canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso Rosciella

Certainly Fosso Rosciella is the less interesting canyoning trail in Cineto-Percile-Licenza area. The route consists in a long hike along creek bed. Rope is not needed because there are no cascades. You only need a wetsuit to protect your feet and legs and enjoy a bath in the few (avoidable) pools you meet. The place, however, is beautiful and pristine, a kind of primeval garden. Route is long and demanding, the sense of isolation is substantial, around the vegetation is dense and almost impassable, ...

Many of you would not classify this kind of route as "canyoning", but the environment and the overall difficulties place it well beyond pure and simple hiking.

I remember ...

You know, I like all kinds of canyons and creeks. In canyoning I do not look for adrenaline (which inevitably exists) nor the enterprise (which occasionally comes out), and I do not judge canyoning routes on the number and height of waterfalls (though they are a very important feature).
Yet I was disappointed by that torrent. Not by the day, no: the environment was beautiful, the physical fatigue was there, the thoughts of everyday life were far away, the mind was relaxing and regenerating, ... But it was too long and too simple, with too much jungle and too much effort, ...
Unexpectedly, Giorgio had a different opinion. He has been canyoning for a lifetime, and he has seen any kind of canyons and creeks, easy and difficult, long and short, dry and wet, in Italy and abroad ... Inaspettatamente Giorgio era di parere diverso. Lui fa torrentismo da una vita, e di gole, fossi e torrenti ne ha visti tanti, facili e difficili, lunghi e corti, asciutti e acquatici, in tutta Italia e anche all'estero, ... I never imagined hearing him appreciate that environment, that kind of descent. I said "this is a hiking route" and he said "no, hiking is far simpler than this, a hiker would not be able to get by here, facing water, rocks and jungle without a path".

Well, if I decided to talk about Fosso Rosciella on this site, it's because in the end Giorgio convinced me: if it's not hiking it must be canyoning.

Photos and video by Michele Angileri and Giorgio Ecker

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