Saturday 11 June 2016

A Last, Lovely Day in the Dolomites

Arabba to Belluno

Our route for today looked something like this. On paper, about 105 kilometres, 2300 metres of elevation gain and two mountain passes to cross. Beautiful scenery, generally good roads with little traffic and a promising forecast. After yesterday's inclement weather we were all glad that the forecast suggested we could look forward to an entire day of dry riding.

It really was all about cycling through beautiful country today so there will be few words and almost no "character" shots. In fact, the landscape was so delicious I had to really force myself to stop to take  photographs rather than just lap it up from the seat of my bike. Here's one of the early vistas we enjoyed ...

Loved the look of this scattered village nestled under the peak

NB: if you found that today's post took a little longer to load it would probably be due to most of the photos being slightly larger than what I normally post. Quite a few are panoramas so that you can get a better look if you blow the photos up.

This next photo is looking back towards our starting point about 15 kilometres away, and you can see the road winding into the distance ...


A little further down the road a gorgeous side valley presented itself, with a series of villages disappearing up into the hills ...


Clearly the grazing is incredibly rich to support the numbers of people squeezed into these high mountain villages.

Soon an impressive mountain began to dominate the landscape. As we moved closer towards it I couldn't help stopping numerous times to photograph it. Here is an early panorama ...


Around the next bend I looked over my shoulder to spot this hillside village with its church spire ...


Next up along the road was the mountain village of Brenta ...


The name "Brenta" is famous amongst mountaineers and hikers, with the Brenta group being home to many great mountain adventures.

It was about this time that José came wheeling past me, but I caught up to him again when we both stopped at an outlook that provided the best view of the peak seen in the background of the photo above ...


Some of you reading the blog will probably be able to identify this peak for me (come on, Tony!) as I am sure it looms large in the minds of mountaineers who visit this particular corner of the globe.

It would have probably been just about here that Di took a short video of me coming down past her while a group of motorbikes were going in the opposite direction ...



The next thing I took note of was this more densely populated valley village ...



... soon contrasted by another small, hilltop village with its church spire shining in the sun ...


It seems a regular feature of many of the villages we've passed through to have the church near the top of the town. I wonder: was this strategy put into place so it was easier for devotees to get home after church, or to elevate the church in the mind of its followers? Probably the latter I reckon.

Di and I had been leapfrogging each other as we stopped in turn to take pictures. Almost before we knew it we found ourselves arriving at lunch atop the Passo Duran, our second and last major climb for the day. (This pass is regularly used by the second biggest bike race on the planet.)  We arrived to find Fede setting up lunch in front of the Rifugio San Sebastiano ...


(The mob of motorcycle riders at the rifugio seemed rather jealous of our delicious spread.)

Across the road was this lovely little chapel with a craggy Dolomite peak as a backdrop ...


After lunch there was one more reasonably significant climb to deal with, where I got this photo of Di just getting to the top (this is one you really should look at in a larger view) ...


We cruised through that col together and I took a short video just as we exited the town ...




There was a long, wonderful twisting descent into the warmth of  the valley below. Wanting to savour the sunshine and extend the sense of journey in general we stopped at the bottom for a coffee and watch the passers-by.

Another, shorter climb followed and then a traverse through a series of many tunnels. We rode alongside a lake for a while which was nice to watch go by. Di was a bit nonplussed that I didn't take any photos of this section of the ride, or that I didn't stop earlier than I did to wait for her. (Sorry Darling, but I was just enjoying rolling along at this stage. 😉) I did get this photo of her against another grand Dolomitic peak not long before we finished for the day ...



We knew from our travel sheet for the day that we were going to arrive at a special place to spend the night. A former bishop's residence dating back to the 1700's, this plaque on the front of the hotel tells about its origins  ...



The hotel was recently extensively renovated and is a wonderful building with large open spaces. Here's a panoramic photo I took just after arriving ...


(Not a great picture, but you should get some idea of the grandness of the place.)

The attractive grounds of the hotel, strewn with sculptures made for a very pleasant arrival.


Here's another photo showing a few of our group enjoying conversation in what could be described as classic surroundings ...



To finish the day we had a convivial dinner seated all together around a huge table, concluding what was a marvellous last day in the Dolomites. Tomorrow we have a long haul to Venice and then a rest day. It will be interesting to move out of the mountains and travel down the renowned Po Valley.

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