Monthly Archives: May 2020

The Countryside in the City

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Fryent Country Park in North West London is divided into two parts by Fryent Way. We visited the part on the left of Fryent Way a couple of days ago. Much of it is woodland dispersed with noble oak trees. Its highest elevation Barn Hill is marked by a trig point and a lovely  pond encircled by yellow flags and bulrushes. We spotted four ducks enjoying its waters.

Other parts of this half of Fryent Park consist of expansive meadows with some fine views.

Yesterday we started exploring the right side of Fryent Park. Although there are areas of woodland, again with some fine oaks, the major part of this park consists of a succession of meadows surrounded by ancient hedges following patterns originating in mediaeval times. These hedges, made up of a variety of bushes and trees, have been restored in several parts where they were missing and make up a very special part of the attractions of this park.

We emerged from the woods and enjoyed walking through one meadow to another. Going through the openings of the hedges finding yet another fine expanse of pasture and yet another lovely view was like going to a play and seeing the curtains opening up on a new scene. Indeed, it was a true natural theatre.

The views included that westward towards Harrow-on-the Hill and to the east towards Neasden and its Hindu temple.

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What impressed me especially was the dramatic grandeur of the clouds on this day.

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Eventually we found ourselves in the park’s north eastern part and entered into a thick glade which opened out into a street complete with two thatched cottages.

There was also a pub but sadly it was closed for the duration. I wonder when it’ll open up again, if ever…

I think of our friends and relatives in Italy who all live in a much stricter lock-down regime. Recently there has been a little easing of the situation there and I notice their photographs of the first walks they have been able to do in over eight weeks. They felt so joyful in being able to step outside their house, albeit for short distances, wearing face masks and observing social distancing rules. By default we are so much luckier in this pandemic in the UK ….or are we? The other day I wrote regarding the UK and Italy. “For me the big difference is that in Italy a strong State has told the people what to do – in the UK the people are increasingly telling a feeble State what to do…even down to when their children should return to school and where they should wear protective masks. In Italy the state is protecting the people. In the UK the people are protecting themselves.”

As a friend said in a tone of defiant sarcasm: “don’t worry, the spirit of the blitz lives on and Tom is 100. Compared with Italy in the UK one can kill and be killed any time we want.”

The UK is now second only to the USA in the number of the dead slain by the virus beating even Italy whose Prime Minister had warned BJ of the consequences from his country’s own experiences of what could happen if strict lockdown regulations were not followed. Instead we had ‘herd immunity’.

https://longoio3.com/2020/04/21/the-best-place-to-be-in-during-a-pandemic/

I just wonder how this pandemonium of a pandemic will end, if ever it will end. Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the natural beauties of our planet earth while we still may.

 

 

The Bird’s Peak

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The Apuan Alps become increasingly rugged the more north one goes. By the time Piazza al Serchio is reached the mountains more than deserve their appellation ‘alp’ as they do not at all look out of place in the Dolomites, such is their rocky jaggedness.

The Pizzo d’Uccello (1,781 m high) stands out among the other peaks of the Apuan Alps above all for its north face, which presents a sheer cliff almost 2,700 feet in height placing it in the same league as the most difficult climbs of the Alps. Indeed, it’s nicknamed the ‘Matterhorn of the Apuans’.

materpizzo

The Pizzo also marks the boundary between the upper Serchio valley (Garfagnana) and the Magra valley (Lunigiana) and, until the first half of the nineteenth century, was on the political border between the Duchy of Lucca and the enclave of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany which included Casola in Lunigiana. Today it marks the border between the provinces of Lucca and Massa and Carrara.

The Pizzo can be accessed by skilled rock climbers via its terrifying north face but it can also be climbed via its gentler south approach from the col known as il Giovetto. In 2005 in the company of two friends and their dog I climbed up from the Serchio valley to the Giovetto and the Foce a Giovo (not to be confused with that other ‘Foce a Giovo’ to the south, described in my post at

https://longoio3.com/2017/10/24/the-grand-dukes-stratospheric-road/).

This is a map of our route. We ascended via paths no 187 and 181 and descended via the purple-coloured track which we had to sometimes share with massive marble bearing lorries.

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The day of our ascent was perfect and the footpath, which had some rather dodgy tracts requiring scrambling on all fours, was very pleasant.

The views are absolutely fabulous and, while the Dolomites are of course unbeatable for sheer beauty, these Apuans come up a very close second.

Our descent took us to the Orto di Donna, which should have been once a pleasant valley, but is now somewhat defaced by the excavation of marble.

It’s surrounded by bold peaks including Monte Pisanino (which I’d ascended on a previous occasion), Monte Cavallo, Monte Contrario and Monte Grondilice. I just hope that one day mountain tourism will bring in more money than marble mining, for this whole area is of a surpassing natural beauty and should not be spoilt further.

I’m so glad I did this hike. I was rather fitter than now and I’m not quite sure whether I could manage it again in full. Perhaps I might attempt the ascent from Vinca on the other side of the ridge, a village I’ve described at

https://longoio3.com/2018/01/22/the-flying-mule-track/

Who knows? It would be great to do at least part of this walk sometime for it gives one a truly stupendous stratospheric feeling.