canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Torrente Torbido

On the hills that slope down towards river Noce, west of Mount Sirino, featuring populous and panoramic villages and a rural area full of crops and houses, there are wild corners covered by impenetrable jungles fed by the abundance of water of this part of Basilicata.
By following the abundant flow of Torbido stream we can move through such a wilderness and reach a short but majestic hidden gorge, and its spectacular waterfall.

I remember ...

That day I had thoughts running through my head, distracting me from the canyon. So I lost my balance on the very slippery rocks of the Torbido. Hitting the rock, the skin and underlying tissue opened sharply at the knee, as if cut by a scalpel, for about 7 cm, fortunately without any blood vessel being affected. Continuing the descent would have involved frequent immersion of the knee in stream's water. Furthermore, the wound had to be sutured as soon as possible and in the meantime I had to try not to flex the leg, to keep the edges close ...

According to GPS the car was very close, 600 m as the crow flies and 40 m below us. We could leave the shore and continue through the woods ... So the best solution seemed getting out of the creek immediately.
But the wood turned out to be an impenetrable jungle. We couldn't keep the direction to the car, there was always something that forced us to change direction (a rock wall, a thorns' barrier, ...). Too much vegetation, too dense and thorny.
We zigzagged for almost 4 hours (!!) before we could get to the car, hours spent in what undoubtedly is the worst jungle I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of bad jungles in my life!).

Once at the car, we were back in the well-known modern world, made of tilled grounds and farmhouses joined by a dense network of asphalted roads. Nothing to suggest the existence of a wild and hostile world right next.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.