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| Morning view |
After a good breakfast of course.
We had slept at the end of the valley so the only way was up. The, fairly unobvious, path lead us through the limestone swamp, lake and river complex. To see limestone pavement under the crystal clear running waters of a mountain stream was quite a site. But not very photogenic though, at least not with our phone cameras.
We are still too lazy, or too sensible, to carry a proper camera. Bur even if we did, we wouldn't do it justice anyway. So why bother. There are more able people than us. Let them carry the weight. We will wait to look at their pictures, with awe.
And a bit of jealousy.
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| The other side of the valley. |
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| Road to nowhere |
A pattern of behaviour that biologists still have to explain.
But we just do it. Without thinking. And in unison. Sheep.
But this steep bit didn't last for long. It sort of lead into a big hanging valley (probably not the right term) and leveled off-ish again. We walked carefree along, and up, this new valley, possibly doing a big loop back towards where we had slept.
I am beginning to think that the Dolomites are quite small and all of the paths just take you round in circle. But cleverly, seeing all the same stuff but from different angles. Sneaky.
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| Dry limestone country |
No, I should have studied when I did geography.
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| Just pretty |
We plodded, no wrong word. We ambled through the stunning countryside (better). Not alone, but not surrounded by teeming masses as we had been promised/warned. It seemed that masses are scared or altitude so stay in the valleys, close to the safety of the roads and car parks.But up and requiring a little effort it was relatively empty.
Relatively.
With the end it sight it took ages. Like watching a kettle. But its just up and the views were just pretty and we were just about to give up when we got to the top. The top was a small crack between two 'mites'.
It was cold and windy so we decided not to stay and set off down the other side.
Now, we had thought that the up was steep. But wrong. The down was not quite, but trying to be, vertical. The path, a tribute to hard work and stone engineering, probably being renewed every few years as falling rocks and land slides reshape the Dolomites, was amazing.
And the pictures don't look as steep as it really was.
It looked like the path went to a beautiful lake. A swim we all thought. But it didn't. And neither did we. Just passing high above. There was a path down to the lake, but we saw a big group of hikers and their dogs get to the lake, and it wasn't so warm, so off we went.
The path, in fact the whole valley side, here was a solid sheet of rock. With little or no vegetation of any size, anywhere. Looked like a glacier had been parked here until fairly recently, in geological terms.
It had taken all of the soil with it when it left for the Mediterranean
The view back to where we had come down was a shock. If we had been going the other way. I think we would have simply gone home there and then.
Today was to be the high point at 2800m or so. But when we got there it seemed that the climb to the top and the cottage (and top of ski lift) was optional. So we optioned. As, it seems, is our habit.
But we were still high and the views were as to be expected. And therefore boring.
But spectacular in their boringness.
There seems to be a plant that grows in the Dolomites that smells like rotting flesh. The smell was disgusting. No-one commented until they had checked their own armpits. You never know. We tried to find the plant responsible or the body. But with no luck.
We were on the home straight so to speak, with plenty of time. So we cheated and took what looked to be a nice shortcut down. The road looked great from above. In fact it was so steep that you couldn't walk on it, and had to walk on the grass. However, every cloud has a silver lining and we caught a bunch of baby marmots under a big rock. They would hide then peak out then go back to playing under the rock. Not scared of us but a bit wary. We watched for ages - until one by one they made, what to be honest, were slow motion dashes for safety.
We looked odd to people passing. People who had followed us down this not a hiking path. But when we showed them what we were looking at they were all amazed.
One loquacious Italian lady, who didn't invite us to stay with her in Venice, even offered to take a photo. So here are the four of us.
We walked down to the bottom of the ski lift , had a beer and then the last km to our rifugio.
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| Another pile to the col |
We came across a big mass of people. Thirty or so. Not all together but stopping, lemming like, as if at the last friendly place before the next pile of stone up - an up to the col that you can see between the mountains.
Contrary to popular belief it can be worse than it looks.
Contrary to popular belief it can be worse than it looks.
And it was. But...
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| The up |
It was cold and windy so we decided not to stay and set off down the other side.
Now, we had thought that the up was steep. But wrong. The down was not quite, but trying to be, vertical. The path, a tribute to hard work and stone engineering, probably being renewed every few years as falling rocks and land slides reshape the Dolomites, was amazing.
And the pictures don't look as steep as it really was.
 |
| The Down |
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| The downer |
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| The col |
It looked like the path went to a beautiful lake. A swim we all thought. But it didn't. And neither did we. Just passing high above. There was a path down to the lake, but we saw a big group of hikers and their dogs get to the lake, and it wasn't so warm, so off we went.
The path, in fact the whole valley side, here was a solid sheet of rock. With little or no vegetation of any size, anywhere. Looked like a glacier had been parked here until fairly recently, in geological terms.
It had taken all of the soil with it when it left for the Mediterranean
The view back to where we had come down was a shock. If we had been going the other way. I think we would have simply gone home there and then.
Today was to be the high point at 2800m or so. But when we got there it seemed that the climb to the top and the cottage (and top of ski lift) was optional. So we optioned. As, it seems, is our habit.
But we were still high and the views were as to be expected. And therefore boring.
 |
| Boring |
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| Skiing down? |
We were on the home straight so to speak, with plenty of time. So we cheated and took what looked to be a nice shortcut down. The road looked great from above. In fact it was so steep that you couldn't walk on it, and had to walk on the grass. However, every cloud has a silver lining and we caught a bunch of baby marmots under a big rock. They would hide then peak out then go back to playing under the rock. Not scared of us but a bit wary. We watched for ages - until one by one they made, what to be honest, were slow motion dashes for safety.
We looked odd to people passing. People who had followed us down this not a hiking path. But when we showed them what we were looking at they were all amazed.
One loquacious Italian lady, who didn't invite us to stay with her in Venice, even offered to take a photo. So here are the four of us.
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| Us |
We walked down to the bottom of the ski lift , had a beer and then the last km to our rifugio.
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