Led by Karen Groenewald and Gordon Murray
Tour dates: 08 to 18 September 2011.
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A holiday which took place in hot and humid conditions. The lakes are very beautiful and a lot of the walking is on old roads and mule tracks. The people of those days must have been very tough and fit!
A beautiful town on the shore of Lake Maggiore
It has a fine old stone harbour
Nearby the lake ferries come and go
The route heads out of Stresa on some magnificent old roads
Our destination was the station at Lesa for our return journey
It shows former grandeur but is now almost deserted
Someone had to have the rooms at 15mins walk from the hotel
Could not complain at the standard of accomodation there!
After walking on the far side of Monte Mottarone, we descended to Alpe Nuevo
The building is sealed and deserted, but the location is perfect
We were lucky to be able to have our lunch there
After lunch a small climb took us to the summit of Monte Zughero
Then a long descent to Stresa
After Stresa we moved on to Belgirate
It lies right on a tip of land where the lakes divide
Here is a closer view of the waterfront
Both groups went up to the san Martino church
The D+ group continued upwards to reach this fine spot for their lunch break
Lunch there was very pleasant...
...although later there was a plague of mendicant goats
After lunch - a little more climbing
A demanding route
with a nice little slab climb
Enlivened by Jack's colourful vest
It was late when we got to the ferry...
...and we had to wait for the next one
There are worse places to wait for a ferry than the beautiful harbour at Varenna!
A taller mountain
Our start-point was higher
That gave us some welcome cooler conditions for our last walk