So, You Want to Pass, hmm?

A sunny, warm hike up in the Madonie Mountains. Today, we walked along another “Sentiero Geologico”, called Rocca di Sciara. At the top is a 360 degree view and the stone ruin of Castello Terravecchia. A steep trail negotiating thorny thistles (and other thorny plants!) and many cow pies, but ‘vale la pena’ worth the effort. The cow pies are like crusted cream pies…as one discovers if you step on one. And it is hard not to. Lots of cow pies with dung beetles crawling on them and flies swarming above. The flickering in the video I took wasn’t a e-glitch, they were flies! These cows were grazing in a rock outcropping and blocking the trail. We passed through them and shortly discovered it was their path too as their herder came along and chased them down the hill! We had to jump aside to get out of their way as they ran past. The Sicilian man was chatting into his cell phone that he held in one hand, and in the other a big stick that he waved and swatted as he hooted and hollered to the herd to head them downhill…all while prancing down the path that we were very slowly making our way down..and sometimes slipping and falling on one’s butt (ahem….)