Our host, Salvatore, had suggested we take a stroll along and a splash in the 4 kilometre stretch of the Fangu River that extended up the road from their home, our base in Galeria. We’d taken a dip in the waters by the bridge the day prior, so were keen to explore the nooks and crannies that might be sans hordes. Mind you, considering how gorgeous the environment here is, we were thankful there were only as many as there were. You can’t begrudge a couple of dozen (mostly German) tourists the opportunity to spend time in this landscape.
We thought we’d head east, for the next village, Mansu to check our bearings, before getting to the end of the line, Barghjianu, where we parked our bikes. You can see in the images, below, the mountain range that rose before us from this point. This is the range that Google Maps had directed us to cross to get to our next stop, Lozzi. More on that in a moment, but a clear example of why not to trust everything Google tells you.
Ready for a snack, as we were, we made for a funny little bakery in the most unlikely location – a dirt track leading to nowhere in particular at the end of a road going nowhere in particular. The owner apologised profusely for not offering her full degustation, and instead provided us with a couple of delicious samples, enough to warrant a quick purchase of some Parmesan biscotti and some sweeter fig biscotti. As noted, this track really was going nowhere, so we decided to make our way back to our bikes to see if we could find the elusive meeting point of the Fangu River and the Ruisseau de Candela, where we were to swim and eat lunch.
After a little trek along a scrubby stream, we hit nirvana. It’s always going to be hard to find a highlight on this journey, but this moment, this lunch, has to be up there. Again, the water. The water. The water. The water. We ate beautiful food, sitting atop superb granite boulders overlooking this incredible river, a sublime landscape. After lunch we took a dip in the little pool we had all to ourselves before heading home, completely and utterly overwhelmed by the beauty of this place.
Ajax travels 