German Bikers Rescue Stranded Seagull in Lake Garda

On the first hectic Sunday of June, where the weekend tourist crowds combined with the usual “sold out” scene at Ascensione (the long German bridge), everything on the upper Garda resembled a madhouse of “territory conquerors” driven by a frenzied spirit.

There is also a story of ancient, genuine humanity involving a small group of stocky German bikers touched deep in their hearts by the unusual misadventure of one of those pure white seagulls patrolling the lake’s cliffs in perpetual search of a hapless fish or some other bait that might appear, at any hour, among the rocky precipices.

The bikers’ intervention and the seagull’s rescue

It was 8 a.m. yesterday when the German cyclists, traveling along the bike path that runs beside Brione between Torbole and Riva, noticed the distressed cries of one of these seagulls, evidently blinded by the morning hunger, who had gone looking for breakfast where he couldn’t: inside the dense rockfall netting that extends from the mountain down to the road.

Having crossed the wire mesh, the gull was then hilariously trapped in the metal grid, unable to find the single hole through which it had managed to enter, hindered by its wings.

Instead of simply moving on along their route, the bikers had the good idea to call the fire brigade’s attention.

A sturdy bolt cutter then did the rest.

Only, after being painfully extracted from his prison, the seagull did not immediately show himself ready to resume its majestic, silent flights over the waves.

The return to freedom

They had to take him to the station, where they gently caressed and cuddled him.

Until, just before noon, after a generous display of tenderness — the oldest and wisest medicine in the world — the white bird showed signals of a decisive recovery; it cleaned its feathers and took to the sky.

Lean, light, and grateful: even in that schizophrenic vacation world that yesterday remembered it has a heart.