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Lago d’Idro

The cleaner had gone and Mr. Happy was nowhere to be seen when we left his campsite and headed east towards the tiny Lago d’Idro. 



We picked a small road over the mountains using Wikiloc which was listed as moderately difficult but from the photos looked ok but very narrow. We drove up to a little weekend type of ski resort at 1,664, which was totally closed, but we had a coffee in the car park before setting off on the stony track.


Very fortunately, we only met a couple of motorbikes coming the other way. We were driving on the down slope side of the road and there was nothing below us on that side. It was very airy.





There was nothing tricky about the road save for a narrow gallery near the beginning and we enjoyed the drive over the top and down into the valley, direct into Anfo at the lake. 


This is beautifully positioned between steep hillsides and is in a very natural state. The are few boats, a couple of small towns and there’s not even a road fully encircling it.




At Glamping Boutique Idro we had to sleep in the car park as they couldn’t decide if their last pitch was available or not. It was a zero cost night and we were even able to use their facilities. We paid back by eating a nice meal.


Two more nights were spent on a pitch, so we were again immersed in Germany but wow, the scenery is good and the lake water warm.





The site is really about glamping cabins, with just a few dozen campervan/ caravan pitches. The focus seems to be on families with small children; at least that’s what the swimming pool is designed for.

The restaurant / shop / reception building is very fancy and I again and again look at the quality of the aluminium floor to ceiling windows and doors, trying to understand how such expensive items can be used at a campsite.


Similarly in the amenities block, there’s such quality in the toilets and basins. Someone has invested a lot of capital. They need a return but the pitch cost for us, using ACSI, was €27+2 tax. Very reasonable indeed. Mr Happy would not live up to his name at that level of income per pitch.


Anfo, a little village, is strung out along a busy road but the houses are all connected with passages through walls. It’s all very jumbled -up. There’s a mining history here, for ore of some description- I’m just not sure what.






We had just bought a supply of fizzy water - enough for a week or more and what do we find outside the church? A drinking water dispenser but nothing normal. This has three outlets. Normal, cold and fizzy! Yes somehow there’s a never ending SodaStreamer fitted. We filled our empty bottles each time we walked past!




The middle day was the day we walked uphill to the cross. It was a good self-challenge. We caught and walked past a Dutch couple and must have put them off with our apparent speed as they seemed to turn around and go back down.


The bench at the top was a hilarious moment. It really did look a normal size and we got heads down to finish the pull up to it, without looking up until we were nearly there and then we found it towering above us. Dawn needed a leg-up to get onto it.







Comments

Anonymous said…
Great photos!! MM.
Fran said…
“Airy” …. such a good adjective 😄

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