canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Rio Secco

We are in Turano valley, very near to the Balzi di Grotti. The typical pudding-rock of Balzi appears here too. As you know, it's a very good rock for canyons. So don't be surprised to find here another beautiful canyon: Rio Secco.

The words Rio Secco mean "dry stream", but this is absolutely false: here we find more water than in canyons aroud! Rio Secco has many pools even in summer, though in the dry season there is no flow to change water in the pools, so they become putrid!

A tributary called Fosso del Canalone joins the Rio Secco at the middle of canyon. Also Fosso del Canalone is an interesting canyoning trail (compared with Rio Secco it is more tight and less steep). Of course, the two canyoning trails share their second half.

I remember ...

We explored Rio Secco in autumn, before rains make the stream flow again after the dry season. But pools were full, not empty! full of putrid water (who is the fool who called this place "dry river"?!). We tried not to get wet ... sometimes it was a bit acrobatic, sometimes we avoided swimming by exiting the canyon to get in it again a few meters down ... We reached the confluence, to see that Fosso del Canalone had its own canyon (wow! another one to explore!)

And then we got were it was impossible not to swim ... No it wasn't bad, water was cleaner than we supposed ...

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.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.