Tom`s travels: Matajur hike (13/06/2020)

My friend Flaviano wrote me if I wished to go with him and a friend to hike up mount Matajur, a mountain part of the Julian Prealps on the eastern side of Friuli Venezia Giulia. That meant 1 hour and a half drive from my house to his and from there another hour drive to the base of the mountain where the hike would start. So after a really early wake up I got my stuff and drove until I reached the small town of Carbona. Obviously, as I arrived there my friend was still not ready, nor was the other friend who still hadn't arrived. So after waiting for a bit we were finally ready and I let them take me in the car, hoping to nap a little on the way. Before reaching the mountain, we decided to take a little deviation and see the nice Cascate Kot, a smell yet evocative waterfall set in the middle of a dense forest far from civilization. A small pathway led from the main road down through the forest, winding its way along a crystal clear stream which eventually led us to the waterfall proper. After enjoying the peace and quiet and taking a few pictures we headed back to the car and on to our destination. On last stop in the small town of Savogna to gather some food and then we finally reached the unfathomably hard place to name, Cepletischis, where we parked our car. From here, at about 600m above sea level, we started our hike following the marked trail which immediately headed sharply uphill through the old town and then into the forest. After a bit of trail in the woods and in the open, we then reached a large clearing with a small lake set in its midst. Here we found a picnic table where we decided to sit to rest and enjoy our lunch while basking in the sun. After the moment of relaxation, we got our backpacks on and continued onwards, following now a trail marked as Rommel trail. The famous WWII General had in fact led a division up the mountain to defeat the Italian divisions once he was much younger during the 1917 Battle of Caporetto when Italy suffered a major defeat. As we followed the trail, which due to the long months of not having been trodden upon during the months of the lockdown meant high grass and spiny plants, we eventually reached a halt where the trail continued on over into Slovenia. The trail, which had become a gravel road, was fenced off and we obviously couldn't cross because of the fact that it was still forbidden to cross borderlines. We managed though to find part of the trail continuing onwards in Italian territory and followed it to reach our destination. At one point we came out of the forest and started heading uphill on open land, with beautiful views all around us despite the fast-approaching clouds. We were following the trail that ran along the crest of the mountain, with on one side the vast forest towards our starting point and on the other the steep side of the mountain down into Slovenia. After one last push, we finally reached the top of Matajur at precisely 1641m above sea level. From here we had an amazing 360° degrees view. On our left and front, we could clearly see the gentle hills that descended down into the large plain that extends across Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto to the sea, and on the right, we could see the beautiful peaks of Slovenia jutting out among the clouds. Down below we could even make out the small town of Caporetto, Kobarid in Slovenian, site of the famous defeat. As we admired the view it started to become a little chilly as the wind had picked up, so I put back on my t-shirt and jacket which I had taken off while heading uphill. We then met a guy who was scaling up to the top with his bicycle on the shoulders and took him for a bit of an insane person. After talking to him and discovering he was from Emilia Romagna but living in Udine he told us he had planned to hike up the mountain from one side and then descend back down on the bicycle following a well-known offroad cycling trail, which we, unfortunately, did not know so couldn't help him locate it. As the clouds became thicker we decided it was time to head back, this time taking another way to see if it was faster and change the views a bit as well. We first reached the Rifugio Pelizzo, a few hundred meters (1325m) below the peak, and from there followed the easy road that wound its way downhill that many basic hikers drive up to make the hike to Matajur even easier. We then passed through the small towns of Montemaggiore and Masseris, with their nice typical mountain architecture, before finally reaching the hard-to-pronounce town of Cepletischis where we had parked the car. On the way back to Flaviano's house we noticed though that my friend had in fact found two ticks on him, one on his shoe and one crawling up his knee. We panicked, immediately stopped the car, and jumped out to check if anyone else had them on. Luckily nobody else did and Flaviano took off the two on him. We had in fact heard there were many in that area, even more so when due to lockdown no one had hiked up there and wild animals were more frequent. After reaching Carbona, I decided not to disturb my friend and his family and just hopped in my car hoping to get back home in Vicenza in time for dinner.