Tuesday 9th of August

Tuesday was a late start for me after finding the journey on Monday very tiring.  Before lunch I headed to the local piazza for a Spritz aperitivo with Chiara, her aunt and uncle, her father and other random people from the village.  One guy was particularly squiffy which was quite impressive given it was not long past midday.  The conversation wasn't too bad and even when they drifted into dialect I still could pick up what the conversation was about.  Lunch was back at the house and it was fried Sardinian fish, fried eggplant, salad, fruit salad and a little vino rosso.

After dinner a few of us headed out for una passeggiata but it turned into more like a long walk however it was nice to see a few local places of interest for the first time and also see some of them without the 18 inches of snow they had on them last time I was here.  First strange thing we saw was a middle age couple filling up bottles of water from a tap in the middle of nowhere.  Apparently it's a healing water that comes from this tap and this couple obviously had a lot to heal as they had 20 litre bottles in the process of being filled.  We carried on the path as it descended and noticed the falcons flying above and keeping an eye on us.  Further down there was what appeared to be a zip-line, a metal rope across part of the valley.  It was explained to me that it was used to get the wood they wanted removed from the forest to the part of the forest accessible by road.  I noticed another one further down the hill too so was obviously a common thing.

Chiara checking out the acoustics of the zip-line

Zara fetching her 1,000th stick, this time from the water

After leaving the forest we came across a new part of the river bed which had obviously been done to help control the water going in to the river at this point.  However with all the snow melted and no rain to speak of the river bed was fairly dry and we walked down it for a kilometre or so.  Once back on the road at the other side of the valley we dropped back down to Caupo and then back up to Seren.  One other thing of note was a small brick shed here and there.  Some were in better condition than the others but I was told they were the local fridge as they were fed with cool air from below.  Certainly sticking my hand in through a gap I could feel much cooler air but I don't think people were still keeping their milk and cheese in there...

Looking across the valley to Seren

Retro fridge

Seren clock tower