Travel Memoirs - Sentierone Trail, Valle Verzasca, Switzerland Part 2

...CONTINUATION FROM PART 1....

When we reached the village of Brione Verzasca, T2 unfortunately had to abandon the trail as she was stressing out her knee a wee bit too much. So, both my trail buddies took the bus home from there. Since I was determined to make it to Lavertezzo to view my double arch bridge, I soldiered on. The sign to Lavertezzo showed the distance at another 2 hours and 15 minutes. Now, I cannot explain why the trail signages in Switzerland never displays the distance but the duration instead. One of these days, I will write to the Board of Walkers or whatever association they have governing this to ask them why. Previous experience doing walks in Switzerland taught me to always factor at least twice as much time than what the sign says. These times were adapted for super fit, tall, long-legged, mountain men and ladies, descendants of yodelling herdsmen who could leap over boulders in a single bound. Believe me, twice is the minimum factor – 3 times as much would be better suited for us unfit, relatively short, bandy-legged, city folks from Asia.

Now, the second last bus from Lavertezzo to Berzona was scheduled to depart at about 5pm. After that, the last bus for the day would leave at around 6pm. Since it was about 2.15 pm when I started off from Brione, that meant I had about 2 hours and 45 minutes to make it to Lavertezzo. I wanted to catch the 5pm bus so that I could make it back while there was still daylight. The thought of having to make my way back to the apartment from the bus stop in Berzona in the dark was not at all appealing - there were no street lights in these little villages and it was a good 15-20 minutes walk from the bus stop. So, I had to morph from short Asian city dweller to Swiss mountain lady in record time. Personally, I really wanted to test whether it was humanly possible to reach Lavertezzo in the signage-stipulated time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. So I set off from Brione at a really brisk pace.

All went well initially as the path kept relatively level. But after about 15 minutes, it started climbing. There was not much climbing thus far on the trail but it just HAD to start going uphill when I was in a rush. So, with super human strength, I kept up my pace and bounded up gnarled roots and muddy steps. Now, let me put things into perspective by saying that I had already done 3-4 days of walks and treks in Zermatt before this, so I was not really in my prime unfit condition. Everything passed by in a daze and a blur. How the heck do these Swiss people enjoy their walks when everything just whizzes past??? I am strangely proud to say I even embarked on overtaking some of the mountain people who were on the trail in my haste to make it on time for the bus.

Then, I entered the part of the trail that was called Sentiero Per L’Árte. The Board of Walkers decided that it would be nice to spice things up a little on the trail by letting various artists set up their art installations. I kept checking my watch and checking the times on the signages. So far, I was able to keep up decently – so I thought I would slack off my pace just a tad to enjoy the art pieces....

Did I mention there were waterfalls along the trail too? About an hour away from Lavertezzo, the trail became a couple of boardwalks placed across boulders to cross a crashing waterfall and stream which joined up to the river.

It seemed easy enough until the boardwalks ended at the water with no way across. The yellow marks on the boulder pointed the way forward but there were no board walks – just rushing water over rocks. Here, I spent a harassed couple of minutes back-tracking and trying to figure out if I took a wrong turn. Finally, I came to the inevitable conclusion that I had to walk across on the slippery boulders, in the water, forging through rushing, thunderously loud rapids to get across. Visions of my dead lifeless body floating down the Verzasca river came to mind. Slipping was NOT an option. I didn’t even think of taking off my shoes as I treaded my way on the boulders, praying fervently I would keep my footing.

Since I am here writing this, guess you figured out that I made it relatively injury free. But precious minutes had vanished and I was down to my last half hour to make it back in time to Lavertezzo. Squishing and squelching noisily in my shoes, I raced across the last part of the trail. Which was not fun as it was really muddy due to the rain.  While preparing myself for the worst case scenario – basically having to wait another hour for the last bus and find my way back to the apartment in the dark – the adrenalin kept me going at breakneck pace. At last, I turned the corner and spotted the Ponte del Salti – the lovely double arch stone bridge of Lavertezzo. Yippeee! I was down to my last 5 minutes to get to the bus stop but I still couldn’t stop myself taking time for photos. I still had to enjoy the views right? Amazingly, I made it to the bus stop where groups of walkers were already waiting for the bus. And it was another 5 minutes before the bus arrived. The Swiss were notoriously precise but I was glad they were a little off this time, allowing me to take a breather and to enjoy the scene at the bridge.

I started deflating on the bus. Exhaustion started kicking in as I realized I had walked really fast, practically non-stop for the past 2.5 hours. And that doesn’t even include the first half of the trail from Sonogno. I still had to make it up nearly 300 steps to get to the apartment. But it was a sweet feeling when I finally rested my butt on the little stone bench in my apartment's garden and breathed in the sweet evening air of Berzona.

Sunset view from the apartment
Conclusion – Valle Verzasca ROCKS and ALWAYS factor in twice the amount of time stated on the signages, if not thrice the amount. You will get to actually enjoy the scenery and your short, Asian bandy legs will thank you for it!