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Broken right anterior cruciate ligament.
Do you want to go kayaking the Piave this summer? 2 or 3 days, camping overnight? From the
Peralba it should be 300 kilometres with some walking stretches where we have to drag the canoe!!
*** yeah!
This is the text exchange from which everything has taken shape.
After a ski injury and the consequent forced immobility,
a little spark was enough to convey the will to recover into the
realization of a new venture.
The river Piave, with its 231 kilometres, is the challenge.
Giacomo and Filippo, with a combined age of 46 and an innate love for adventure
are the protagonists.
F: Tell us what day is today Giacomino
G: It's the day before our departure
F: They're taking us to Perarolo and everybody's worried about
the fact that we still haven't got a place where to leave our kayaks
G: But we hope someone will help us
G: We've left with many things still to be sorted out because
we hadn't a place where to leave our
kayaks, as we said. At first the idea was to get into a bar
with a bottle of wine in the hand and say:
“Whoever host us gets this bottle”.
F: We had surveyed the area before just to see where to set off with the kayaks
G: When we left a lot of people said “Where are you going? You don't even have a place where to
store your kayaks!” but we trusted in the kindness of the people.
F: We've chosen the little village of Macchietto, Macchietto di Perarolo.
As soon as we arrived we saw a lady.
She has been very kind and she has stored the kayaks for the two days until our come-back.
F: We're at the springs of Piave river, below the peak of the mount Peralba.
G: “Here rises the Piave river” says the inscription.
F: We've left the Sorgenti del Piave Refuge
G: ...and we're tired already
F: and we're enthusiastic about the landscape around us already.
F: We're getting to the Calvi
G: The highest point has been reached, now it's all about going down, start the chronometer!
G: Oh! We've rang the bell at 7 sharp, 5 seconds to 7!
F: That is the Sorgenti del Piave Refuge and this is the Piave
F: ...and little by little...
G: We're going to see it grow
F: Guys, the recording has started so this has to be done...
F: Let's try not to slip here... Vamos!
F: Feet-fixing for Giacomino
F: We're trying to operate on blisters promptly
F: The destination is always Santo Stefano
F: It's 4 p.m., we're perfectly on time and the weather seems to hold up
F: The wading option is very much likely now
F: So, we've decided to wade
F: and this is what is next, it looks like a pretty smooth trail
G: Let's hope for the best
F: Let's hope it doesn't rain
F: Well, we like surprises anyway.
F: Would you explain why we couldn't go on?
G: The trail was becoming increasingly narrow but most
of all look what it would have become 100 metres further
F: I hope you can realize the height
F: If you don't know it, this is the famous ravine of Acquatona
F: We've just avoided falling into a precipice and now we're under the rain
F: We've been lucky to see the ravine with plenty of beautiful water rushing
G: Yeah, wonderful, here it looks like there is a lot of water flowing,
we'll see if it's the same later
F: Let's hope
G: It looked like a mission impossible but we made it.
G: Santo Stefano di Cadore
F: Guys, I wouldn't walk any 500 metres further,
but unfortunately I'll have to to find a place where to pitch the tent
G: We have been moving – we've figured – for about 13 hours, 14... pauses excluded.
G: We finally made it. Now we just have to find a spot where to camp before the entrance of the
village and finally have a little rest.
F: If this were a 8000, this would be one of those videos in which
the guys are inside the tent, with no oxygen and frozen hands,
thinking to themselves: “How good was it back at home?”.
Well, it is the end of the first day and...
G: we're tired
F: We're hugely tired, I hope you can understand it from
the tone of my voice, 'cause I'm really exhausted.
G: it's 8 p.m., we took off this morning at...
F: it's 8 in the evening. We took off this evening at 5... this morning at 5,
nothing else to say.
F: Is there anything else to say?
G: No.
F: So, day 2, today we're more lively!
G: Eh
F: The destination for today is Perarolo in 20-odd..
.. how many kilometres was it?
G: 25...
F: 25 plus some more to go beyond Perarolo
G: It could be 30
F: We're already breakfasting
F: We're still in Santo Stefano
G: We have turned to this ANAS-discarded road because
the alternative was a 4000-metres-long gallery
F: We're in Cima Gogna, there's still some ten kilometres to Perarolo.
G: Only ten?
F: As you can see it is not always Piave, sometimes it's also road
G: A bad news has worn us out badly. We thought that from Lozzo di Cadore it was ten kilometres.
We have found out instead that there's still 20 kilometres to our final destination.
Ah...We're tired, our feet are aching,
these kilometres are going to be an agony.
F: Day 2, it's 31 hours.... ciak 2: Day 2, it's 2.31 p.m. …
but we're in Domegge, folks...
F: Domegge... according to our latest estimates, there should be 15 kilometres left.
We're moving making a pause every 5 kilometres.
F: We're thinking about the kayaks, which will do all the work of taking us down the river...
maybe...
G: The days of hiking have been really tiring.
F: I couldn't take it anymore, my feet were really swollen,
tiredness was accumulating since the day before.
G: We got to a point where making any step further was really difficult
F: I even wrote in my travel diary: “In the future,
remember that you have never been this tired”.
And I think I will remember that.
G: We got to the limit of our mental determination,
we were feeling very low but we were
determined to get to the end of our venture so we tried our best and we made it.
We were really wasted on our arrival, though.
G: We incredibly got to the end of day 2 and this is how we look like
F: 42 Km
G: Vamos!
G: Here, Filippo shows us where we are now
F: Perarolo
G: Perarolo
F: But this, guys, has to be changed to 80 instead of 50
G: Yeah, 80 kilometres in two days, it's been a heavy blow.
G: This tells a lot about our organization.
F: It's 50 kilometres of river but 80 kilometres of road.
G: We have greeted the arrival to the kayaks with “rejoiceness”
because we hope it's going to be less tiring than before.
F: We have a lot of stuff, plenty of
G: Now we're really happy, though. Because at least we can have a 'stroll'.
G: Here is our camp, we've unloaded everything close to the river,
it's 7.25 a.m. of day 3... and here we go...
F: The first day of kayak was greeted with “rejoiceness” as we said,
because we thought that the kayaks would have effortlessly carried us down the river.
But we actually had to work out a lot anyway, of course...
G: The kayak part was way more kilometres.
G: You always had to keep an eye on the watch,
never take a break too many. There was a constant hurry to stack up kilometres.
G: Rapids, even though relatively small, were enough to soak us completely,
any splash of water got into the kayak and soaked everything.
We were entirely drenched from 5 in the morning 'till 9 in the evening.
G: Completely soaked with all of our stuff,
we completely forgot basic comforts like a dry tent and a dry sleeping bag.
F: Guys, we're getting to Belluno, we're dead tired but we're enjoying this wonderful sunset.
F: Day 3
G: Quite uncomfortable situation
G: Cellphones are out of order, cameras are out of order,
we're cut out from the world, we're disconnected.
F: Besides, we're on an islet, because we have the Piave on our right and our left.
G: But we've got crackers (Bibanesi) and Prosecco
F: And what else do we have?
F: Pasta and beans.
F: However... we were saying earlier that the location is quite remarkable:
we're in the middle of Val Belluna and this is mount Serva
F: and... well, we're sorry that people at home cannot get in touch with us
'cause it shouldn't be nice actually, but we're OK.
That's for when you're going to watch us: we're OK
F: It is really beautiful, anyway!
G: Take a shot of the hanging stuff
F: This is our situation: everything is spread out to dry, sleeping bags, mats, tent...
F: We have crossed the dam, which was really difficult and then,
in Ponte nelle Alpi another pretty tough passage, but then we've found the rapids...
G: … and we've kicked some ***
F: some remarkable rapids in which we got soaked
F: How many kilometres have we done?... A lot
F: Day 4, as you can see it's not entirely “day” yet,
we'd like to remind you that we still are without
any cellphone, we didn't account that kayaking all these kilometres
would have been this hard, it wouldn't have been bad if we found a backwater or two...
In the meantime we have dismantled the tent, we re-lighted the fire to dry up our stuff.
F: We're in Belluno and these are the bridges presenting the first difficulties of the day
F: It's 7.48 in the morning
F: We have been going for one hour
F: Giacomino is trying to get over it, I'm almost done
F: There's still 50 km to go.
G: Day 4 was the day in which we kayaked the longest, roughly 60 kilometres
G: We also crossed two dams, Busche dam and the dam connecting the Piave with the Brentelle
F: We've reached the confluence with the Cordevole river and
we finally have a lot of water and... we're flying!
Crossing the road overlooking the dam
F: We've just crossed the last dam, which would be the third or the fourth in total
G: We made it, we've passed over there, on the rocks.
G: We kayaked a really long way and it's been nice because we had a few encounters: some
fishermen who recognized us as “the two guys in the newspaper”... to end with our friends who
came to meet us at our arrival in Pederobba
F: Whereas we were soaking wet, tired and ridiculously dirty,
they arrived there all fresh and clean.We spent a nice and quiet evening.
F: The situation is still pretty uncomfortable
F: as you can see everything is scattered around to get some air but it's 5.54 in the morning, sun
hasn't risen yet and it's not enough to get warm, so it's not that nice. We just have to have breakfast,
dismantle the tent and get away from this place.
F: The sad reality is that there is no more water.
F: We're slightly north of the Montello, we have been walking for a kilometre already because here
it's impossible to kayak
F: We have to figure out what to do because we can't go on like this
F: I'm taking the kayak for a walk, as we haven't walked that much on the first days I thought it
would have been nice to walk again for a while
F: Let's hope someone will come and get us...
F: Theoretically speaking, we could say that our venture finishes here, we've reached the end of the
river
F: I bet that you want to see how the Piave ends.
G: There's no trace of water, no streets, no bridges.
F: Excuse me? Hello? Excuse me?
The fact is that I didn't notice them, Chiara did and she's like: “Mom, there are two men”.
I turned and I saw that they were asking where were we. He was like: “Sorry, madam, where are
we?”. I thought: “These guys must be ***” “…other two freaks with mountain bikes who got
lost”
But there wasn't any bike and in fact then they told me: “No, we've got canoes over there”
Canoes? With no water?
Nicola: Before, Civil Engineers Corps had a deal with ENEL Energy corporation to always leave a
minimum of water in the basin, for fishes, for a lot things... this year, strangely...
when it's about the money, they cut on everything...
N: The greatest thing was how hungry they were...
N: “Melon? Would you like some melon?” “Yeah yeah”
Lady: “Would you like some coffee?” “Yeah yeah” The didn't say: “Yes, if it doesn't bother you...”
They just said: “Yeah!”
G: Big J (Giovanni) has come to meet us and we let him pass, 'cause we're on this nice islet in Ponte
di Piave
F: We've just left from Ponte di Piave, ahead of us there's some twenty kilometres of flat water, we
thought we had to struggle a lot more than this to kayak in this flat section but it looks like it's going
to be a quiet day, with just 5 hours of relaxing paddling.
F: “and off he goes, straight to the victory, straight to the gold! It's Giacomino, Giacomino, still 10
metres to go, 10 metres... and Italy's prow is the first to win!!”
G: After we had to abandon the basin of the Piave, completely dry, we found it again, but
completely transformed. It was again full of water, but it was stagnant, still water.
F: We're a few kilometres south of Ponte di Piave and the river is what you see: a host of rotting
algae or things like that.
Stagnant water, some unidentified foam, some rottenness that we also found further on, in San
Donà di Piave, where water was red and salty.
F: We'll soon get to the pontoon bridge in Noventa di Piave
F: We're at the Vittoria Bridge in San Donà, from here there's still 18 kilometres left and we have
two days to go.
F: We will camp here so tomorrow we'll just have some ten kilometres left
F: We're at our last camp, nearby Eraclea, more or less one kilometre and a half south of the bridge,
we're almost done packing our stuff and this is our classic pre-departure situation... an unbelievable
mess!
F: It was a moment we had been dreaming about for a long time, a moment of true joy for having
accomplished something beautiful
G: We were finally getting closer to the sea and so to the end of our venture, to our final
achievement. It has been wonderful to share our last kilometres with some friends and Filippo's kins
who came to support us. It has been a shared success.