Thursday 1 September - First Day in the Dolomites

What a hike! We think it was probably the second hardest walk we have ever done. The toughest was the Woolshed Creek walk in Canterbury earlier this year, though a walk above Montesquieu would have run that close.

The day started off with an early departure from Padua, partly as checkout was a very unreasonable 8:30, although we did actually want to get away early anyway. In fact we were on the road not long after 8am, heading north towards Belluno and Cortina. To try to arrive early for our walk, we took toll roads. We had one bit of uncalled-for excitement part way along when our little car and a moderate-sized truck tried for the same piece of road on a roundabout, and came rather too close, witnessed by the fact that our wing mirror was folded back in and we had rubber marks on our bodywork! It all happened so fast that we are not really sure what happened. No harm done but it was a little sobering.

Another disturbing part of driving was one stretch on the 110km/h 3-lanes-per-side autoroute. There was a section where our northwards travel was in the right-most 2 lanes, but the left (fast) lane was being used by southbound traffic, due to roadworks. Two lines of cars with a 220km/h+ closing speed separated by some silly wee plastic markers temporarily stapled to the painted line. Very scary!

We had a really good coffee stop at Marcon Pasticceria, Tai di Cadore. The pastries were fabulous, the owner delightful and the coffee good. Quite how they can provide such superb fare for half the NZ price I don't know. This is in a tiny town deep in the Dolomites, not a big population centre.

All this for NZ $10!

The scenery through the Dolomites was outstanding. There's nothing else we've seen that compares. The closest would be Yosemite. Both have immensely steep bare mountains, but the Dolomites is a whole order more impressive. The tops of the ridges are vicious razorback knobs.

The drive took longer than expected, so we didn't arrive at the Rifugio 5 Torri until around 11am. We had originally been planning to do a walk to Lago di Sorapis, but the route sounded difficult and very crowded, while the 5 Torri circuit sounded nicer. The walk began below the 5 Torri with a series of Italian-Austrian WWI war remains. The Italians had reclaimed this once-Italian but since-1877-Austrian area after the war started, and set up serious defences to prevent the Austrians taking it back. Nobody got anywhere, but plenty died, 75% from weather, landscape and hardship causes rather than military action.

One of the ex-WWI gun emplacements

The walk started in earnest after that, with a horrible downhill stretch. It was spitting, so the ground was damp limestone and mud, neither of which helped, with giant steps and a brutal drop if things went wrong. From there the track was lumpy, uneven, slippery, and anything but easy going. We wouldn't have been moving forward at 2 km/h compared with a normal 4-5. It continued going up and down, often precipitously, for the rest of the loop, almost none of it level, and even where it was, the track had lumps of rock sticking out. Almost every step had to be watched, which made for exhausting hiking. At just under 9km, we expected it to take 2-3hrs, but it took nearly 4hrs, with minimal breaks. We could not have walked it any faster - the terrain just didn't allow it - but we were walking faster than virtually everyone else.

On the flip side, the landscapes were astounding. The 5 Torri are five big towers of limestone sticking up out of the landscape. They are almost like giant jagged teeth. Some were being used for climbing. The tracks round here are reasonably well-defined, well-signposted, and lead from one rifugio to the next. These are large buildings offering simple beds, simple meals, coffee and toilets. They appear to be very close together, sometimes less than 20 minutes walk apart. Wherever we looked, the mountains were amazing. The weather was middling, starting quite wet but easing off later with some periods of sunshine.

The 5 Torri hike

Tackling some of the steep downhill part of the track. It got a lot more
precarious than this on the dolomite further down.

We arrived back at our car exhausted. Our legs were tired from all the up and down, and our arms and shoulders from the huge amount of use we had made of our poles. Overall we think we enjoyed it, but it had been very hard going, both physically and mentally.

At least dinner was easily sorted. We are staying in a gasthaus, one of many around here in the centre of the Dolomites. Fairly simple hotel rooms, bed and breakfast, with an optional evening meal for a reasonable price. We decided to do the meal, which turned out to be OK, though nothing special. Karen was asleep before 9pm!

View from the window of our guesthouse in Dobbiaco