Once you depart the coastal area, you leave the orange groves behind. While gaining elevation, the olive groves and grape vines give way to cereal crops and grazing land for cattle, sheep and goats. I have been intent on getting into this landscape, and today was the day, as we were greeted with blue sky and sunshine this morning.
Sunday is a great day for a drive as the roads are quiet. The sensible Sicilians must have been heading out for Sunday lunch or a family get together in town. And that was a good thing for us, as it gave us some time to get used to the bends and the hairpin turns.
It was only about 70 km to the beginning of our hike but it took some time to get there. Then we had to find our way out of Palazzo Adriano, we ended up in the main piazza and then proceeded down a very narrow street that dead-ended. John had to do some serious car manoeuvring to get us backed around a corner and turned around so we could get out. The town of Palazzo Adriano was the setting for the movie 'Cinema Paradiso,' the piazza is really pretty and it was full of Sicilians near midday.
We got out of town and headed up the road, suddenly, a wayward black chicken came blasting out of the side of the road and crossed in front of the car. John and I just howled with laughter, it was totally bizarre. Why did the chicken cross the road!? I am certain that it was the chicken goddess Artemis. We found the car park and started our hike. Luckily, John put the hiking way points on our handheld GPS, otherwise we would never have found the trail. The cattle chopped it up and it was very faint. Since it has rained a lot, the trail was a muddy mess but we gained quite a bit of elevation right away. Then things calmed down and we made our way down the mountain which was troubling, as we figured we would have to go back up again.
Then we had one of those travel moments that you have sometimes. Way down the mountain a shepard was driving his flock. Since sound travels so well up the mountain, we could hear with incredible clarity. He was using different calls, the bells on the sheep were tinkling and we stopped and stood and watched. I was thinking, this is why we travel, to witness these simple things which have this serenity about them, a shepard calling and moving his flock. I thought that he must be calling to a dog to move the sheep.
After a while, we carried on and ended up meeting him and the flock on the track we were following. We greeted him and were signaling with our normal gesture method of communication, if we should go around through the trees, he motioned that we should go right through the sheep. I thought, oh brother, we are going to mess up his day, sheep are going to freak and scatter all over the place. We walked through, some sheep ran ahead and some stayed behind, some went for the trees. Then, he made a call and the sheep totally, and I mean totally, responded to his call, they stopped, turned and went to him. The sheep down the road turned around and ran back past us to re-join the flock, it was extraordinary. There was no dog, he did it all with his voice. There is skill in everything that people do to make a living in this world.
Shortly after, we had to climb back up the bloody mountain. It was relentlessly steep, straight up through the trees. If we had not climbed the billion stairs in Amalfi we would have been doomed. After slogging for what seemed like forever, we gained the ridge and walked and walked back to the car. The hike took us 3.5 hours. We ate a bit of lunch in the car and then took off as dark clouds were gathering and we wanted to get back to Sciacca prior to dark.
Tomorrow is a travel day, we move to southeastern Sicily, to the baroque town of Modica.
As usual, click on the pics to enlarge
Prizzi, I think!
Yeah, we leave Saskatchewan in winter and have to find snow in Sicily.
Piazza in Palazzo Adriano
Palazzo Adriano
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