Von Limone über viele Pässe zum Lagettho Marguareis und die Porta Marguareis nach Upega

Day 18 (September 18, 2020)

This morning, everything was pretty wet when we came out of the tents. We had breakfast on the bridge - Italian brioches from the plastic bag, muesli, and honey sandwiches - and then the journey began. Steeply up the beech forest and further up above the tree line and Cima Baban at 2,100 meters above sea level, passing Monte Juri to a beautiful lunch place 900 meters higher.

We continued through a beautiful pre-alpine karst landscape, which appeared really mystical with the drifting fog. We passed Colle del Carbone and encountered a very clingy mule behind it, which we spoiled with some caresses. The path led us through a herd of incredibly muscular cows and through a slope full of pine shrubs to Passo del Duca, where we could finally immortalize ourselves in a summit book. We continued to Colle del Prel and over Colle del Carbone. A short descent and then another quite steep section up to Lagettho Marguareis. There we had to catch our breath after this exhausting day of hiking.

After a bath in the ice-cold lake, everyone was lively again. We had risotto with eggplant, broccoli, and gathered mushrooms, and then we sat on the stones by the cozy fire for a long time.

Day 19 (September 19, 2020)

When we wanted to get up today, it was raining. So we had to sleep in. Then a cozy breakfast, after which some people did laundry. We started in stages: Simi and Rapha hiked ahead, and Alex and Jana made it half an hour later.

Today's stage started steep and slippery, as everything was still a bit damp. Several times we had to use our hands - about a T3 + difficulty. But the effort was worth it, because the landscape up to Porta Marguareis was beautiful. Autumn had arrived this morning and enveloped the surroundings in wandering fog.

We met at the small lake before Colle del Pas for lunch. There was bread, cheese, vegetarian terrine à la Provençale, and pesto. Then came three more small passes, the weather was changeable all day - sometimes foggy, then cloudy, then sunny again. On the way from Colle del Pas to Passo delle Mastrelle, we saw a group of about ten chamois with young animals, and we also saw several chamois today. From Passo delle Mastrelle, it went steeply about 600 meters downhill to Carnino Superiore. In Carnino Inferiore, we met a nice old man who drove us down to the main road and tried to speak English with us. But our Italian skills were clearly better than his English skills. ;-)

From there, we followed the main road through a steep gorge. When it opened up, we found a nice sleeping spot near Upega, by the charming stream called Torrente Negrone. We cooked pasta with vegetarian Bolognese on the fire and ate it under the protection of the beech trees, as it started to rain right around dinner time. Now we're once again sleeping in the cozy tent under the starry sky...