The trip to Magic Wood got off to a bit of a slow start,
as my friend’s flight was delayed by a day, which meant that the plan of
meeting at Milan Malpensa airport and then driving through together wasn’t
going to work. So on Saturday I flew into Milan and then came through to Magic Wood by train/bus on my own which was
surprisingly easy. Actually, it’s not surprising really – western European
public transport is great, if not particularly cheap.
The route was as follows:
Train from Milan Malpensa to Bellinzona
From Terminal 1, buy a train ticket to Bellinzona (€14.50). Then, while you wait for the train, visit the Carrefour in Terminal 1 where you can stock up on snacks for the day of travelling ahead of you.
Once on the train, you actually need to change to another train at
Cadenazzo even though the train you originally got on gives Bellinzona as its final destination. At Cadenazzo go to Platform 3 for the final leg to Bellinzona, which
only another 20 minutes or so.
Bus from Bellinzona to Magic Wood
Buy a bus ticket from the Western Union / train ticket
office at Bellinzona train station; the office is on your right just as you
exit the platform and the bus departs from outside the train station. It’s not cheap at CHF 46!
Look out for bus #171 and ask whether the bus is going via Andeer directly or whether you will need to changes busses at San Bernardino. What I
did was Bus #171 as far as San Bernardino Posta, where I then switched to bus
#541 which climbs a crazy switchback pass before dropping into the valley; once
you are in the valley simply get off at the stop closest to where you are
staying, in my case Andeer Tgavugl. If you want to go to Magic Wood itself, I
think you would get off at this same stop, however the camp site itself is
about 6km away from the stop – so feasible to walk, but it’s a pretty steep
uphill.
I did the route on a Saturday and it went very
smoothly – I left the airport at about 11.00 and was making coffee in my chalet
by 17.30. Good times.
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