cookieless, no-ads, no threats canyon exploring with
Michele Angileri

Fosso Santa Rosalia

In addition to the two branches of Sciarapottolo Stream a third channel runs along the southern slopes of Mount Sellaro at the foot of the Sanctuary of Madonna delle Armi. The very modest supply basin means that it has some flow even more rarely than Sciarapottolo, however enough to define a clear path through the scrub and to sculpt erosions on hard limestone rock.

I remember ...

Exploring a canyon without any partner means that there is no shuttle car waiting by the end, and that you must walk back to your car. Since backpack is heavy and return route is long, arduous and unknown, it is best to abandon the backpack in a place close to a point reachable by car, and walk back without any weight on your shoulder.
But even so, the return on foot after having descent Fosso Santa Rosalia was particularly tiring. The scrub was often thick and thorny. Every now and then I came across some lumberjack tracks, but they didn't go in the right direction, and I soon must abandon them. And there were several fences, some high and difficult to overcome: despite the wild appearance, those were private lands still used for ... grazing? wood?
The ringing of goat bells and the barking of dogs confirmed to me that those were grazing lands. Soon after I heard a shepherd's whistle, but it was far away and I continued my walk. But the shepherd had seen me and since he was intrigued by the passage of a guy where no one ever goes, he came looking for me with his off-road vehicle and he found me on the road to the sanctuary. We had a nice chat about what I was doing, about his life, some mutual acquaintances, and I gained a lift for the last kilometer to sanctuary.

After recovering the car I went down to get my backpack, which I had left not far from some country houses. One of them was inhabited. The house dogs did not welcome me, but soon the elderly owner arrived, very kind and friendly.
I explained why I were here and he led me to pick up my backpack, through the scrub to the gate that allowed me to get over the high fence that bordered his property, then up the track to where I had left my pack. The path was steep and we went slowly also because he had a pacemaker and couldn't make much effort.

Having recovered my backpack, I greeted the owner of the house and was about to leave, but he invited me to his home, introduced me to wife, offered me a drink, opened a pandoro and we had a nice chat about our families, children, grandchildren, ... The owner and his wife lived there, in that house without electricity. They took water from the spring at the head of Fosso Santa Rosalia, brought with a long plastic tube stretched down the mountain's slopes. Their children lived in the village, where there is everything: a paved road, electricity, gas, aqueduct, sewerage, shops. There in the countryside, a few kilometers from the village, there is none of this. That elderly couple is the only people there, living the life of the past, the kind of life that was lived a century ago in all the northern Calabria.

And so once again a journey through a harsh and unknown place located a stone's throw from home has also become a journey through time and into a reality that is overall more alien than the one you can experience on the other side of the world.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.