At Last – What We Came For!

Woke to the sight of sun on the peaks around us – in fact Sylvia’s comment was “there is something strange out there”. We quickly had breakfast as there is no chance of sleeping in – the church bells go ballistic at 7am with a grand total of 94 chimes.

We went over to the hire shop to hire some KISAs (the y-lanyards) with big mouth biners that have a great quick release system. There was some concern when he would only hire them for one day – he must have known what the weather was going to do.

We decided to do the Piz da Cir V graded 2A. We parked at the chairlift at Passo Gardena, surrounded by snow, and walked steeply up the hill to the top of the chairlift (that stopped operating 2 days earlier :( ).

From there it was a bit of a scramble to what they call a belvedere – a rock platform – at the start of the via ferrata. This is where we donned our gear (including a helmet Hannah). Should also point out that the weather was quite variable – check the difference between the stitched photo and the ready to go photo taken 10 minutes later.

The climb went up a short ladder at the start before taking you up some steep rock. The rock has a surprising number of foot and hand holds – just when it looks like you have run out you will always find more. It is easier to let the pictures show what is involved (and the views).

And had to include a picture of the strangely decorated sheep. Why did they give them a brown scarf and spotted earmuffs?

A delightful day and its gotta be said that via ferrata-ing is very cool!

What a Difference a Day Makes

We woke to the sound of gentle rain. With the weather not looking conducive to via ferrata-ing. we thought we would sightsee with a drive to Cortina (38km) – and maybe check out some of the via ferrata over there.

It was a pleasant drive but as we got higher the rain turned to sleet and then to snow. By the time we got to the Passo Falzarego (the high point on that road) it was snowing quite heavily. As we descended into Cortina the snow turned back to rain.

The main road of Cortina is a pedestrian mall and so there are one way roads either side of this. After about 3 laps of these roads trying to decide where we were allowed to park (wish their parking signs had English translations) we chanced the train carpark. We had (what my English travelling companions called) an English Picnic – eating in the car. After a wet walk around Cortina with a good coffee and cake we set off to return to Arabba.

For a bit of variation we decided to return over the Passo Giau. We passed a farmer walking down the road in front of a 4WD knocking snow off his electric fence – he didn’t look too pleased but his cows looked “udderly ridiculous” (Frank’s words not mine!)

It turns out that Passo Giau is higher than the Passo Falzarego and has less traffic. This meant that the snow was settling in much higher drifts and that the Fiat Panda was having traction issues. About 300m lower than the pass (probably another 2kms away) the road was quite thick with snow and continuing became not an option. We probably should have twigged when about 3kms further back we had to detour around a campervan that was stuck in the middle of the road with its own traction issues.

It turns out the Fiat Panda has a nifty turning circle. I put it into reverse, put the wheels on a hard lock and let the clutch out. The car pirouettes nicely on the spot until you are facing down the hill again. Boy, these Italians are smart!

We had no choice but to go back over Passo Falzarego and hope that the road was clear. With the lower elevation and more traffic there was no problemo.

Despite the lower elevation of Arabba it too scored snow. Compare this view out of our bedroom window with the two views from yesterday’s post – what a difference a day makes!

Arriving at Arabba

After meeting Anni at our hotel in Venice the night before we set of for Arabba in our hire car – a Fiat Panda.

Once we left the main road the winding roads to Arabba were littered with cyclists making our trip longer than it should have been. The sight of all those lycra clad bums has put us off cyclists for some time (sorry Erin, we weren’t talking about your bum, we were referring to the cyclists!). Turns out we had chosen the 100th anniversary of the opening of the road to Cortina to attempt to get to Arabba. Just to add insult to injury the finish (and start) of the race was Arabba! And to add further insult to injury the finish line was right in front of our hotel so we couldn’t get the car into the carpark!

Turns out that the event was not just celebrated with a bicycle race. There were a number of motorcyclists (check out the boots!) and lots of old cars.

We eventually managed to get the car into the carpark. The owner of the hotel was correct when he said that the “manifestation” would be finished within 2 hours.

Lake Enol and Lake Ercina

We went for a walk around Lake Ercina (the two pictures below) and Lake Enol (the picture with Frank on the left). It was a beautiful area and obviously very very popular as if we had tried to go any earlier in the season we would have had to pay Euro 7 each to go on one of the many buses as they close the road to private vehicles.

At far end of Lake Ercina was a stone hut which still appeared to be in use, at least there was an elderly lady wearing a pinafore there talking to some Americans as we passed. She appeared to have chickens running around the place.

The photo on the right is of Morag and I walking back from the Mirador del Ray lookout back towards Lake Enol. Lots of the buildings alongside this road appeared to still be in use.

The posada put on a different menu every night. We indulged ourselves on the last night and “ate in”. (Nigel, the owner, took the picture – not octopoddy (the tripod)). Morag, Carol, Mal and Steve bought a cigar (solid chocolate) for Frank to say thanks for all the driving, and for not collecting that large bus on the roundabout on the last day.

Cares Gorge

On Nigel’s advice we left early (7am) for Cares Gorge. It gets quite hot when the sun is shining so we wanted to get in (some of the way) and out before the hottest part of the day. Because we left early there was no breakfast at the Posada so we had to stop on the way. We actually had breakfast in Poo! After extricating ourselves we set off for Cares Gorge.

The gorge is a massive cleft more than 1000m deep and about 12km long. The walk is carved on the mountain side along the channels to service them as they feed a Hydroelectric Power Station built in the early 20th century, carrying water from Poncebos on the north side to Cain on the south side.

The initial part of the track is the hardest part as it climbs quite steeply for around 3km. Along the way you can see derelict buildings of the workers that stayed in the gorge while the channel was being built.

We got past halfway before stopping for lunch at 12:15. After a team meeting we decided that it was only going to get hotter from then because we started lunch in shade with cloud and finished in full sun. With no shelter in the gorge we headed back.

Thankfully we avoided the heat of the day as it was still quite a steep climb to get back over the col. This was followed by the long downhill stretch back to the pub – and toilet!

The scenery was spectacular but Sylvia thought it was somewhat spoilt by the amount of human poo, soiled toilet tissue and areas that had become informal urinals. Seems like the Grampians National Park isn’t the only place with issues relating to the inappropriate disposal of human waste!