Dolomighty Dolomites!

Well, just a quick post while we are in Cortina D'Ampezzo (same story - very expensive internet).

The afternoon in Bruneck made an interesting little story - our bag of groceries got nicked. This might not sound that bad, but it contained our precious titanium spoons, and $50 worth of groceries. So while camping in a nice wee spot in the forest near Bruneck I managed to eat dinner with our little spatular, and Chris considered the billy grip, or a tent peg, but resorted to a nacho as the best option - it was highly amusing and we reminisced a similar situation when I recall Joe eating his dinner off a chain whip! It's amazing how irreplaceable spoons are (-:

We went back down to Bruneck in the morning and sadly replaced all the groceries. Just before we left town we went to throw away our rubbish I noticed that the bin contained most of our groceries untouched! So we spent the next half hour quietly delving into the rubbish bin to retrieve all our precious belongings! Phewee.

So away we went up past Enneberg in the rain. Once we reached Enneberg we stopped for another warmupuccino and then continued up the misty valley until we noticed a picnic area with a wee wooden hut. After a brief inspection it was deemed 'an excellent place to stop' and we settled down for a nice dry evening.

In the morning we were woken by the sun, and emerged to a sepctacular steep sided valley. Back on the bikes we continued up the Val Dei Tamersc to the Rifugio Perdu. There the road steepend dramatically and became unsealed and it was a real chug up to a flatter point, then another grunt up to the Faneshuette. There was fresh snow on all the surrounding peaks, and only a few other bikers about and we basked in the sun on the deck of the hut for lunch - it was great. Then a short snowy uphill section and we crossed the Ju de Limo and bumped down a rather tricky gravelly road for several hours till we made it out to the main road. From there we cruised along to Lago Misurina, the lake everyone has told us to go to. It was beautiful, and we could see the famous Tre Cinne di Lavaredo. All coated in fresh snow, unfortunatly including our little campspot in the forest, brrrr.

Another sunny day dawned, and we ate a leisurely breakfast by the lake then started a mission of a climb up to the Auronzohuette right beneath the Tre Cinne. Once there the view out over all the Dolomites made the climb worth it. We repacked our gear, hid our bikes, and set out for a little wander on the track which goes around the Tre Cinne. It was incredibly snowy, and the plan had been to stay at the nice warm hut on the other side of the Cinne, but we passed a man who commented that the hut was 'geschlossen' (shut!).

It was a fantastic evening but we were a bit worried about where we would stay. However, on arrival the hut we discovered a little 'Winterraum' with nice little bunks - just like an NZ hut. So we enjoyed having the beautiful view and hut all to ourselves after the crowds of the daytime.

In the morning it took some time for the crowds to arrive so we enjoyed breakfast on the benches outside the hut in peace. Then we went and some amazing caves up one of the ridges which were built during the war. They went up the mountain for ages with heaps of little holes in the cliff you could peak out from. The climbing and via ferata here also looked awesome, and we are now quite excited to come back in summer with some gear.

In the afternoon we headed back down to Misurina, then into Cortina D'Ampezza to a campground for a much needed shower and some washing after 10 days scungyness (0: Now it's on to planning our continuing journey south, first through the Marmalada, then on down to Venice where we will probably arrive in about ten days. Well, better get biking!