canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Baccu Dilone (Riu Argallargiu)

The Quirra Plateau hosts the biggest military firing ground in Italy. Its central part is often bombed, with test or training purposes. The whole plateau is uninhabited. Centuries ago it was covered by a forest, while today only dense unpassable bushes cover the plateau in the parts not used as firing ground.

However there are parts of the plateau which doesn't belong to military ground. Here you find dense woods, and the hidden majestic canyon Baccu Dilone, a great cut on metamorphic rocks of plateau's edge. This canyon has unusual forms and colors, extraordinary.
The soil is naturally rich in heavy metals, mainly lead. There were mines active till some decades ago, now abandoned. It is dangerous to drink water from the springs of this area, contaminated by heavy metals of the soil.

I remember ...

Carlo lived many years in Algeria. He travelled in Sahara desert very much, and started a business as desert guide for tourists. The algerian civil war of nineties forced him to return to Italy.
Since we met two years ago Carlo tells me about Sahara and proposes me to do a trip there. It is a seducing idea to do a classic tour in Sahara. A more seducing idea is to go looking for unknown canyons in the mountains of central Sahara (like the Hoggar). No one did canyoning there.
Carlo tells there could be flowing water. There are also natural pools called gueltas where you can take a swim, in the desert!

Now we are at the bottom of second cascade of Baccu Dilone, and Carlo tells me: Gueltas are like this place, with fewer bushes. The landscape is like this.

A guelta in Sardinia's plateaus.

Photos 1, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 by Andrea Pucci

Photographs in this website show ultralight ropes (6 mm ropes made of high tenacity fibers). Read multimedia book Ultralight ropes canyoning technique to learn how to use them.

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