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Michele Angileri

Gola di Barile

From the square of San Lorenzo Bellizzi you can see the triumph of the Beautiful and the Sublime. The Raganello creek flows through a wide fiumara at the foot of mountains of rock and walls whose layers are inclined towards the village, raised by orogenic forces of unimaginable power.
A giant rifts breaks the Timpe (that's the name of these rocky mountains) in the middle, and the creek comes from there: it is Barile canyon.

Name Gola di Barile
Area Calabria - Pollino
Nearest village San Lorenzo Bellizzi
Elevation loss 170 m
Length 2,5 km
Highest cascade 7 m
Rock Limestone
Rating7
Shuttle Possible
Explored by G. Braschi, N. Genco; july 20 1980

 

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I remember ...

Barile canyon is the home of Sublime. The majestic landscape of Timpe is also a terrible scenery, dominated by the powerful and indifferent forces of Nature.

I remember my first time I went through the canyon. It was bottom-up. At the end of canyon there was an awful landslide: the lower part of a high wall had collapsed for 100 m in length and 40 m in height, while the upper part was still in place. The collapsing of lower part had left a horizontal roof, so the huge weight of the upper part was sustained by nothing! The view really scared me while I was scrambling on the sharp unstable boulders of landslide's conoid.
That day I also realized that a helmet was recommended for going through a canyon. While passing under the 200 m high overhanging wall of the Timpa at one point I heard very near rifle shots, and a sliver of stone touched my cheek. Of course there was no one shooting: it was the sound of stones falling on boulders after a 200 meters silent fall.

The next year I returned to Barile. The giant landslide roof was gone: had collapsed, along with everything that was above it.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.