Sorry for the delay. It's been a hectic few weeks!
Days 8-10 The DolomitesAfter a day off our bikes and an opportunity to use the campsite washing machines and carry out a few minor repairs we were ready to hit the road again
Surprisingly neither of us felt particularly rested, our legs were stiff and the bikes felt heavy. The plan for the day showed a lot of climbing over a series of short sharp climbs that would leave us at the same altitude as our start point. We followed a winding valley past ancient castles and over pretty wooden bridges. It was a lovely ride.
We were heading for Bruneck a distance of some 60km but knew of a campsite before the town so could stop there if necessary and make the distance up the following day. We followed the same valley all day and the mountains stared down at us from high above, it was fairly hot but we pressed on only stopping for a soup and sandwich lunch on yet another disused railway track. Lunch was leisurely and we got the folding chairs and Trangia cooker out which drew some amused looks from the cycle tourists following the same route.
We arrived at the intended first campsite around 3pm to find it a large commercial site well suited to families and children. Never mind, we could wander into town and find some dinner if we wanted to get away from the crowds. It turned out the campsite was completely full, the only one of the trip. They offered us a small grassy area by the swimming pool but we would have to wait until 6pm before they cleared the pool and let us set up camp. We would have to be off by 10am and this was offered at a discounted rate of €30! Thanks but no thanks we said and carried onto another campsite we had plotted on the GPS the other side of town.
Rule number 4 – Do not make up routes on the fly. Bruneck was busy, it was the August festival in the region and the town had been closed off for a street fair and hundreds of people were milling around. There were temporary bars and folk dancing everywhere and if we had the opportunity it would be great to come back and experience some of the fun.
I knew where to head for but the exact location of the campsite entrance wasn’t exactly clear on the small screen of my GPS. We crossed a busy road and preferring to stay off it I took us up a track running parallel which rapidly deteriorated into a farm track with huge tractor ruts completely unsuited to riding a bicycle. At the end of the track, both tired and dusty we met another busy road with an Armco barrier between us and the road. We worked our way along the edge and I was certain the campsite was somewhere nearby so we rode along a slip road and found it led to a major dual carriageway with no sign of a campsite. Looking at the road ahead and the GPS screen it was clear we shouldn’t proceed along the carriageway, it was just too dangerous. The paper map suggested it might be accessible from the other side of the river but that meant backtracking up the slip road and all the way back into town. Karen wasn’t talking much at this point and we were both tired and frustrated but given no choice we worked our way all the way round through the festival in the town again and followed the river to a railway crossing the other side of the main road where we finally were able to route round to the campsite. An hour after we had first stopped on the main road (and three hours since we decided not to stay at the first campsite) we peered over the wall from the campsite and saw the spot we had turned around.
The campsite was lovely and had an on-site bar so I believe I was forgiven after the first half litre of lager had been consumed. However it was too far and we were too tired to return to the festival which was a shame, we could hear the music for most of the evening as the now daily evening thunderstorm rolled in.
The location of several campsites allowed a handful of shorter days in the Dolomites rather than a full rest day it felt better to move on each day even if only a little way towards Venice. Today we climbed uphill for most of the day day for 30 kilometres heading towards stunning mountain scenery to a lakeside campsite at Toblacher See, we even had time for a walking lap of the lake and a pizza in the on site restaurant. Tomorrow will be a much more significant day.
Today we climbed our final mountain pass. The Passo Chimabanche. Higher than the Brenner pass but from a higher starting point. The climb was on a gravel path which ran parallel to a road all the way up and was busy with local mountain bikers. Helped by the fact we have become much more competent at packing our gear and getting started earlier each morning we made it to the top around midday and it felt a little early to celebrate with beer so ordered a bowl of chips and a glass of coke instead. The summit marks the historical border crossing with Italy and Austria but since 1915 it has been 50 miles further north at Brenner. The local people finally started speaking Italian around here.
After a few pictures at the top as the temperature continued to rise we began downhill. Again, the path was gravel all the way and we took it slowly – perhaps with hindsight we could have just cruised down the main road but later on the path left the road behind and headed into some lovely villages up on the valley wall so I think we made the right decision, if it did take a little longer to get to the campsite. It’s mostly downhill to Venice from here.
Our campsite was down in a steep valley just south of the upmarket ski resort of Cortina D’Ampezzo and as we had a few hours to spare in the afternoon, we decided to do some sightseeing and caught the bus back into town for a nose around (well it was a steep hill back up and we’d done enough of those today). To be honest there wasn’t really much there. It’s a lovely little town but we came to the conclusion we were seeing enough sights on our travels anyway. We walked back down the hill as we couldn’t work out where the bus left from and it actually took the same amount of time as the rather convoluted route taken by the bus.
We had another shorter day the next day and although mostly downhill only rode 38km to the next campsite. There were plenty of opportunities to stop and take photographs so we didn’t rush. The Dolomites are unlike anything either of us had seen. Large monoliths of granite rise out of the valley high above into clear blue skies, it’s quite spectacular.
We camped alongside a lake just north of the town of Pieve Di Cadore. This was some way off the main Munich-Venice route but we found we were beginning to run out of campsite options. Even less appealing was its location down in a steep bowl far below the village which was going to leave us with a difficult climb back to the route the next morning.
One constant of cycle touring is that you never have enough clean clothes. Most nights we would end up hand washing in the sinks at the campsite and here the local campers with static homes seemed to take some concern on our washing technique, although one kindly lady was quite impressed (entirely in Italian but it was clear what she meant) Karen had got me doing my own washing and could we explain to her husband he could do his too!
Not really looking forward to the steep climb, we skipped breakfast and aimed for the Spar in the town above us. It wasn’t quite as bad as we feared – I think we were getting quite good at climbing now, Suffolk will never quite look the same - and we made it there for some nice fresh croissants and made up some rolls with cheese and ham (standard lunch for the whole trip) for later in the day.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful apart from the heat. By now Lucifer was beginning to be quite noticeable and we found ourselves riding along a newly paved road without a single car to be seen next to a wide river. We took the opportunity to get the camping chairs out and sit in the shelter of the trees and paddle our feet in the river to cool down. We probably spent an hour here before rather reluctantly carrying on our journey. This stage was pretty flat and we cruised into a large campsite next to a big lake – Lago di Santa Croce which was full of wind and kite surfers taking advantage of the winds blowing down out of the mountains. The beer in the bar was particularly refreshing in the heat.
