The Great Altopiano Maze...and the conquering of Mt Forno!

I write this post from an internet cafe in Venice! Yes, it is amazing but we have finally reached Venice. The two previous posts which are also new were written in Levico Terme, but the silly librarian decided we weren't allowed to use the internet again, so I couldn't publish them till now, grrr! So apologies for the delay.

Anyway, we got here and now I will tell you how.

From Levico Terme we bought a map, and spoted the Altopiano dei Sette Comuni, a 'highplain' riddled with old 4WD tracks that sat between us and Venice, including a peak named Monte Forno. We had to go there. So we began yet another huge grind (a 1500m climb day) up a very windy, very very narrow little road to Passo Vezzena (1404).

Then the road we took continued around gradually climbing up to the Alto Piano. It was a remarkably warm sunny day, with lots of Italians out for a sunny sunday stroll, and the friendly farmland reminded us of Banks Peninsula. We had a picnic in the sun, and then continued on past mushroom pickers and walkers alike. As it got later the road got trickier, big stones which were very difficult with our panniers and skinny tyres.

Luckily we reached the first of several bivvies we had seen on the map, and despite its tiny size and simplicity, it proved a comfortable wee home for the night. It was in a cool spot surronded by tussocky hills, and some ruins from the war. The whole Altopiano was the scene of battle in WW1 between Italy and Austria, and is covered in tunnels and ruins. We had some candles and a bottle of red wine...what more could we need?

We had a late start for a pretty cruisy day, continuing up the difficult rocky mountain bike road, testing our balance skills. We came across a pretty well and filled up with water, then walked 30 minutes into the coolest bivvy ever! It had a wonderful view back over the Dolomites, and was super cozy with a roaring fire (there were 2 Italian guys already staying there) a mezzanine with one big mattress were Chris and I slept, and heaps of supplies like candles, running water, sugar etc etc. In the setting sun we decided to walk to the highest peak of the Altopiano called Cima Dodici, which took about 30 mins and we got an amazing view over the ranges we had been over the last 2 weeks. It was wonderful.

Back at the hut the Italian guys treated us to their '8 Star' hosptiality, and plied us with beer, fancy cheese, chocolates, cakes till we were bursting! Then we slept in the 'Sahara' that was the top bunk - a bit too hot! We got up really late and returned to the bikes just after lunch time..opps. Back on to the 'battle with the rocks' we continued down the road to Mt Forno, a rather insignificant summit, perhaps, but nevertheless it had to be climbed. We bush bashed through the pines, and Chris emerged victorious at the top for a photoshot on his very own mountain (o:

Then it was on down through the Altopiano maze... our map was hopeless and there were tracks everywhere. It took hours of biking on rough tracks up and down before we finally emerged from the maze just as it got dark! We reached Asiago, then biked up into a further maze in the pine forests above Asiago on the hunt for a campspot. The area was full of War Graves, and in the dark the looming pine trees made it rather eerie, and we crept thankfully into our friendly wee tent and fell asleep. We were woken to the sound of gunfire, and for some time thought we had travelled back in time! We hastily packed up, and biked further through the pine maze to discover there were hunters everywhere blasting away despite the fact there were actually lots of walkers about...we decided they had obviously forgotten the war was over!

Thankfully we exited the maze after some hours, and descended over 1000m into the haze of the plains! We reached Ballano by midday, ate lunch, then decided to tackle the nasty final stretch into Venice. Unfortunatly our map for this section was also terrible, and the roads were so so busy. Trucks grumbled past, and we ended up diving of sideroads to try and escape. As a result we biked far more then the 60 km, and after 4.5 hour solid biking finally arrived on the outskirts of Venice.

It was another mission to find our prebooked abin at a campground, due to unpassable motorways, roads, train tracks, etc.. but by 9 oclock we had finally found it, and collapsed gratefully on the comfortable beds in our warm cabin. What a relief! So that's how we got here! Now we plan to have a couple of days here, go and explore Venice proper, then continue South on another adventure across through Tuscany to Pisa, following some Mountainbike routes we have on a neat map Albert gave us, which should take about 10 days. After that...well..you will have to wait and see! Goodbye! (Text al la Em, photos al la Chris).

Molto Belluno Dolomites

Another plan hatched in the tent begins! So as the light of morning entered our tent in our camp spot just out of Alleghe we reluctantly rose to a chilly morning with frost everywhere. We continued down the valley to our lowest point so far- a puny 663 at Cencenighe Agordino, then turned hard right and began climbing again (surprise!) to Falcade for a few more supplies just bacause our lugsacks weren't quite full enough. We decided we were the first ever 'roving pantries' carrying with us all food supplies necessary for a four course meal and more, great when you are about to climb over 1400m in one go!

So it was up up up to Passo di Valles (2031), and we roared up the final 800m to the pass at a climb rate which would have worked out to a 24 minute Dyers time, which with our luggers and mountain bikes seemed pretty speedy! We both wished we could pop home for a quick time trial up Dyers on our race bikes and set some new personal bests (-: The road going up to the pass was wonderfully quiet, and we sat on the top of the pass for a snack wondering why, until we realised we were both absolutly freezing and then we remembered it was becoming winter! So we biked down the hill to the turn off to our 'bikes only' route up the Val Venegia. The valley was beautiful even if very cold. The bikes were stashed yet again, and we prepared for a steep climb up into the mountains where we planned to do a 3 day tramp before returning to the bikes.

The track zig zagged steeply up through the very yellow pines, then onto a scree slope. It was a stiff 600m climb up to the Refugio del Mulaz, and on the way we saw 8 mountain goats, but not a soul. We got to the cold hut just on dark and searched every door hoping for a winterroom. All were locked....until I climbed some wee stairs and found a cozy winter room for us hidden on the top floor of the hut, pheeweee. We cooked up a feast and snuggled into the cozy blankets provided by the hut.

It was very misty in the morning, and we didn't emerge from the hut till about midday. The Ref Mulaz was shaded by a huge tower, so at this time of year it practically doesn't get any sun. With all our warm gear on we climbed up the snowy slope and followed our marked route up and over Passo delle Farangole (2969) which had an awesome section of easy via Ferrata leading us into the next valley. Here Chris was keen for a climb up to an even higher pass, so I reluctantly followed (I was tired from our mere 2000m altitude gain the day before!). We scrambled up a scree slope, then a snowy one which we had to kick steps into to Passo Bureloni (3139). On the way down my drink bottle decided to commit suicide, and bombed its way down an insanely steep gully, opps.

So, as it got colder again we sidled round the very steep hillside on another bit of cool via Ferrata, then into a flat basin and up to the rocky plain where Refugio Rosetta (2581) is situated. The landscape was neat, a sort of rocky Mt Owen. The winterroom in the hut was very cozy, with a great view out the window, and we had the whole place to oursleves.

We had a big day ahead of us as we planned to get close to Borgo Valsugana, which would involve another 2000m climb on the bikes, plus the 3 hour walk back down to pick them up. We set off by 8.30am (!) and headed down a very steep track into the valley. We passed the ugliest gondola with montstrous buildings at each end. The whole valley really would have looked much better without it.

Then on down into lovely red, gold and yellow forest and up to Passo del Mulaz. From there we dumped our packs and jogged down to the bikes, grabbed them, and biked back up the shingle road to the pass. We ate lunch in the variable sun and looked up at the spectacular towers were we had walked the day before. Then it was down from the Pass to join up with Passo Rolle. Then a huge descent from there into Mezzano, then up a 300m to Passo di Gobbera (nicknamed the gobbler by Emily). From there we dropped down into Canal San Bovo, before a 700m climb up to Passo del Brocon (1615). The heights of the passes were now lower - but we were starting from lower so the climbs were still massive.

Still, we knew there were now not so many passes left before we would reach the flat lands near Venice, so 'we'd better savour them' (quote: Chris). It was getting dark when we arrived at the top of the pass so we found a campspot just off the road and I got into my sleeping bag while Chris cooked the dinner (my treat after such a mission day!).

The next day was sunny, but nevertheless we put on all our warm gear for a massive descent down into Borgo Valsugana, and a well deserved sumptuous breafast. From there our mission was of a slightly different variety: clean clothes, clean selves, get hepatitus shots(?). The third task was a result of the shots we already had in Munich and we were supposed to get a follow up shot 5 weeks later.

This proved rather an adventure:

• Step 1: go to information centre: they say go to doctors clinic
• Step 2: Doctors clinic = they send us to hospital
• Step 3: Lost wandering round wards, see hospital information sign
• Step 4: Man at information speaks no english, spends much time yabbering rapid italian on phone, eventually send us away with some crazy directions.
• Step 5: Into another ward, wandering round, patients everywhere, oh dear...
• Step 6: helpful lady, no english, consults fellow nurse.
• Step 7: fellow nurse leads us to another building with sign 'vaccinations!'
• Step 8: 2 friendly doctors, not one word english.
• Step 9: they phone someone on their cell phone who speaks english and we make progress.
• Step 10: needles prepared.
• Step 11:Much much more fast Italian discussion while we sit and wait...
• Step 12: Success! Amazingly, we got our injections after some hours (0:

Anyway, that was very funny. That night we reached Levico Terme were it turned out all the campgrounds were shut, so we had a quick naked dip in the lake, and washed our gear at the local Laundriette (poor laundriette ladies - it was sooo smelly), then camped over night beside the lake. And we were out of the Dolomites, and now ready for our final foray in the mountains before the plains of Italy.

Below: Chris proudly showing off our clean clothes all neatly packaged in these little plastic bags...just like new!