Geetings from Cortina

After another excellent breakfast, we set off at 8 O’clock from the Hotel Aplis and our route took us immediately up onto a very quiet road, climbing the side of the mountain.

Final adjustments

 We passed through sleepy Alpine villages, men enjoying their first espressos of the day in street cafes before heading off to work. Robust, middle aged women wandering along pavements with empty, colourful shopping bags. The climb was relentless, as lorries passed us on their way down the mountain they rather unusually flashed us, which we took as a sign of encouragement – little did we know what it actually meant! 10 miles into the climb it all became clear; as we rounded a corner, we discovered a bridge across a ravine was being rebuilt, it was still there, but covered in cement lorries and scaffolding. The site Forman leaped out of his hut, his gesticulations indicating that we could go no further. Whilst there was clearly major work going on with the bridge, it still seemed intact and we asked whether we could cross; only fair we thought, given that there were no signs anywhere in the previous 10 miles that even hinted there might be a problem. The response was an unequivocal ‘No’. In a very Sudanese moment, Chris offered him 50 euros to let us cross, in a very non-Sudanese moment, the Forman gave us a long and slightly threatening lecture about health and safety (in Italian). We beat a retreat.

I think there's something wrong with that bridge...

We faced a choice. We could climb down the side of the valley, somehow cross the river at the bottom of the gorge and then clamber up through the forest on the other side in an attempt to find the road beyond the broken bridge, or cycle back down the 10 miles of mountain and find a different route to our destination. Graham, was an advocate for the former, mountaineering option; the rest of us were less keen to get lost in Alpine pine forests with bikes slung over our shoulders. We’d all been ‘off piste’ with Graham before and somewhat regretted the experience, so voted for retracing our steps. There is an unbroken tradition on these trips that in the morning of day 3, Graham loses his rag about something, and sure enough, our decision to head back down the mountain set him off. “this is bloody ridiculous, I come all the way up here only to be told to turn round and come back, I’m almost a pensioner you know”.  

The broken red line spells trouble

Our new route took us onto a busier road, higher in the mountains. A, nice pedal apart from the lorries and a 4 kilometre tunnel, something that as a cyclist, its good to try and avoid. They are typically too narrow, you can’t see the road properly in the dark and the ventilation system is so deafening you can’t hear all the bloody great lorries coming up behind you, Harley hates tunnels...

So after the mornings detour, we got to Auronzo di Cadore in time for lunch at an excellent pizza restaurant. And then a clap of thunder announced the afternoon’s entertainment, the rain started coming down like stair rods, it made a monsoon day in Khartoum seem like a small shower.

Nice view from the restaurant window (Not)

We had no option as we were running late, so waterproofs of and with that feeling that you get when you are about to jump into a cold swimming pool, we left the shelter of the restaurant and set off through the rain. Another big, wet, silent climb up to Passo Tre Croci at 1850 meters and then the long descent on dangerously damp roads to our final destination, the excellent Ambra Hotel in Cortina.

The Ambra Hotel

Keep you posted...