Most friends and family know where we are.

But not everyone knows where the Dolomites are.

They are a mountain range in north eastern Italy that form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Valley Piave in the east. 

Most of the larger mountains we saw were above 2000 metres with the two largest being a Swiss mountain – Tofana di Rozes, just over 3000 and one local one – Sassolungo Langkofel of a similar size. To put it into perspective over 100 of the Himalayan mountains are well over twice the size.

While I’m unsure of ease of access in other mountain ranges, the access here is superb. If I didn’t have my atrial fibrillation issues both Corrie and I would not need a cable car which bugs us a little because we miss a lot of the fun of climbing. But there was one which was long and steep so we ‘cable car’d” it.

So I’m behaving, drinking lots of water, taking salt tablets, and walking zig zag slowly uphill, however because of PD I still lay claim to the top echelon of downhill rock hoppers.

On top of our cable car mountains there is a plateau of high rolling plains, where we hardly saw two grassy areas of the same shape, and we could take different paths not knowing where you were going and what the terrain was unless you were an orienteer.

It was as though we were in the centre of the universe surrounded by such a  ‘mountain juxtaposition’ of a higher variation than I have ever seen. It was not unlike a mountain museum and what stood out for me were the mountain shapes. In terms of haircuts, some were ‘liberty spikes’ while others were ‘mullets’.

I saw on their mountain map, that Swiss Mountain, as I went for one of my many excursions where no-one else seems to go for whatever reason. After only 10 metres I came to a cliff edge – (in itself a good reason), and there was that mountain. I get a kick out of that sort of thing.

The grass plains are a little like their lawns, and while no matter the shape, they looked more like a golf course, as though they’d been trimmed as in a ‘shaved undercut’ style. Scattered trees in the meantime removed the sanitised effect and made it look lived in.

Cabling back down (we had to because it began to rain and the roads become downhill slippery slopes) we saw yet another impeccable graveyard, the flowers not dissimilar to the range of wildflowers seen on the plain, but all of them seemed freshly planted.

The rest of the time we slowly walked the smaller mountains and I treated my body in a way that I would treat dehydration by having lots of water before I feel it. In a similar way I would rest before any sign at all of any ailment. And the bonus was my brain left me alone, so not much has changed in our walking.

The last few days have been delightful as we take more isolated paths and it becomes more of an adventure. It is usually a place that they don’t advertise so much because of a lack of infrastructure and difficult to get to.

Wherever we go there is an expressive mountain, an unusual waterfall, a delightful creek, a tree growing

where it couldn’t, rocks balancing as they shouldn’t, or an unexpected meeting with another hiker. 

The Parisian came to mind as one of those hikers. He came puffing round the corner and I wasn’t sure whether he was speaking (as French people have a loud exhale as part of their vocabulary) or if he was grasping for breath. But all he wanted was to share. This near 40 year old had just walked uphill for over an hour and was over it. It was the ‘ardest walk of his life and in comparison walking 20kms of flat Paris streets would now be a ‘ow do you say – “piece of cake”. 

Talking of food, Pizza seems to be the tourists’ staple diet and if it continues at this rate there could be staples found in other places as well, then pasta comes second followed by kebabs, but l suspect for some reason the latter are banned from towns so their businesses lie between them. Oh!! And salt tablets! they don’t seem to sell them because salt is for food, so their salt medical needs are met by magnesium which I use for bone health, not sure whether it increases my bp?

People come to the dolomites to hike at all ages. From a baby round his neck who could not possibly believe the slopes her dad walked, the mud he fell in, as she remained part of him;  groups of young children out of control until I ask them a question and they sound like English teachers;  many older couples from Germany, Austria and France;  Europeans as one all finding a language in common, busloads of Dutch and American students and the quiet Chinese and outspoken Indians.  

While it is Italy, it is also a place of three languages: German where you can also see their influence in the often working class pictures on the houses, then there is the other main language of the Italians who you can hear loudly from the coffee card tables and Laden, a Roman language spoken by the first inhabitants. There are five Laden valleys of which Val Gardena, where we are, is one.

This Laden valley has been our home now for over a week and we hear from outside a noise that sounds like a continual movement of traffic, but it’s not. It’s the movement of continual rolling water whose normally gentle flow of clear to muddy liquid is broken into white froth as it turns our sometimes earnest conversations into mere murmurs.