Cademario, Ticino, Switzerland

Living in a small village halfway up the side of a Swiss mountain has been great fun. We have done some wonderful walks.

Today we have done a 4 hour walk in a beautiful valley with historic mining and milling sites and the remains of an ancient Roman castle. After going up and down many steep hills we finally came to an old forge powered by a water wheel which produced spades, scythes, sickles and shovel up until 1940s. Here in the middle of nowhere we had lunch. See below.

Ron running towards the Heineken at the forge

Our (on the trail) lunch

View fom cademario

Walking trail

This is how you build a shed Swiss style. Ron looks on in wonder and envy.

There are literally hundreds of walks nearby which are well signposted

Another great walk Sentiero di Gandria along Lake Lugano, wound through small laneways and old olive groves. The climate by the lake is quiet mild with palm tress growing and even a few bananas. David describes this area as like being in Italy but without the tourists. Very nice.

Shadow of palm leavesView on the Sentiero di Gandria




A good trout stream, maybe???

Also we met up with David’s good friend Joanna. She works for WWF specialising in bears particularly in Alaska. Marco she knows everything there is to know about the new invasion of bears into Switzerland from Italy. There is a core population of about 25 in Italy and 2 of these have wandered over the border into the Valbella region. Apparently one of these was shot in April as the mayor from Lenzerheide (I think) was not very cooperative. Joanna said a new strategy for garbage disposal was needed to discourage the bears from the urban areas and the shooting could have been avoided.

Joanna and me in her vineyard tasting her first ever salami. It was good.

Joanna's village Breno

Joanna gave us a bottle of her 2006 Grappa, the bit that survived the hail storm.

We also found a Ramsar site near Lacarno at the delta of the Ticino and Vereasca rivers as they flow into Lake Maggiore. This area is one of the few remaining continental deltaic ecosystems as most rivers in Switzerland are channelled and their deltas have been destroyed. These deltas once provided an important resting place for migratory birds before they crossed the Alps. This site Bolle di Magadino is being recovered as part of the international Ramsar agreement.

If you look closely you can see the head of a baby grebe which is sitting on the back of its mother a Great Grebe.

Trioddity have you ever been cycling in Switzerland? (I bet you have) You would not be alone, there are numerous packs of well kitted out (lots of lycra) cyclists climbing the most ridiculous hills. They have calf muscles like iron blocks. There are cycle lanes on nearly all of the roads and there is much more respect given to cyclists by motorists here than in England or Australia. I wonder what the collective term for a group of cyclists is? A peddle, a muddle, a lycra or as Ron suggests an obstruction. Any better ones??

And finally one for the boys, we found this van just up the road. I think they are heating and or pluming specialists - maybe not as good a name as Manyana Plumbing.