We were surprised when our bus driver (we were off to a new hiking ground) told three girls the complete wrong way to go. We were sitting in the seat that usually distracts the bus driver so we heard it all. We knew this area well and told the bus driver that he had given the girls the wrong direction. 

When they came back he apologised to them and gave them our directions. We told them that he had been around a while and was losing it. We laughed and then absurdly I became one of those people who talked to the driver whilst he was driving. We soon fastened our seat belts and I fastened my mouth.

The last two days in Gardena found us following trails that were leading up mountains that we knew we would never be good friends with. It was more like a casual acquaintance because we did not get to know them well by going the full distance with this very new relationship.

We are still avoiding the ‘overhead wire cars’ thus the new casual connections above. The first one took us up a small but fascinating stream that was very busy showing off as it not only jumped into the air when hitting small boulders, but also playing with the now chilly wind. At the same time it was leading us somewhere backwards. Maybe it has seen me go backwards which I do often. 

Firstly I make sure it is on a slight uphill slope which makes it less easy to fall. I might do it when I’m a bit tired and I’m amazed at how easy it is for a short burst; it’s a time to talk with Corrie when she’s behind me; it exercises my glute muscles; it allows me to check for cars when we’re on a tight road, although they seem to have pathways sorted here; and I see a very different view.

This creek led us into some beautiful wild flower arrangements, the central colour as it often is, being yellow, the others being mauve, red and blue predominantly. There appeared to be no green flowers and maybe nature thought of this when she made the grass and the leaves that colour.

Another ‘cable car evasion’ was a bit harder because the ‘cable car man’ gave us a 2 km walk to get to the start. When we returned we found the short cut, just behind ‘the cable car house’. 

We started our walk on the common red colour of the pine needles mixed with rain. So off we went.

We came past many of these tracks and took the better looking ones through stunningly green grassy patches with small hillocks scattered around and criss-crossed with these narrow pine needle paths.

These paths I had recently worked out had been made for tree cutters. And then the welcoming sounds of a waterfall, much bigger than the last and flowing over a huge slab of sunny stone with only the wind taking wisps of it backwards.

We were up there where we have rarely been right amongst the waterfall and its adventures. We did not make it to the top because of our late start. So we walked with it slowly until we reached a home (we were surprised to see one so high up) whose owner had two uninvited guests. They were us and a deer who was in his very small paddock (we have been amazed to see these grassy bits appear out of nowhere on these steep slopes) and who thought the tall grass was hiding her. We chatted to the owner as we walked past on our way to a different part of the descent;  such a wonderful enchanting walk.

Another part of the Dolomites now beckons as we headed to the more spectacular town of Cortina, and that may be subjective, by the way, because of peoples’ different outlooks and perspectives. The hills and mountains tend to close in on a more ‘squeezed in town’ and their shapes are so much more dramatic.

The more cultured rising landforms of Val Gardena did not have the fighting warrior looks of Cortina with their more jagged and threatening appearance, whose injuries flowed endlessly from wounded mountains in the form of large boulders down to gravel. The rocky remains of these wounds were catered for with tunnels built under highways so there was no danger to innocent folk. We initially thought these tunnels were for water where there was none and then we saw the boulders so it was our first ever sighting of a ‘boulder drain’. 

Returning from our second hefty walk in two days I was delighted when Alessandro, my Italian friend,  produced an App called Peak Visor after being asked many mountain names. But no names, no more bothersome questions, just ‘get your App’ and life begins. It even finds mountains hiding behind other ones. As I was testing the App I shared my new technology expertise with two older Dutch people and two young men who were both very excited and amazed they were being taught something new by someone old.

We have reached 650 kms – well over our target of 600 – and will target my walking more towards the marathon on July 30 so there will be shorter, faster 6 and 13 kms walks every second day and longer walking with haste, keeping in mind my AF, while one day a week will be walks between 25 and 35 kms to fit the training schedule.