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Journal: |
I organised it last night so I could sneak in to my dorm and
climb onto my top bunk at 10pm after the Italian family had gone to
bed, and then I crept out again in the morning at 6:30am before they
woke up. I packed in the corridor and outside the Hutte by 7am
and then had breakfast with the same group as the night before.
I was underway before 8am on a beautiful cool and sunny morning,
though some white cloud clung to the higher Dolomite peaks.
I
was optimistic of reaching Sesto, my goal for the day, at a
reasonable hour and getting a hotel with wi-fi more easily than the
last two night's accommodation. The early walking was great,
as I climbed the grassy mountain behind the Hutte with great views
and the place to myself. I then had a long, 800m descent down
a ravine and then along a trail which clung precariously to a
cliff-face in places, using bridges, steps, cables, and, in one
place, a tunnel. It was very interesting and not too
dangerous. As I neared the bottom of the descent, I began to
encounter some hikers heading the other way on a beautiful warm
Sunday morning. Several were shirtless, and they came in all
shapes, sizes and ages. The most memorable was a 50ish
Italian, who could have been Danny de Vito's twin brother. He
was preceded by his blonde and busty wife, and was wearing a pair of
black running shorts, no shirt, a backpack and was yammering loudly
into his mobile phone as he climbed.
At the base of the
descent I crossed a busy road near a guesthouse where a number of
tour buses had stopped for a view and morning coffee. Then I
had a long ascent up to Drei Zinnen Hutte which got quite warm at
times. the first part climbed up through a long ravine on a
white gravel trail through pine forest and was a gentle grade, but
at the end of the ravine it climbed steeply, zig-zagging its way up
the rock face before reaching a high rocky plateau dominated by the
Drei Zinnen sheer rocky mountains, with a network of trail visible
ahead populated with many ant-like hikers moving one way or the
other.
As I got closer to Drei Zinnen Hutte, there were
people everywhere and the impressive and imposing Hutte was doing a
roaring trade. People were scurrying this way and that heading
for different trails, or just sitting around admiring the stupendous
views. I passed through the area slowly before descending a
short way along my next path before finding a nice spot with a view
for lunch and eating my muesli bars. I was making reasonable
time and, though not looking forward to my second long descent of
the day, wasn't too troubled.
The descent to the restaurant
at the bottom didn't take too long and then it was an easy gradual
walk down to Sexten along pleasant trails with plenty of other
hikers. i reached Sexten at 4pm and found the closed tourist
office, but used their information terminal to find some hotels with
wi-fi nearby that were supposed to have vacancies. Of course
they didn't and I struck out in a few more places as I walked down
through the town. It seems like there's some event nearby
tomorrow. In the end, I gave up and caught a bus 7km down to
the village of Innichen and got the last room in a hotel there.
I noticed at the railway station, hundreds of rental bikes and a
marquee set up. I think there may be one of those bike tours
of the Sud-Tirol starting here tomorrow, which could account for the
lack of rooms. Sadly, I wasted hours trying to connect with
their wi-fi and finally gave up. There was the Italian Track &
Field Olympic Trials on TV and, after dinner the movie Australia,
for which I found the English dialogue. Not one of my
favourite movies, but it will do in the circumstances. I'm not
getting sick of the hiking on this trip, but I am getting sick of
the struggle to find accommodation on summer weekends.
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