I was going to start on a philosophical ... diatribe I guess you would call it, but THIS turned out way more exciting: a real live Viper that was right next to the trail I was walking up this morning. He was sunning himself in a bare patch of ground, just having emerged from hibernation since the area is mostly still covered in snow. I recognized it immediately for what it was and checked it out on the Internet later upon my return back to the house. I've never seen a real live viper before although I've heard stories about them over the years in Italy since they used to be fairly common. But habitat loss, diminishing prey, and just plain having people kill them at every opportunity have made them pretty rare: I was extremely fortunate to see one up this close and it was very exciting. He was ready to strike, but when I got a little closer with a stick just to nudge him a little (I couldn't resist) he moved off into the brush. I then continued up the path to what was going to turn out to be a very strenuous uphill hike, since, as usual, I took the wrong way (hence the name Wrongwayjules, given to me by my trail boss years ago: it's a genetic defect I think since my sister Helen seems to be afflicted with the same "Directional Challenge"). It makes for some interesting adventures, but more about that later. In any event, this time the reward at the end was magnificent, as you can see by some other photos.
Can you see the viper?
The Lake Nambino up in the Brenta mountain range where I eventually ended up after hiking about an hour.
The Hotel and Restaurant at Lake Nambino
Pretty beautiful bowl ..... well, I have TONS of gorgeous mountain photos (well, to me they are) and I'm just starting out with this blogger so .... I'm still testing out the format waters: more is coming.
I was going to start on a philosophical ... diatribe I guess you would call it, but THIS turned out way more exciting: a real live Viper that was right next to the trail I was walking up this morning. He was sunning himself in a bare patch of ground, just having emerged from hibernation since the area is mostly still covered in snow. I recognized it immediately for what it was and checked it out on the Internet later upon my return back to the house. I've never seen a real live viper before although I've heard stories about them over the years in Italy since they used to be fairly common. But habitat loss, diminishing prey, and just plain having people kill them at every opportunity have made them pretty rare: I was extremely fortunate to see one up this close and it was very exciting. He was ready to strike, but when I got a little closer with a stick just to nudge him a little (I couldn't resist) he moved off into the brush. I then continued up the path to what was going to turn out to be a very strenuous uphill hike, since, as usual, I took the wrong way (hence the name Wrongwayjules, given to me by my trail boss years ago: it's a genetic defect I think since my sister Helen seems to be afflicted with the same "Directional Challenge"). It makes for some interesting adventures, but more about that later. In any event, this time the reward at the end was magnificent, as you can see by some other photos.
Can you see the viper?
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