Teilnehmer

• bubi
• knuti
• monsterrobert
• roli
• sushi_klaus

We started our tour from Ventimiglia. We had arrived on Friday evening and
stayed at Hotel Posta for the night. In the morning we tried to find the
beginning of Alta Via. It turned out harder than we thought. Finally we
managed to find a way up the hills to the monestary Madonna della Virtu.
Shortly after that we found the 'AV' markings. From there on it was fairly
easy to stay on track.
We arrived to the "Agriturismo Alta Via" around 2 pm. We decided to stock up
on our red wine supplies and continue the stage to Rifugio Pau. We
anticipated that Rifgio Pau was closed, but we hoped that we would find some
emergency cover for the night. We learned that evening that non of the
refuges on Alta Via has any emergency rooms that can be accessed freely. So
we set up our tarp to have some protection for sleeping near Rifugio Pau.
We woke up around 4 o'clock in the morning when it started to rain heavily.
We had to get up because the tarp was only protecting us from the top but
not from the side. When day broke and it was possible to see the trail, we
continued towards Rifugio Muratone. Throughout the morning it continued to
drizzle and we were soaking wet when we arrived to Rifugio Muratone around
one o'clock pm. We used the rest of the day to dry our equipment.
The next day turned out to be one of the most beautiful stages that we had
been hiking in a long time. The sky was blue and the air was chrystal clear
as we started our ascent in the morning. The higher we got up towards Monte
Toraggio the better the view was back into the direction of San Remo and the
Mediterranean Sea. As we got up to Passo Fte. Dragurina we could also see
far into the french alps. It was a breath taking 360° view. There was very
little snow on the trail on the north eastern face of the moutain. We
continued toward Rifugio Crai, which was closed as well. By the way: the
Rifugio Crai looked more like a dump yard than a place to stay in the
mountain. From Riugio Crai we could see that Rifugio Allavena was open. We
went down and stayed for the night.
The weather was not as well the next day, so our stage passing across Monte
Saccarello was mostly foggy above 1800m altitude. As we were going down from
Passo Fronte we got into a heavy shower of snow and rain. At the same time
we lost the markings of the trail. It cost us some time to get back on track
and we were soaked again. As you anticipated in your e-mail the hotel at San
Bernardo di Mendatica was closed. The staff at Rifugio Allavena had
suggested to us to go to the "Agriturismo Il Castagno" at Mendatica. This
turned out to be an excellent hint, as we had good accommodations and
extrordinary food. We enjoyed the stay there very much. Also we left the dog
from Rifugio Allavena at 'Il Castagno'. The dog had been good company all
day long. He started with us from Allavena and didn't leave us alone all
day. From 'Il Castagno' we had to call Rifugio Allavena to tell them were
the dog went. They promised to pick it up the following day.
The next day we didn't go back up to San Bernardo di Mendatica but went to
Colle di Nava through Cosio d' Arroscia. From Colle di Nava we continued to
Caprauna and stayed at the Locanda da Anselmo. As on the previous days we
got into a rain shower just before we reached the end of the stage.
This was our last full day of walking. The next day we followed the
archeaological trail from Caprauna to Nasino, passing the village of Alto.
From Nasino we got on the bus to Albenga. From there we took the train back
to Germany.

For more infornation about the Alta Via