Italy - Day 9: Rifugio Carestiato to Rifugio Sommariva

A pointy Dolomite

A  pointy Dolomite - it's almost looking Alpine. More cows at least. We have to go down to a road today, turn right, and then back up. But at least the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

Taking advantage

We are in the wilds of Italy so we have to take advantage of the the odd bit of civilisation. Mirrors are scarce - I mean look at us. Roads are down so we lost height - but not too much. Then of course into a very very steep forest. Painful and painfully familiar. Hard work and slippy.

Stairway to heaven

But once out of the forest the views were spectacular - possibly looking back on where we had come from. Or maybe someway else (it all looks the same to me).

A stretched view 

Rock River

We went high - and it is amazing. Empty and beautiful in its rocky desolateness. It's nice to be alone - not another person in sight - no civilisation (easy with my eyes). It's hard to explain but definitely worth experiencing - worth the effort.

Limestone has very little water - for some reason - but the Dolomites are full of rivers: rivers of rock. They are everywhere. And they do seem to flow, albeit slowly. It probably isn't fun when it is really raining and the rivers are water and rock.

Definitely leaning

We came across a secret WW1 based. Abandoned now of course. At least that 's what they say. Didn't look to abandoned to me. Just camouflage? 

WW1 stuff

There were supposed to be trenches etc but we couldn't find them. Just long holes in the ground. There has been a lot of interesting stuff to see. Real history. We explored and photo'd it.

Leaning

They are falling over. I mean look. A definite leaning to the right, if you ask me.  Politically and geologically.









We have seen marmots and marmots and marmots and the odd cow. But today Martin or Ellie spotted a snake. I know I should be able to tell them apart. But - I can't, what can I say.

Not just any snake either. A poisonous snake, a fast poisonous snake, but a snake none-the-less...

A snake

They ran round..

We weren't quite at the top of the world but we were looking down on a good bit of it. It seems that mountains can run  We have the same mountains at both end of the picture. They will be reprimanded.

The Queen

Not real

After the WW1 building we were presented with a choice. A poorly worded sign that offered a detour that was labelled both 'scenic' and 'shorter'. But it half lied. It was scenic but it certainly wasn't shorter. We weren't in a hurry and had no where to go. So nothing ventured...

At the rifugio the usual routine. We ate. And drank. And chatted. And showered

We taught a French family, who we seen but not heard yesterday, how to tie shoe laces. (They had accidentally turned left at the road (easy to do - we debated which way. Ellie won.))

Another way, a quicker way - I don't know how you tie shoe laces but this way never fails to impress.

A good opener when there is no real common language. Of course their English was better than our French

And ate with a mixed group and had a good chat over a welcome dinner.

Hiking is hard,

Sssshhhhh

Just to add to the day - this magnificent stag settled down to sleep just behind the rifugio. Not 20m away - it knew we were 'all' there but didn't care. Just looked and carried on with its plan.

Wow