Taking Lisa for a walk

Having a dog is also having a lot of responsibility. Especially in Lisa's case where a shipload of traumas came with the dog as a free bonus package. It's a package we want to throw in the bin as soon as possible so we immediately took her on long walks, at least once a day but generally two to three times daily. And how happy she is since. In the beginning she couldn't contain herself and she pulled us all the way round as if she were a sleigh dog wanting to win the race. She can go on for hours if she has to, pulling with all of her might up and down the hills, meadows and foot trails. But this week we had enough faith in her to let her off the leash. In the beginning she was still a bit wild and disappeared in the woods up to the point that we were getting quite anxious. But now she's calmed down a lot and although she still likes to run after a roe deer or investigating a strange scent she picked up in the fields, she always comes back when we call her and always remains in the vicinity. Even more so. It's hard to believe this but it's true... When Christine takes Lisa for a walk on her own, Lisa stays remarkably close to Christine and almost never lets her eyes off her. Could it be that Lisa instictively feels that Christine is suffering from chronic fatigue and that she's worried about her? She's oh soooo sweet...

A few days ago I took Lisa out on a three-hour hike all around the Monte Carù, the hill against which our house is situated. Unfortunately the sky was veiled and near the end it started to drizzle, but the temperature was mild - about 18°C - so the perfect weather for a stiff walk. The nightingales were again singing until they'd burst, the air was full with the sweet scent of wild thyme and honeysuckle and going down the trail behind our house I could already hear the gentle rustling of the Secchia river. Time for a last glance at the Bismantova rock before diving into the woods...

Lisa was completely overjoyed. She ran and leapt and took in the whole of stunning nature with all of her senses. Dogs are all natural born runners, well the Pekingese probably a bit less so :-), and the wolf-hound with its amazing lung capacity is certainly excelling at this. Lisa could run about for days and never shows the slightest bit of fatigue. This is what she was born for... to run freely as the queen of these woods and fields.

The woods were getting thicker and the trail meandered downhill, towards the Secchia. Just look at her, how happy she is and how well she responded to my call...

Finally we arrived in the Secchia valley. The Gessi Triassici ("Triassic Rocks") you can see on the next picture are not just a wonderful sight as such, they also have a big paleontological value, just like the cliffs of South-England for example. Naturally these rocks form an integral part of the Tuscan-Emilian National Park.

Again a snapshot of the Gessi Triassici with the beautifully flowered meadows and lowlands leading towards the river...

Having a quick rest, enjoying this earthly paradise...

We continued our hike through the valley, with the Monte Carù on our right...

Then, I stumbled upon this sign. At first I didn't understand it quite well and I guessed that "geome" must mean something like "gnome". So... "Madonna of the gnomes" and "TR1" would be a track or distance number or something. 

This was actually confirmed by what I found in the woods. A tiny chapel with tiny benches in front of it, as if they were truly made for gnomes...

But when I returned home and looked "geome" up in the dictionary, I couldn"t find it. Not even when I Googled it. And then I sussed it. It's not "geome" but "geometri", in one word even though there was a big space in between. "Geometri" means "geometers"... the Madonna of the geometers??? Hmmm... Next time I'll return with a torch and burn that place down! hehehe... ;-) 

On we went, through dried up sidearms of the Secchia river and next to the bends of the river itself. Nowadays this river's quite calm, but imagine what a torrent it can be just after the mountain snow begins to melt! On this picture you can see some treelogs on the island of rubble behind the main river. A bit further down the whole riverbed is even covered in old treelogs!

Lisa playing with the ripples and barking at the noise the river makes. This was probably the first time she actually saw a river...

And then she couldn't contain herself any longer... :-)

It was only a quick dip but she really loved it! One more picture taken in the direction where we came from, with Monte Carù to the left and the Monte Ventasso in the distance. There is a very nice ski resort at Monte Ventasso, by the way...

On the muddy trail we found fresh evidence of the biggest animal living in these woods: the noble deer! Unfortunately no antlers though; it's too late in the year to look for these anyway, unless you're incredibly lucky...

Fresh, young trees planted where old ones had been chopped down. I was glad to see that forest preservation's been carefully planned and executed. Also nice colours in this picture, don't you think?

Eventually we had to turn right, around the corner of Monte Carù and start a steep climb upwards. At the foot we crossed a small field in the middle of the woods, completely full of wild orchids! Literally hundreds of them! From now on I'll call this place Orchid Field... :-)

Up... and up... and up... along the signposted track. This is the "S.SP" or "Sentiero Spallanzani", one of the three most important hiking trails in the Emilian Apennines, next to the "Sentiero Matilde" (dedicated to countess Matilde of Canossa and her many castles in the area) and the "Sentiero Ducale" (dedicated to the dukes of Parma and their former properties here). Well... either I'm getting old or the people who designed the "S.SP" are a bunch of ruthless sadists! My god! The climb is incredibly steep and doesn't seem to end at all! I had to stop every two minutes or so to catch my breath! And all this time Lisa was hopping about like if the climb didn't bother her in the least. I suppose she could climb the Everest without ever getting tired. :-) Afterwards, when I came to think of it, the trail made a height difference of 250m on that particular portion. This is like almost climbing all the way up the Eiffel tower in one single stretch! Oh... how glad I was to see the sign on the next picture! It meant that I had reached the orchid track (see previous blog post) and that my sufferings were over...

View from the orchid track with the weather deteriorating. So it's not the most spectacular picture I've already taken from this spot, but it was during this particular walk so I chose this one. You can see the distance I climbed, the Sologno valley with the Sologno torrent which ends up in the Secchia a bit further, and the village of Sologno resting on the crest of the hill behind. In the far distance Monte Cusna is about to be covered by the clouds. 

Back along the orchid track. Down I found this wonderful refrigerator flower! Incredible, isn't it? Imagine the effort someone must have gone through in order to drag this fridge, kitchen sink and hot water boiler (not on the picture) all the way up here, 2 miles in the woods, in order to dump them! I'm sorry, Amnesty International, but you lot can go to hell. I think that for such bastards public flogging should be reintroduced! :-( (my apologies that the picture isn't 100% sharp but it was getting pretty dark at the time...) 

And look at this! Evidence of another incredible but shy creature that lives in these woods: the big porcupine! Actually, when Christine returned home recently, late in the evening, she actually saw two male porcupines showing off in the middle of the road, with their spined backs towards the other trying to make the best impression! I can testify that these spines are incredibly sharp because I was stupid enough to put them in one of my trouser pockets. No... It's not what you think, you perverts... :-D When I wanted to take them out one of them stung my fingertip and it went in like a knife through soft butter...  

Almost home. Our house is about half a mile further, behind the hill with the trees on the far right. 

And so ended our little adventure. Lisa and I were both incredibly happy and you can count on it that we'll do this walk many times again in the future. Perhaps Christine and I can have a picknick by the Secchia while Lisa lets go of her excess of energy? Altough I'd want to bet she'd be much more interested in the picknick as well... :-D