Holiday report: Part 1

Back from hols: Quick summary here. Pics on facebook...

Day 1: Flew out to Venice, no problem. Picked up hire car, which was comedy 1.0 Punto dwarf-car. Drove 2h 20 to Riva del Garda, initially motorways, but then into lovely hilly landscapes. The apartment was great, with a deck outside for eating meals and drinking beer on :) A quick trip out into the town (tourist mecca) and a pizza before getting some sleep.

Day 2: Via Ferrata Centenario SAT. A 2 hr slog in the heat up the hill opposite the town, initially on a cobbled path, then a hilly track through the trees. After lunch at a little rifugio, we got to the start of the Via Ferrata in another 15 min or so. These are systems of cables to which you clip in karabiners for protection. There are also iron hoops (stemples) to stand on sometimes and also ladders. This one was a sequence of cable-protected scrambles (tried to not haul on the ironwork on these) and ladders with walking sections in between. The big ladder was an exciting 50 metres long, going up right on the edge of a cliff. All of this got us to the summit flag at the top, at around 1200m after 4hrs or so of ascent. Great fun. Descent was some ironwork but mostly paths.

Day 3: The morning was spent visiting tourist info, exploring the town and swimming in Lake Garda. Lovely, although I managed to slip off the floating pier thing and belly-flop right in font of a contemptuous lifeguard..in the afternoon, we tried out some sport climbing just down the road at Arco. This turned out to be quite comical as the rock was incredibly polished - like a slippy mirror. After just getting up a few of the easier routes, we retured for more food and drinks..

Day 4: Morning drive for an hour and a bit to Madonna di Campiligo, a 1500m ski rsort in the Brenta Dolomites range. The cable car we wanted was shut but we got a different one which turned out to be a good thing as we got to walk from its top (2200m, alpine meadows) up to the Passo del Groste (2450m, snow and rock). From there we took a traversing path for a couple of hours through alternating bits of path and snowed-under sections. Brilliant! Arriving at the other end of the path we reached Rifugio Tuckett, which was serving Cappuccino :) 1000m or so of descent down through rocks, then pine forest, then deciduous woodland brought us to the low Rifugio 10 min before the last bus to town. Lucky huh?

Holiday report: Part 2

Day 5: Canyoning. We booked on a trip with a company an ended up with a group of crazy Germans :). Dropped off by a van at the top of the canyon wearing a wetsuit and big boots - nice in the heat...We made our way down by a mixture of sliding, abseiling, being lowered or jumping. The jumping was pretty scary, up to 7 or 8 metres and needing to hit the right spot. Just need to take a decent step to get out past the rocks and then its all rushing air and a big splash! I was named "Michael Ouch" by the guide after not quite getting a shallow water landing right and hitting my arse on the bottom. Back at the apartment, we had a bit of a pedalo, since its traditional.

Day 6: Bit of a rest after all that activity. In the morning a harder Via Ferrata (forst day was a 3 on a scale of 1-5, this was a 4). Completely artificial route up the walls of a canyon, with just iron hoops to stand on and a cable to hold. Good fun, and got us up to a castle to look round. Afternoon spent kayaking on the lake, def. a good way to cool down. Went into the town and found a German restuarant. Ended up massively stuffed with pork products and sauerkraut.

Day 7: Wartime Via Ferrata. Again near to home, this one was a protected walk/scramble up to some of the WWI ruins on the hills. The area was on the front line between Italy and Austria and so the ridgelines are packed with observation points, trenches and gun positions. Most cool.

Day 8: Italian airports.....gits. Still, home OK in the end.