Thursday: 24th August: Weather: 25°C in Bolzano to ??°C:
Ortisei to Malga Brogles:14.5k walk: 6hrs:10.30am to 4.30pm: 1 x 1hr 30min stop: Ascent: 515m: Descent 605m
Accommodation: Rifugio Malgabrogles
Escalator up to Resciesa Funicular
Base of Resciesa Funicular
Coffee at top of Resciesa funicular
Views across to Sassolunga group
Lines of people from funicular
Rifugio Resciesa 2170 metres
Uphill slog
Views across to Alpe di Siusi
Jesus Cross at 2,400 metres
Along the Resciesa ridgeway
Last downhill to Malga Brogles
Kids, babies, prams and dogs
Malga Borgles with new extension
Malga Brogles below Odle group
From Adolph Munkler Weg to Odle
Adolph Munkler Track
From our Window Malga Brogles
Highlight was our first day on the AV2 and what a magnificent day. First highlight was getting Bus 350 to Ortisei, leaving the 37°C of Bolzano behind. From Ortisei, we took several sets of escalators up to the start of the Resciesa Funicular then set off on the Resciesa ridgeway walk to the Christ Cross at 2,300 metres, before desending to the amazing Rifugio Amalga Brogles. Amazing because we thought we were in for a bed in a dormitory with no shower. Instead, we find it is a brand new building, 3 weeks old, and we have a room to ourselves with nice clean white sheets and a bathroom up the corridor. And it’s a lovely 18°C at 6pm as I blog in the dining room - me with a red wine, Ian with a large beer.
Another really hot night in Bolzano. We doubt our apartment got below 30°C all night, and we slept under a sheet with a buzzing fan. We’re awake at 6.30am and have a cold shower and breakfast before cleaning our apartment. It was very clean to start with so it just needed a quick sweep and wipe over. We finish packing our back packs and fill our one suitcase with our airline clothes and shoes and other stuff. Then downstairs to leave our suitcase at reception for our return on Sept 4th at the end of our AV2 walk.
Down the road to the Bolzano autostazione, where we get on BUS 350 at 8.48am and grab the front two seats opposite the driver, which we’ve learned have the most leg room. After a one hour pleasant trip up Val Gardena, we hop off in the centre of Ortisei and Ian makes a few phone calls while I buy a baguette thinking there might not be dinner at the Rifugio Amalga Brogles as the two phone calls I have made only resulted in an OK, but I was never sure what the OK meant - there is a bed, dinner's included, breakfast is included??
We know the Resciesa Funicular is up the hill somewhere but not sure where. But just as we’re about to google the place, we see a sign to the funicular and streams of people heading in that direction. We follow. The road turns into steps which turns into three sets of escalators up through tunnels, evenutally arriving at the base of the funicular. Tickets were 19 euro one way, and we join a batch of people waiting to get through the gates which soon open letting one batch through to the next stage, a platform. The counter weighted funicular arrives in a few minutes and we jump on.
10 minutes later at 10am, we’re at the top of the funicular station imbedded in the pine trees, jump off and follow the crowd to the sign posts to the various walks. I need to drag out my map, to see which way to go. So time for a coffee with left over apple strudel sitting under the shade of the pine trees. The map tells us we should head for Rifugio Resciesa so we follow a line of people up hill, out of the pine trees above 2,000 metres, to Rifugio Resciesa at 2,170 metres where many day hikers have stopped for brunch. It’s then an uphill slog top the Jesus Cross, the high point about 2,400 metres where we stop for a moment to enjoy the views and the cool air. We can see across to Alpe di Siusi and all round to various other dolomite groups including the Sassalungo.
Along the Resciesa ridgeway, there’s people coming from both directions, some from the Seceda Cable car instead of the Resciesa Funicular. We have great views of the Seceda, the high mountain peak where the Ortisei cable car finishes, and can see our planned route for tomorrow when we go back around the Seceda to Rifugio Firenze. Soon we turn a sharp bend where there’s a collection of hikers just sitting enjoying the views, and we suspect wondering which way back - the same way they came or across to the the Seceda cable car and down to Ortisei.
We continue on and at 1.30pm, after 3hrs of walking, the Rifugio Amalga Brogles comes into view and it’s busy with lunch time hikers. What a wonderful setting with the Odle Dolomites group as a back drop. We find a bech seat next to a German couple who have come up from the other side of the valley to hike the Adolph Munckler Weg, and we chat to them while we enjoy our ham baguette made with leftovers from Bolzano. They tell us that from a kindergarten age, the kids school lessons are taught in Italian for one week, German the next week, and Ladin, the ancient language of the area, for the third week. They also tell us, what we’ve already noted, that it’s mostly Italians who holiday in the Dolomites.
At 2.30pm, after and hour’s rest and chatting, our German friends leave. The lunch time crowd has dissipated, so we walk over to check in. The restaurant and bar seem to be run by young university students on holiday, or they’re prt opf the family, and they all speak pretty good English. A young girl takes us to our room and we are blown away. We’re expecting a bed in a dorm, but instead, we’re given the Seceda room, a twin-bed room with nice clean white sheets - all to ourselves - and a view of the Odles. An instead of “no shower”, we’re told there’s a hot shower up the corridor that costs 1 euro. We’re totally elated. And all for 50 euro each including breakfast.
We’re given an al la Carte dinner menu and asked to choose before 6pm, as dinner will be at 6.30pm. I choose the Pancake with ham, Ian chooses the 2 eggs, bacon and roasted potatoes. A quick unpack and at 3pm we’re off again to do part of the Adolph Munkler walk, set below the Odle Dolomite group. It’s quite a famous walk, and we find it really different, down through the pine trees with spectacular views every now and then up to the Odle Group of Dolomites. After an hour, we turn around and arrive back at Malga Brogles at 4.30pm in the cool of the afternoon.
The six young waiters/bar attendants are sitting having an afternoon chat and drink. The lunch time crowds are gone. They are most obliging when I ask to exchange a 10 euro note for some euro coins to operate the shower, which is brand spanking new and works like a dream. After a quick shower, our dusty clothes in the bottom of the base to wash, I hang othem on the line in the cool breeze.
At 5.30pm, happy hour, and we’re down in the brand new bar/dining room for a red wine/beer while I blog and we wait for dinner. Ian collects the clothes from the line. When Ian collects the clothes from the line, it’s cold outside and the clothes are still damp. The ONLY good thing about the heat in Bolzano was that our clothes dried on a hanger inside in less than an hour. Oh well, you can’t have everything going your way. Better to be cool with half dried clothes that HOT with dry clothes.
At 6.30pm dinner arrives. So nice. My pancake and ham is like an omelette, and Ian’s 2 fried eggs and bacon are with roast potatoes which are more like rostii. There’s only 9 other people in the restaurant. It’s just a shame that we didn’t know that it was brand new, otherwise we could have stayed a few days here instead of seven at Bolzano. Never the less, it’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised rather than greatly disappointed.
It’s so relaxing sitting in the dining room in the cool. I actually have a merino long sleeved icebreaker on, and Ian has a puffer vest. We haven’t been this cool since Cortina. A bit more blogging, mapping and sorting of photos and we’re off to the cool of our bedroom at 8.30pm.