Bluesky Tour - Episode 13 - Riding and hiking around Mergozzo

(continued from Episode 12)

I have the above beauty only  few minutes ride from where I stay. No brainer right?

What is this? The lake of the sweet town Mergozzo.

Wanna see more? Yes you do:

I wish my English were good enough to describe this kingdom of serenity. Pictures are mute so stick with me till the end for the video. It's such a lovely place and it's not even the most attractive lake around (there's lots). However, it's among the most well protected ones with strict laws banning even the use of motorised boats so it's clean as it gets.

Dear Sanda, a home here please? Although, I'm not sure at all I could bare the local levels of humidity. Plus the mosquitoes. Imagine that I haven't used the terrace of my AirBnB yet despite it being the best part of it. Fortunately they are more stupid than the Hellenic ones so I already measure lots of relatively easy kills. And now the place is almost mosquito free. Good news for my sleep cause they are the loudest I've ever experienced.

It's all about green around here:

Lovely as it is I move on circling the lake until I ride up the steep slope at its South West end. There it's time to leave the bike and start walking:

The sign gives an idea about the hiking trails which look already lovely before I even step on them:

It's interesting to read in the following ones that this mountain has lots of granite plus the inspired mining techniques they used in the past:

Hiking time!

After the first few steps I see this barrier and I wonder how come as there's no visible road neither a property and the trail goes right behind it from the left:

Soon I meet the dilemma, left or right?

I choose right hoping I am right indeed:

Not that you can go wrong here anyway lost in this beauties:

Massive granite background:

Moving on up:

At this point I get my first overview:

Not too bad right? I also get an answer for that barrier before. As I meet parts of paved road I assume this used to be a motorised one, the barrier was used to prevent traffic during winter (it's too steep and slippery even now in summer), the weather destroyed it (again, too steep to survive the winter here) so now that's all that's left:

Often tarmac is completely gone:

Only a few relics are still standing:

Massive pieces of rock speak volumes about how tough this thing is:

In through the trees I get shades of blue from the lake, how wonderful:

It's a fantastic place to spend all day hiking all the available trails completely under the shade of this dense vegetation. However, I can't take advantage this option right now so it's time to walk back down:

Some guys did some supportive job right here as it seems:

Lovely rock formations, still partially wet from last night's rain in the absence of sun:

I promised a video so here you can watch my slow ride around plus a clip from the lake in the middle, escorted by my music:

See you on Episode 14!