Tarvisio to Rifugio Nordio

I’m going to have to add pictures later because there isn’t enough internet here.

We were treated to another festival last night- Alpenfest or something like that. There was a big parade, but thankfully no expectation that the general public would wear lederhosen. For some reason there also seemed to be a celebration of 90s disco music.

Judith says I only need two words for today’s blog- hot and hilly. But I also feel the need to say that hilly was largely of the upwards variety.

In fact the day didn’t start hilly at all, with a 3 mile walk along the valley to Camperossa. From there it was necessary to make amends for yesterday’s flatness with a steep ascent of a bit more than 1000m (or, using our preferred unit of measurement, slightly more than a Scafell Pike). This was mainly in trees, but even so, it was extremely hot, and was quite draining.

Every now and then a glimpse through the trees showed how far we had come

And there were flowers

Eventually we got to the broad ridge, which is the Italian/ Austrian border, and we came out of the trees into a delightful Alpine landscape. It was even quite flat for a while.

Flat at last

Then more steep uphill took us to Friestritzer Alm, which was very busy. So far we hadn’t met very many people, so I suspect this was more accessible than the way we had come might suggest. This high pasture, which apparently has been inhabited since the 18th century (summer only I suspect), even had a place where we could buy the ancient mountain medicine- Coca Cola. This revived us for the last short section of the walk, which was unexpectedly all downhill, to the Rifugio Nordio. Having crossed the border numerous times, we have ended up back in Italy. The Rifugio is brand new, and this evening is pleasantly quiet.

You can still see Prisank from here