Hot Rocks In the Cold Maggia-River

 

 

Summer at Maggia-River: My Alternative to Carribian Beaches!

 

My wife loves the sun. If she can't lay in plain sunshine, that’s wasted time. That's why you'll find us often in the Bagno Pubblico. I, for me, like a much wilder "environment". It's not a compromise when we often find ourselves on top of "our rock" in the Maggia river near Ponte Brolla, because it is sunny there AND wild. A little bit above of Ponte Brolla, to be exact. It’s a true sensation to lay on the hot, water-polished rocks and simultaneously roast both your back and stomach and to cool them down again in the fresh, sometimes icy water, preparing for the next round.

 

I’m no Maggia-researcher, but I love the wild nature you can find between mountains and the sea at Corsica’s west coast. The Maggia river is still a wild river, indeed, at least from Ponte Brolla on upwards. Below of Ponte Brolla, they drive the Maggia, squeezed into a corsette of dikes, straight into the lake. The river still is wild, considering the huge amount of water they grab away from it and store it in many reservoirs up in the mountains – with the help of rain-volume-forecasting computer models. What happens to the water they grabbed? The grabbed water, multiply de-energized on its way to the lake, finally only wanted to plunge into the Lago Maggiore. But also this last time it is brought almost to a standstill in the turbines of Brissago, the last electricity station. This is miles away from it’s parted restwater that joins the lake, building the Maggia-delta between Ascona and Locarno (yes, restwater. Restwasser is the German word for the few drops of water that are left a river below the dam. Perhaps, the correct English term is “remaining water”, or alike. But restwater hits the nail on its head).

Many have described the famous, canyon-like gorge of Ponte Brolla during past centuries. A 10 meter wide and 30 meter deep slot in a solid rock of one two hundred meter length. Of course, there is also the saying the ubiquitous and busy devil did hammer the slot into earth’s crust – but I forgot why. You can easely approach the gorge just across the road, near the railroad station of Ponte Brolla. The rock that we consider “our rock”, however, is further up the river, about two hundred meters above the upper end of the gorge. And that’s where we now are going to have the first look at Maggia river.

View into the Gorge

A few hundred meters above the Ponte Brolla station, an old, small and rosty bridge leaves the road, spanning the Maggia River. They built it for the Maggia Valley Railroad, but buses have meanwhile replaced the small railroad (in Ponte Brolla, the railroad tracks to the Centovalli and to the Maggia Valley separated. Today, only the Centovalli-railroad is left over, connecting Locarno and Domodossola with a spectacular track). The bridge became both superfluous and an attraction. The attraction for pedestrians is to watch the Maggia river delve into the gorge.

 

The first photo shows the old bridge viewed from “our rock”. I shot most pictures on this page on a rainy day after strong rainfalls. Therefore, the Maggia river is about one meter above its normal mark. Once in while, when the river carries plenty of water, then the large rock at the right-hand side of the bridge lays quer in the river. The river builds a small lake that disappears – in a way becoming a vertical lake – in the big slot of the gorge, filling the slot up to the top. I saw this scenery only once and in retrospect it happened almost silently.

 

From the middle of the bridge you have a beautiful view into the roaring gorge. Before you walk on the bridge you should secure your keys, valet and camera! I took the second photograph in the series vertically through the “bottom” of the bridge. It’s like viewing a skiing-race on TV, where the steep slopes look like soft hills: This photograph misses the dramatic effect of seeing and hearing the waters fall into the deep throat. At the next occasion I will try to shoot another photograph with some human life as a reference for size on the border to the gorge – though I will probably not be able to convince my wife to stand there.

The foaming waterfall below the bridge becomes a scenic, innocent ray of water when the river returns to a normal level. That shimmery ray looks so innocent, it seduced many young, adventurous boys and young women to risk a dive from the cliffs into the waterfall – a dive into death.

 

 

If you don’t look vertically into the gorge but horizontally up the valley, then you will discover many sun-hungry people colouring the warm rocks in the river bed – maybe, you’ll discover us there, too. On a rainy day like this one, nobody visits the river, also it is sometimes difficult to descent from the road to the river – and to climb the shore up again.

In areas like this one, the Maggia may flow slow and lovely but then suddenly changes its mood to become a dangerous biest. The river is always in company of high and steep mountains on both sides. Dense woods wrap the mountains like scratchy towels, while the mountains expose high rising, polished rocks. On those rocks you can sometimes make out tiny, coloured dots, that seemingly move: Mountain climbers.

It’s easy to detect „our rock“ on the photograph. Yes, there we would lay in the sun, let us fall into the cool water that slowly carries us down the nature-build pool – if the weather were better.

 

 

 

How to get there

 

If you are lazy, take the train from Locarno Station (Centovalli-tracks) to Ponte Brolla.

 

Otherwise, to reach Ponte Brolla, walking or riding a bike, take the right-hand dike (which is the Losone-side) of the Maggia river starting at the bridge of Solduno. You follow the dike until you reach the Melezza-river (coming from the Centovalli) and then go up the Melezza until you reach the small bridge, hanging on ropes. Cross it and don't forget to activate the biker there on one of the ropes! After the bridge you should follow the sign to Ponte Brolla. You are now in Pedemonte, presumably called so because you soon have to climb the hill per pedes until you reach the main road.

 

As a sidestep, instead of climbing up the hill, you can try to find your way through a small jungle until you reach the Maggia river again. You're now close to a turbine station in the knee of a 90 degree turn of the river, in a naturally-formed swimming arena below the Ponte Brolla gorge. If you are fit, you can impress the people with a spectacular 15 meter cliff-dive, or you can swim to the lower entry to the gorge (good swimmers, only).

 

If you did climb up to Tegna, then you walk in direction of Ponte Brolla. If you cross the bridge (the Ponte Brolla!), then you are in front of Ponte Brolla Stazione. The building is not only a small railroad station but also a recommended place to dine! Other, equally good eating paradises you can find, when you are not crossing the bridge but instead do cross the railroad tracks about 100 meters before you reach Ponte Brolla. Within a small area of about 100 square meters, there are four restaurants of different price levels, all delivering good value for their price. It's worth to let the Maggia wait for a while and visit one of the restaurants now.

When you walk further, you will reach the Maggia again. The point where you can see the river again is an interesting location for three reasons:

• You are near to the former railroad bridge I described above.
• On your left-hand side is the Grotto America, a romantic grotto one should not miss, if it’s open.
• You find yourself in an area of real, ancient grotti. A grotto is originally a hole in a rock. The area here is full of such ancient grotti where people from the Pedemonte used to store there food and wine to keep it cool and lasting (obviously, both terms cool and grotto have changed meanings, meanwhile).