Off-road to the Volto Santo

Distance:  17km

Elevation: Min - 241m, Max - 451m

Total ascent:  685m

Mode: Mountain Bike, but would be rather nice to walk too, particularly if going via the Abbazia di San Liberatore (see separate guide)

Grade: Moderate (steep & rocky in places)

Turn left out of Kokopelli, descend to the bottom of the lane and turn left to go the short distance into Serramonacesca.

The road from Kokopelli into Serra

Continue through the village, staying on the main road all the way down to the river and then up for 1.5 km until you reach Colle Serra on your left.  Take this turning.

There’s now a long climb up Colle Serra.  Take your time, you've got a lot of climbing to do!

Over to your right you’ll get a rather glorious view of the Volto Santo which looks tantalisingly close.  But you’re not going direct, you’re going up the mountain!

The Volto Santo - not that far is it?

Renovation projects anyone?

You’ll go past a rather lovely derelict house screaming out of a bit of TLC and renovation and the tarmac eventually becomes a dirt track.  

Not long after the road becomes a dirt track you’ll see a fork off to the left, ignore this and continue on past another very charming derelict cottage.  

The track does start to get a lot steeper and rugged enough to challenge the most hardy of bikers.  But any walking and pushing you may have to do, although harsh, will be short lived and well worth the effort, particularly when the descents begin.  

You do, eventually, get to go down hill too!

You will reach a junction with a sharp right that takes you down the hill, or left to continue up.  Despite what your legs are telling you, continue up.  Eventually, some 3km from when you first turned into Colle Serra you will reach tarmac once more.  

Down hill all the way now :-)

Turn right here and enjoy the long sweep all the way down to the Basilica di Volto Santo.

The Volto Santo

Do go in (covering bare legs & shoulders) to pay your respects to the veil of Christ (http://www.voltosanto.it/Inglese/index.php).  Don’t miss out on the museum upstairs either, it’s full of fascinating artifacts of times gone by.  

If your ride has built up a hunger, don’t be put off by the basic frontage of the wooden shack outside selling arrosticini and pizza. The food is superb and supplied by local gastronomer “Lu Gattone” (http://www.lugattone.it/index.asp)

On the way back, it is possible to put in a couple of slightly different routes to ring the changes and save back tracking the same route all the way:

From the Volto Santo, start heading back up the hill the way you came but after about 200m you’ll see a small road (Contrada Baccigno) on your left sign posted “Pescara”.  Take this and continue for about 600m until you reach another small junction, turn right and stay on this road, continuing to climb, for about 1km. 

Take the left fork down

There’s a small track off to the left here that you need to take.  If you get to the stone mason’s plot, you’ve gone too far.

This track (steep in places) takes you nicely back to the rough track you came in on at the top of Colle Serra.

...and enjoy the views over to Manoppello

Enjoy the well-earned long sweep down Colle Serra (and the views across to Manoppelo) until you reach the junction at the bottom.  Instead of turning right here to head back towards Serra, turn left then immediate right and right again.  

Not a bad watering hole before the
final ascent back up to Garifoli

This road winds all the way down to the fiume Alento before climbing up to Serra coming into the village under the arch via the centro storico (the old, and very charming, historic centre).  Low & behold, right by the arch, is a bar.  Nice one.  Cold beer awaits :-)

Enjoy your beer, remembering to keep enough in the tank for the final 100m “sting in the tail” climb back up to Kokopelli!

Walking Guide: Castel Menardo - St Onofrio

CASTEL MENARDO -> ST ONOFRIO

Start Kokopelli

Distance 6.5 km

Time 2 hours

Grade Easy

Altitude         362 m - 784 m over undulating terrain

Turn left out of Kokopelli and then left again at the end onto the main road and make your way into Serramonacesca.  As you come into Serra, just past the parking area for the buses and with the Municipo on the corner turn left here.  At the end of this road, turn left and carry on up and out of the village.  

As soon as you've left the village, take the first right following the signs to the castel.  If you're driving, you can park anywhere along here.  Follow the signs and the path up to castel. 

Just past the picnic benches you will come to a junction of paths - left onto the yellow marked D2 national trail or right which takes you up to the castel.  We will be following the D2, but it is well worth wandering up to the castel to take in the stunning views before heading back down again to pick up the D2.

As soon as you're on the D2, the path starts climbing steeply up a stoney mule track.  You may start wishing at this point that said mule was indeed there to give you a hand.

At the top of the track, take the left fork, still following the yellow D2 signs.  The climb continues until you reach the road.  Turn right and follow this very pleasant and very quiet little lane for about 1km.  


The views start opening out here and you get a wonderful feeling of space and being the only ones in the whole wide world out there walking.  You'll go past lots of fascinating old stone settlements.

After about 1 km, in a sharp right hand bend leave the road here by picking up the gravel track on your left, indicated by the yellow D2 sign.

Where the track bends sharply right, look out for another track just to you left, usually with a chain across it.  You will also see a red & white post just beyond the chain indicating the start of the “S” route

Go down this track, following the left side of a small cattle field with an old caravan on the far side.  Keep looking out for and following the red & white “S” trail.

About 3/4 km beyond the cattle field, look out for a small track off to the left, complete with red & white marker.

Follow this pretty little path all the way down through the oak and beech woods until you eventually come to the hermitage of San Onofrio beautifully built into the stunning limestone rock formations.    Go inside and have a look around - its fascinating!  And don’t forget to ring the bell for good luck.

On reaching water station building at bottom turn right, still following the red & white markers.

Follow the route all way down, ignoring a branch off to right, until you hit the tarmac road.  Almost immediately opposite but slightly to the right you’ll see the track continues over the road and down.

Continue along this path until you reach another tarmac road at the bottom of a few steps.  Turn left to follow the road back up to the castel, or right to continue back into Serramonacesca.

Walking Guide: Up to the Montepiano

GARIFOLI - MONTEPIANO

Start: Kokopelli

Distance:  8.5 km

Time: 2 hours

Grade:  Easy, but with some pretty steep ups & downs

Turn right out of Kokopelli and take the first left into Contrada San Martino and after 500m take the gravel track on the right.  Continue up the hill for another 500m and you’ll go past a derelict house on your right, keep following the main track onwards and upwards, taking in the stunning views across the valley.  

Eventually the track reaches a tarmac road towards the top of the hill (although there is still a bit more climbing to do!).  Turn right here and follow the tarmac road past a few houses.  Try not to deviate here down anyone’s drive but continue along the main pathway up and into the woods.

The terrain will slowly change as you come out of the woods and become very volcanic.  Here it becomes absolutely fascinating.  It’s its own little micro climate with an abundance of wild flowers and ferns growing in and around the large volcanic boulders.

After about another 1km you’ll reach a junction, take the right track.  Here you can either stay on the main path, taking the right hand track (when you reach it), which will take you all the way up until it ends at the cliff face at the very top of the Montepiano.  If you take this route, continue your walk back into Garifoli from *** below.

The other option you have is to explore in and around the volcanic boulders.  If you keep your eye out to the left you will see a small path amongst the rocks.  Follow this and you’ll have a real treat!  The volcanic boulders form its own amazing natural rock garden, full of flowers and butterflies.  Just beautiful.  

Eventually, you’ll reach a small tarmac road with a house in front of you.  Turn left here, go down the hill past a large building with a chapel attached and, just on the bend, look out for a small track on your right with a couple of little stone steps.  This will take you back into the woods and follows a long stone wall

At the end of the track, you’ll see a wire fence facing you.  Turn right here.  

After a short distance the main track goes to the left, but look out for and take a small track on your right.  Keep following this track, it opens out, gets a bit wider and you will pass a large pole route marked in red and yellow with the number 10.

You are now on an official trail!

Turn right and head on up the tarmac road until you reach the flag pole, turn right here.

This track takes you all the way to the top of the Montepiano which, even though the track finishes at the cliff edge, it is well worth following for the fabulous views across the valley.

*** Make your way back down the track the way you came and look out for a track on your right marked by two trees, one with white baler twine and one with a piece of plastic.  

This track will eventually come out of the woods and you’ll get a fabulous view all the way down our Alento valley with the Torre Polegra in the distance in front of you.  

Drop down the hill until you hit the track at the bottom, turn right here and follow the pathway until it returns to Garifoli and Kokopelli.

Into the Calanchi by MTB

We got into "Calanchi land" through the arch way by Fatseo's bar that takes you through old Serra, down to the river, onto a dirt track and up and up and up towards the peaks of the calanchi.

Finally, after a long old slog where pushing the bikes was the only option, and even then I was almost beaten by the almost vertical climb, we could see the track unfolding in front of us.

But we still continued to climb, down for a bit, which was heavenly relief, and then up and up and up again we went.  Up for over 100m.  But the views were spectacular, and not a soul to be seen, apart from the shepherd with his sheep, goats and dogs.

Serra, as always, looking so pretty in the valley.

The weird clay formations of the calanchi, with the sea on the horizon, never fail to fascinate.

When, at long last, we reached the road and the long, long sweep down, the freedom and the joy of our descent was temporarily broken by an enforced puncture pitstop.  Not a bad place for a puncture though.

Although the storm clouds where looking pretty dramatic over the mountains of the Majella in the distance, we had a glorious day of bright, hot, sunshine, empty roads and superb views.

Our ride took a very different turn altogether as we descended into the valley and picked up the river bed of the Alento, which we followed almost all the way back, criss-crossing our way in and out of the river.

At one point, we came across some off-roaders having as much fun on the river bed as we were - I'm not sure who was more surprised to find they were not alone, us or them!

Finally our fun in the cooling river was over, and we were climbing back up the calanchi under the hot hot sun.

But it was worth it.

Great fun we had, skidding and sliding our way back down...

Until we were back were we started, in the bar with a very very welcome ice-cold beer!

25km, with probably more bike pushing than bike riding, but what a great route and what a great day.  

  

Pretoro: Woods, mills & waterfalls

A fabulous walk we had today.  Today was scheduled to be an "exploring the mountain bike trails" day but the weather just got worse and worse and worse.  Not fancying being intrepid explorers by bike in this weather, nor wanting to have a day "in the office" either, we donned the waterproofs, put a couple of pizza slices in the rucksack, pulled on our boots and headed off to Pretoro.  Pretoro, only a short distance from us, but whose tracks we've yet to explore.

Pretoro, Chieti, Abruzzo

The first great find of the day was stumbling across the Il Grande Faggio environmental centre in Pretoro as we were looking for the path up to the E2 trail into the Majella.  What a great centre!  Full of loads of information on the Majella, il Grande Faggio (the Great Beech Tree) is an agency for sustainable development that aims to share the environmental intricacies of the Majella National Park, as well as the ancient traditions of its people, with schools, groups and families.  We were shown around and given a real insight into the work of the centre.  They offer laboratory eduction into the rich biodiversity of the area, take hiking excursions into the mountains, as well as organising volunteer work within the Majella.  A fabulous centre for the discovery of nature, history and the culture of the Majella.

We were given loads of advice on the tracks and trails of the area, and pointed in the right direction for the E2 that we were looking for.  We found it easily, and what a treat we had, despite getting absolutely drenched!

We followed the E2, E1 and the Valle del Foro until the cold and wet forced our retreat.

Pointing the way...

...to the Valle del Foro

So much water...

...tumbling down, and down
from the melting snows of Passo Lanciano

We came across ancient, abandoned mills...

...with enticing entrances

...fascinating chambers

...nooks and crannies

...spooky tunnels

...and scary deep drop wells still showing the marks
of rope pulleys worn smooth into the rock

And even a climbing centre project, started but long forgotten.  We couldn't believe it!  Here in front of us, two climbers, was an amphitheatre of fabulous climbing and even an artificial climbing tower!  It was clearly the child of someone's passion and funding, but never completed.  Why???  Maybe too unstable?  How tragic.

Such a beautiful wall

...there's an old sign that explains it, but my very poor Italian failed me.
I don't understand :(

But our disappointment was quickly dispelled.

There was so much choice, so many paths to take...

...and fun to be had

Despite the cold and the wet, this was a beautiful area, just launching into spring.  The flowers were stunning.  Never, ever have we seen woodland flowers like it.

Soooo pretty...

...and the primroses!  Carpets and carpets of them

...even these teeny weeny sunflowers, a little bedraggled,
but still managing to bloom and wave and smile

We weren't the only visitors either...

Boy, did I jump when I saw this little chap!
Just beautiful

A fabulous, fabulous walk.  So what if it rained.  So what it we got drenched.  And cold.  And what a treat at the end of the day - roast pork for supper and a warming, heartening fire...