The restaurant at the end of the valley

Walking in the Sud Tirol series links: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Wednesday 21st Sept 2011 - Sud Tirol walking day 3

Today we caught the public bus up to Predoi to start a walk right up to the end of the valley. I say we caught the bus but it's all a lie. Just as the bus arrived I realised I'd not got my GPS and not wanting to lose it I vowed to get the next bus (30 minutes) and catch them up. The GPS was in my room (not lost at all) so while waiting for the bus I asked the hotelier for our walking guide's phone number just in case I couldn't locate them.

Just on my way to the bus stop and the hotelier's husband pulls up in his Merc - jump in, I'll take you! What incredible service, they really are amazing people and a real loss to the industry as they retired the week we left.

Pulling up at Predoi the group were waiting for me - I was lost for words and genuinely touched by them enduring me being such a numpty.

We set off up the hill and walked through the woods, the day looked like it was going to be a scorcher.

Out of the woods and looking down
the valley towards our start

Never take a picture into the sun -
rubbish; this one looks great!

I admit it - I'm trying to get a
photo in the brochure

A snow fuelled river

Everywhere you look there's a photo
that needs to be taken

Having driven up the valley before we even started I was soon surprised to notice that our altitude was higher than I'd managed to achieve on my hard-work solo walk the day before.

This was an easy walk, we were simply following a gravel road alongside a stream up the bottom of the valley. I detoured off on my own immediately after the church pictured above to go and find a cache ("Italy North") about 40m up a couple of fields. This turned out to be quite a scramble with the sun really beating down on me. It was a tricky find, helped along by a noisy but soft-as-a-brush dog from the nearby farm, which took me a good 10 minutes to locate. I signed the log, stopped for a rest, water and some suncream, before descending back to the road and then pushing myself to catch up with the group.

Nancy leading the way



Easy going as we head toward the
end of the valley

We walked about four miles to the end of the valley where I was surprised to discover a restaurant - this probably explains the good condition of the track/road. Here we were at an altitude of 1850m - the highest I'd been so far but even this would be dwarfed the next day.

We rested a while before returning back the way we'd come and then stopping at a restaurant a couple of miles further along where we all had excellent food.

Starting the walk back



Almost back to the start



The total for today was 9.3 miles with a steady altitude gain of 326m. An easy walk but nevertheless a beautiful one which I heartily recommend to all.



Our route today.
North is about 10 o'clock.



He'll be walking round the mountain

Walking in the Sud Tirol series links: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Tuesday 20th Sept 2011 - Sud Tirol walking day 2





The view from my room...



...and again











Today was a free day and I'd resolved to get up 'when I was ready' and try to get to the nearest cache to the hotel; one which I knew was quite a way up a mountain.

More snow had fallen overnight and from my estimates the snow level had lowered from a normal 1800m down to about 1600m. Of course I didn't really know this at the time and altitudes/snow lines meant nothing to me as I'd not left the bottom of the valley - I could see some rather big 'hills' all around, with snow 'further up' but it was all lost in the distance, the vastness, the epic scale of the landscape.



St. Jacob (I think) - the next village









Despite a few fizzy pops in the gasthof bar the evening before (my last real drink of the week) I was up bright and early and after a slow breakfast and taking my time to get ready I was all set to go by 10am.

Following the arrow on my GPS I set off on the adventure of a lifetime! I walked a short way up a road leading to another Gasthof and then diverted onto a farmers track and up a fantastically steep path. I say path, but it turned out to be flattened grass where water and sticks had cascaded down the hill during the rain. Eventually I arrived at a road barrier and I was back onto a mountain road - if only I'd walked around!

I stuck to this road for a mile, working my way up the mountain, and taking in my first views from altitude.

I was heading to a cache located near a monument to an aeroplane that had crashed in the Second World War, with loss of half the crew. It was a nice thoughtful place to stop and I actually saw a couple of deer very close by but didn't have my camera handy.

The well kept cache was quickly found and I left a decent length log thanking them for it. It hadn't been found for several months which surprised me - I know it's a little out of the way but I figured the area would be popular with tourist walkers.

I kept walking up the mountain, eventually hitting the snow level and losing all signs of paths or trails. The air was clean, the sun was burning and aside from streams and the wind it was utterly peaceful. I'd not seen a soul for two and a half hours and could easily have been the only person alive.

At this point I had to stop - an altitude of 1790m. Although the snow was very cold underfoot (of course), the sun was baking hot and causing it to melt quite quickly. Consequently the going was treacherous because the grass, under the snow, was very wet and slippery. I didn't want to risk an accident especially with being out on my own.

Incidentally, according to my GPS, at this point I had been out for 2.5 hours, with 1 hour stopping time (rest, food, photos, refill water bag) yet frustratingly I was still only 1 mile from the hotel! I had actually walked 2.8 miles - a testament to the gradient I was walking.

I started to descend along the same route for a while and then diverted along a bridleway heading west.

Dropping down, down and further down, out of the snow the sun once again became more apparent. 



I patiently waited here for the
tractor to return on his loop







So today I'd had an adventure of my own. I'd found a cache, walked 7.1 miles and climbed 600m.

Best. Day. Ever.

The route I walked. North is about 2 o'clock.

Rotated a little, here I've added a red line showing
roughly where the snow level really was.

An elevation map of my route.

Snow! In the Alps!??

Walking in the Sud Tirol series links: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Monday 19th Sept 2011 - Sud Tirol walking day 1

The first proper day of my walking holiday in the Sud Tirol in Northern Italy; a strange mix of a region where 70% of the inhabitants speak German, 25% of them Austrian and 5% of them Ladin (a remote form of Italian/Latin). Consequently, despite being in Italy no-one speaks Italian.

I was stopping in St. Peter (See map and San Pietro here) which is a long way up the valley - the end of which is a dead-end bowl surrounded on three sides by Austria. The entire valley is bordered by the Alps, some of them peaking at over 3,200m (well over 10,000 feet.)

To put this into perspective, the recent walk I did up Helvellyn, the second highest mountain in England, peaked at a height of 950m (3,117 ft).

Of course for each of the walks I accomplished this week, 5 days, we were not starting from sea level so the actual elevation never approached anything remotely like these figures - but even so the altitude, the mountains, the sun and the snow all added to the sense of achievement and the glow of health we were rewarded with each day.

Today we arose to pretty foul weather just as it had been when we'd arrived late the evening before. It hadn't rained in the region for 5 weeks and we were blamed for bringing it with us. Each days walks and excursions (for the non-walking holidaymakers with us) had been swapped around to make the Dolomite & Venice daytrips occur further along in the week away from the bad weather, so todays walk was altered to a museum visit at the bottom of the valley in Brunico. (View previous map and look a little south.) I was gutted - I was here for a walking holiday and pouring rain wouldn't put me off but of course there were others to consider.

We took the coach down to Brunico and our walking guide, the excellent Kristina, showed us around albeit slightly out of her comfort zone I think. Whilst in the museum snow started to fall and she was shocked - it was far too early in the year for this to be happening!

After a couple of hours in the museum we stopped for a coffee and the weather started to clear a little so we headed off back to Brunico central and then started to walk north along the main road out of the town towards our hotel. It's about 20 miles away so we weren't planning to walk the whole distance (especially as it's only our first day and it was already 1pm) but we had a lovely walk in the damp mist and all started to get to know each other.

For the record there was 8 of us: Cindy and John, Jenny and Ron, Aveline, Nancy, myself and Kristina the guide. I was the youngest and was completely spoiled all week by people looking after me (lip balm, forgotten shampoo etc). Truly a great set of people and I was chuffed to bits with meeting and getting to know all of them. Thanks all xxx

I'd treated myself to a new camera for the holiday with having set myself a target of taking a photo good enough to be in next years holiday brochure at work. Like I said I took 250+ pictures over the 5 days but sadly I only think that about 15 of them are what I would term excellent pictures. Even so, fingers crossed I achieve my self-quest!

Over the next 5 blogs you'll see some of these and others besides.

[edit: 21/10/2011 - Hurrah! There's a new walking brochure going to the printers today and it includes FIVE of my pictures - including the front cover! I'm very pleased with myself.]

These mist covered mountains...

So what about Geocaching? Well given that I was on a guided walking holiday it was never going to be easy to bag any caches - I'd loaded the nearest 700 onto my GPS and then had to cross my fingers that we'd pass by some by accident. I wasn't desperate to get any although of course getting at least one would be nice as it would be my first in Italy.

My first day of photography

Well blow me down with a straw if not even a mile away from Brunico we didn't pass within a foot of one hidden under a bench on the main road! Not having to worry about there being Muggles in the group (they're hardly likely to return to the area!) I quickly found the cache and introduced them all to the hobby. I'd mentioned it to a couple already, to typical comments of derision, geekiness and feigned interest but once a cache was in hand I think a few of them found it quite exciting - if not particularly their cup of tea.

Everywhere you looked there was a photo waiting to be taken

Our route. We actually walked almost due North but I've rotated the map slightly to view the route better. (Also note that the snowline is entirely wrong on this Google image.)

Overall a great start to the week after a disappointing start - 7.2 miles on the flat to ease into things. Refreshed I retired to the shower, and then restaurant and bar, and looked forward to the rest of the week where, as it turns out, things would get even better...