continue this blog? I will stick with the vagabonding lifestyle for now, staying in the western US at least until the world opens back up. Perhaps I’ll be motivated to continue the blog from California, Utah, or points beyond. Stay tuned,

The Vagabond Hiker

Dolomites hikes and ferratas: the Pale di San Martino

Update 3 October: My plan was to be hiking in Turkey the first two weeks in October (see the final paragraph of this post). Unfortunately, the night before my departure I learned that the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) removed Turkey from its travel corridor list. Needless to say, my two first group trips since March’s shutdown were immediately cancelled. Hence I am staying in Hastings until my planned departure for Lanzarote in mid-November. Whether I post again from here is questionable, but make no mistake, I am planning some local hikes!

About a two-hour drive northwest from Venice lies a portion of the Dolomites that I had yet to explore. The territory of the Parco Naturale Paneveggio Pale di San Martino is located in eastern Trentino, at an altitude ranging from just under 1100 m to a maximum of about 3200 m on the summit of Cima Vezzana. It includes the catchment areas of three streams, comprising the Trentino part of the Pale di San Martino group to the east, the eastern offshoots of the Lagorai chain to the west, and to the north, the Paneveggio State Forest, one of the most famous forest complexes in the Alps. Amazingly to me, the park has no English Wikipedia page, but the Parks Italy website does have a comprehensive English version here.

I stayed in a typical Airbnb apartment in the main north-south valley of Primiero, in the village of Siror. With gorgeous views of the valley and mountains, it was a dramatic change after my five-plus months in England and an ideal base for exploring the area.

As I’ve now published uncounted blog posts from the Dolomites*, I limited the photos considerably. In particular, the photos of flora either had to be substantial improvements on my earlier attempts or of species I had not previously shared. Even so, with the amazing Dolomite landscapes, more than thirty made the cut. My sources for the hikes were the free version of the Alltrails app on my phone, Kompass map #622, Pale di San Martino, Cicerone’s Shorter Walks in the Dolomites (on my Kindle) and their Via Ferratas of the Italian Dolomites: Vol 2. The Parks Italy website above also it a good source, had I known about it ahead of time.

*Actually, this post is the fourth, excluding the Lago Garda post from last year

Evening view of the Gruppo del Cimonega from my south balcony. Parts of the town of Primiero and the village of Tonadico are in the middle ground.
Siror village, looking north up the Primiero Valley from my west balcony. There were many walks possible along the Torrente Cismon (out of the photo to the left) as well as on the slopes above the valley.
Siror and Torrente Cismon. Multi-use paths extend for miles along the banks of the river through the Primiero Valley.
The picturesque Hotel Siror, five minutes’ walk from my apartment. The village featured a few basic shops and a couple of cafes and restaurants.
A view from the slopes above Siror, about an hour’s walk from my apartment. Sass Maor in the southern Pale di San Martino is in the clouds here.
A cute woodshed, taken from the same spot as the previous photo
Grass of Parnassas (Parnassia palustris), seen later on the same hike. A much better photo that the one I shared a couple of years ago.
Lunch view at Lago Pradadali. My first major hike was a loop of about 6 hours on the altopiano of Pale di San Martino, at elevations between 2200 to 2630 meters. Very desolate indeed!
Moretti’s Bellflower (Campanula morettiana). Peeping out of a rock crevice, I believe it’s the first time I’ve spotted this bellflower with its distinctive hairy leaves.
Another lunar landscape, this of Cima della Fradusta with its glacier remnant on the Pale San Martino
Alpine thrift (Armeria alpina) with pollinator, still blooming late in the season. Another flower first for me.
Rifugio Rosetta set amidst the landscape of the altopiano. The Rosetta funicular top station is just off to the left here. Taking it this day eliminated the brutal 1100 m ascent/descent from/to the resort town of San Martino di Castrozza.
A stream above Lago di Calaita. For my next hike I did a 3 plus hour loop to the west of the Primiero Valley. Starting at a lower elevation, it proved quite a contrast to the altopiano! This so-called “holistic” trail had many interpretative placards.
Val Pisorno, heading up to Cima Grugola. This was just above treeline, at about 2000 meters. Geologically, the mountains west of me are the “metamorphic basement,” comprised primarily of gneiss. Thy are quite distinct from the dolomitic limestone of the Pale di San Martino group.
German Gentian (Gentianella germanica). These were a fairly common sight at lower elevations
Marmot on the trail up the headwall to Cima Grugola. Usually I just heard them whistling, but this fellow was very bold.
Single-flowered knapweed (Centaurea nervosa) detail with fly. I’ve shared a so-so image of this flower before. Despite its name, I think it’s cool-looking.
Lago Colbricon, near the Passo Rolle (1980 m) at the head of the Primiero Valley. I did a 4-hour loop hike that took in this popular destination, complete with a rifugio (on the far right here), before climbing further up into the mountains.
“View” east from Forcella Ceramana. Just to disabuse you of the notion that all my hikes invariably featured glorious weather and fantastic views!
View east from Punta Ces. Of course, an hour later the weather had cleared sufficiently for this photo! Lago Colbricon is on the left here. Cima Vezzana can be seen on the right, emerging from the clouds. At 3192 meters, Vezzana is the high point in the Pale di San Martino.
Returning to the Pale di San Martino altopiano, I spent two days climbing via ferratas. At this point, at Forcella Stephen above the clouds, I had just completed the easy-to-moderate VF Gusella.
After VF Gusella, I added a second ferrata, the VF Vecchia. Here I am looking down at its start, an easy 45 minute descent into Cadin Soraranz. A large part of this ferrata was aided with an excess of stemples (shown).
Adenostyles (Adenostyles alliariae). Not particularly rare, but the first time I’d identified this flower in the Dolomites.
Willow-leaved Gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea). A close up of a flower I’ve shared previously on my blog. While the two ferratas just described started at the Rosetta Top Station on the altopiano, the long descent to Castrozza afterwards was on foot through the forest, not by funicular!
View NW to Catena del Lagorai from Cima Tognola. This was an easy 3-plus hour loop hike – almost all descent – starting from the top of the cable car which ascended directly west from San Martino di Castrozza. Many mountain bikers used some specially-made trails that descended from the cable car top station, not shown to the right here.
Perhaps a pale morph of Campanula barbata, the hairy bellflower, glistening in the morning dew.
Cima Vezzana with San Martino di Castrozza below. This photo was taken on a splendid trail that gradually descended from one rifugio to another back towards Castrozza on the Cima Tognola loop hike.
Crossing the Tognola stream, nearly back to my car. I saw almost no one on this pleasant midweek outing.
Back on the altopiano for a second round of ferratas: Porton and Velo. Rhaetian poppies (Papaver rhaeticum) at the base of VF Porton. I’ve seen (and shared!) many of this species, but always find enjoyment in their sunny dispositions.
Photo taken during the ascent of VF Porton; note the cable on the lower left. Rifugio Pradadali is situated on an outcrop near the center of the photo. The peaks to the right boast some popular technical climbing routes.
Val Primiero with San Martino di Castrozza and the Catena del Lagorai in the background. Following my descent route on VF Velo (no worthwhile photos to share), I repeated my previous walk-out back to Castrozza, with an extra hour of descent from Rifugio Velo thrown in for good measure.
The final via ferrata I did was an expert one up Val Canali, a side valley 15 minutes drive to the east of Siror. Thought very short, VF Canalone was the toughest ferrata I did this year. Even with the approach hike in and back out, I was easily home for lunch. Here the Pale di San Martino can be seen in the morning light to the north of the path up to the start of the ferrata near Rifugio Treviso.
Due to the high contrast, a not-very-good photo of Rifugio Treviso and the Pale di San Martino from VF Canalone. (Yes, I could have taken a burst shot at incremental exposures and then combined them for a far better photograph, but remember that I was hanging off the ferrata cables at the time)! Below treeline, the route reminded me of the ferratas around Lago Garda with the roots and mossy rock. Fortunately, nearby was a much easier descent route.

The weather has just turned distinctly autumnal, with heavy rain and even snow expected in the next couple of days. Although the snow line is a bit above Siror, the Dolomites are definitely entering a hibernation stage, to be awakened in late November for winter sports. I instead am heading to Venice for the weekend before returning to England on Tuesday. Four days in La Serenissima without cruise ships should be an experience indeed. Following a short layover in England, during the first two weeks of October I will be hiking in Turkey: first in the otherworldly Cappadocia, and then along the Lycian Way on the southwest coast. My first group trips since the shutdown in March, those too promise to be interesting experiences.

Until next post, enjoy nature where ever you happen to be.

l’escursionista vagabondo

Lago di Garda, Italy: walks and via ferrate

While Riva del Garda, at the north end of Lago di Garda, is most well-known for its world-class wind surfing and sailing, it also offers an amazing variety of walks and via ferrate, ranging from woodland strolls to a couple of very challenging ferrata routes. My Airbnb apartment above the town had a nice city and mountain (and a bit of the lake) view, featured a 25m outdoor pool (at least until it closed in mid September!), direct access to nearby trails, and less than 1/2 hour walk to the lake front and many restaurants in town. What’s not to like?

Evening view from my balcony above Riva del Garda
Part of the Lago di Garda medium trek near me. (There are low, medium, and top trek paths around the lake, referring to their average elevation). Some paths are frequented by mountain bikers, one of the area’s most popular sports.
Cyclamen by the gorge near my apartment. Most flowers had faded by September, but I spotted many cyclamen early in the month.
Riva del Garda view from the Via Ferrata Cima Sat. This was the nearest ferrata to my apartment, about 75 minutes’ walk to the start.
Ladders on the VF Cima Sat. There were 8 ladders altogether, some quite long and vertical.
View north to the Brenta Dolomites (in the background) from the summit of Cima Sat. See my blog post from September 2018 when I traversed this group.
A butterfly on wood scabious
Maggie on VF Colodri. It was a great short ferrata to get one’s equipment dialed in and a local equipment rental shop for ferrate and climbing was conveniently located at the start in the town of Arco.
A lizard on the VF Colodri. On warm days we saw and heard tons of lizards.
Goats on the top plateau of Cima Colodri. We could smell them before we saw these friendly critters.
Lago di Garda view from the Cima Colodri. Riva del Garda is in the background by the lake and Arco is directly below.
Castello d’Arco tower. The castle was only a few minutes detour during the descent from Cima Colodri. Well worth the effort, with a short film and numerous buildings in various states of disrepair. There was also an outdoor bar to quench your thirst and take in the views, which sadly several days were obscured by haze.
A fresco in the Castello d’Arco showing court life. Note the incorrect orientation of the chess board.
Cima Colodri from Castello d’Arco. The black cross against the blue sky marks the high point. The terraces below are predominantly olive trees.
Maggie on the VF Rio Salagoni. While it is highly artificial, it was also quite challenging in parts, with overhanging walls to traverse. As a canyon ascent, it was unique.
Rio Salagoni view where the canyon opened up for a short distance.
The Castello Drena where we emerged from the Rio Salagoni canyon. Another worthwhile cultural diversion at the end of a ferrata.
Monte Baone summit cross with an artistic Jesus. This was the end of the way-marked scramble route up from Arco. Although not particularly difficult, sections where quite exposed – enough so that I didn’t take many photos.
The Arco Arboretum is only a short distance from the start/end of the Monte Baone scramble. Here are a few of the many turtles in the pond. It was a worthwhile (and free!) hour to spend in town, featuring dawn redwoods, varieties of bamboo, and yew trees, among many others.
Cima Capi from the VF Susatti. This ferrata was probably the most enjoyable I did in the area, with lots of World War I tunnels, trenches, and buildings. Although not particularly hard, it had an enjoyable – if long – wooded approach from the village of Beicesa and featured fantastic views of the lake and mountains.
Maggie on the VF Cima Capi
Another view of Maggie on Cima Capi, pulling over a steep section with Lago di Garda behind.
The Vagabond Hiker on Cima Capi. Photo courtesy of Maggie.
Lago di Garda view from Cima Capi. This was taken on my recon climb two weeks earlier. Fortunately the rains held off until later in the day.
Piccolo Dain from Sarche, about 15 minutes’ drive north of Arco. The VF Rino Pisetta climbs up this peak.
The VF Rino Pisetta from near the start of the cables. This is the hardest ferrata in the area, perhaps the hardest outside of the high Dolomites. I soloed it on my last day before returning to the UK.
View of Lago Toblino from the ascent of Piccolo Dain on the VF Pisetta. The northern-most olive trees in the world grow here due to the mild micro climate.
Hanging off my lanyards on the ascent of the VF Pisetta. Here the cables traverse and then ascend another vertical section. My arms were definitely ragged out by the summit.
View of the valley and Rio Sarca from summit of Piccolo Dain
A forest at the start of the descent from Piccolo Dain. The lower elevations around Lago di Garda (compared to the high Dolomites) make the area’s ferratas great choices in the spring and autumn.
A picturesque fountain in Limone sul Garda. We took a day off from the rocks to do a triangular ferry route around the upper portion of the lake. Limone was the first stop.
Torrente San Giovanni in Limone. This pleasant path leads out of town up through a valley.
Limone lemon trees from which the popular town gets its name. Glass panes are inserted into the larch frames from November to March to protect the trees. They had numerous varieties of citrus growing in this warm micro climate that is well protected from north winds.
Malcesine castle and town from the ferry. In addition to the castle and a large pedestrian zone, Malcesine on the east side of the lake features a cable car up to the summit of Monte Baldo. Unfortunately the low clouds that day precluded riding the aerial tramway.

I’m back in the UK until Tuesday next week, then off to Bhutan to do the Snowman Trek, which has been on my bucket list since I first visited the country in 2012. One of the most challenging in the world, the trek covers more than 200 miles over 25 days (including rest days) through some of the most remote valleys in the world and features 11 passes over 4500m (14,760ft), five of those more than 5000m (16,400 ft). My Snowman trek with KE Adventures is timed to permit us to observe two local festivals, the Chomolhari and the Laya Royal Highlander. If you’re interested, a book published a few years ago on the trek is Kevin Grange’s Beneath Blossom Rain.

The Vagabond Hiker

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