Friday: 25th August: Weather: 19°C to 22°C: Cool Morning warm but not hot sunny day.
Malga Brogles to Firenze: 13.4k walk: 7hrs : 8.30am to 3.30pm: 3 x 20 min stops: Ascent: 945 m Descent 949m
Accommodation: Rifugio Firenze
Pit stop for stone in shoe
Gotta have a cow-in-meadows photo
Furnes - cable car or not to Seceda
I think we’ll walk up to Seceda
Coffee time half way to Seceda
Views back to Ortisei
Streams of hikers already at Seceda
Going to Forcella Sielles tomorrow
Furnes green roof half way down
Seceda Cable car top station 2500m
Lunch with view to Malga Brogles
Us with background Mt Seceda
Us again Mt Seceda
Short cut Forcella Pana closed
Track 1 to Rifugio Firenze
Views to Sassalunga and Col Raiser
Highlights! Oh what a beautiful day to Seceda. We were expecting to walk from Malga Brogles to Furnes, the second stage station on the Seceda Cable car, catch the cable car up to Seceda, then walk to Rifugio Firenze. But it was such a beautiful day that we walked the whole way, about 950m ascent and 950m descent - with amazing views back to Ortisei, Malga Brogles, up to Seceda and over to the Puez-Odle group of Dolomites where we’ll go tomorrow. The temperature was a very tolerable 22°C most of the day.
Oh such a lovely cool night under the doona at Malga Brogles. Our room is just amazing. We’re awake at 6.30am and have a jetboiled cup of tea and a leisurely blog before heading down to breakfast at 7.30am. Home made jam, home made yoghurt, home made butter and cheese plus muesli and freshish bread with a coffee and hot milk. Highly recommend Malga Brogles and maybe we’ll come back one day.
We leave at 8.30am to first climb up the short paved path we came down yesterday then Track 5 descending 400 metres over 4.5k to Furnes, the second cable car station between Ortisei and Seceda. It’s down hill through cow meadows then pine forests and at 10am we’re at Furnes at 1,710metres debating whether to take the cable car up the 800 metres to Seceda. It’s such a beautiful day and we have plenty of time, we decide to walk up Track 2A, which is a wide stony road used as the down hill winter ski piste. It’s steep in places but doable, and we can walk on the grassy verge in the shade of the pine trees until we reach Baite Curona at 2,175 metres. We find a shady spot under the last of the pine trees for a coffee and 2 x spicy fruit rolls.
Track 2A continues up through the meadows, with many Baite lunch restaurants scattered around for day hikers. At midday, we reach the Top Seceda Cable Car station at 2,500 metres. There’s hikers everywhere sitting at many Baite (cabin) restaurant lunch spots. We hike up a little further to 2,526m where there’s some photo-shoot spots with a back drop of Seceda. We spy a good spot on a bench seat for lunch of semi-stale bread, soft butter and spongy cheese.
Then we follow the signs to Rifugio Firenze along Track 1, which is the famous Ridgeway walk down from the Seceda Cable car beneath Mt Seceda with views over the Alto Plano Valley. There’s day trippers and tourists everywhere - up and down - as we descend on a stony path with views to the Odle-Puez Group, Sassalunga and Col Raiser which boasts another funicular from Ortisei up towards Seceda. The valley below us is another Alto Plano - a high plateau sprinkled with Rifugios and Baite restaurant lunch spots. At 3pm, Rifugio Firenze is in sight, and I have a little slip on the marble like stones going down hill - not watching where I was stepping and too busy looking at the views. A bit of blood and dust but nothing broken. At 3.30pm we roll into Rifugio Firenze at 2,028 metres.
Six weeks ago I booked the last 2 places in Rifugio Firenze, in a dorm of 16 people. At least it was a confirmed booking. I noted they had twin rooms, but none were available at the time. So when we arrive at Firenze, I courteously ask the happy young receptionist if per chance there was any spare twin rooms - and there was. So up we trundle to our lovely twin bed Room 17 with clean sheets and a towel and soon we’ve showered and washed our clothes ready to go downstairs to the beer garden for a beer while sorting some fabulous photos and checking the weather for the next few days. Tomorrow, Saturday Aug 26th, is still heatwave conditions in the valleys, but lovely temperatures up here in the mountains. However, a drastic change is expected on Sunday Aug 27th with temperatures plummeting by 10°C to averages in the mountains between 5°C and 15°C with some rain. We’ll be prepared!
Dinner is at 6.30pm. We hope it’s roasted potatoes (rosti) again. And it is. I have 2 eggs, speck (dried ham) with roast potatoes, Ian has mushrooms and roast potatoes and we shae a plate of salad cabbage. The dining room isn’t full of hikers. There’s only about 30 at dinner. Firenze is supposed to hold 90 and when I booked there were only 3 places left, so I don’t know what happened to the rest. Perhaps they hold bookings back for groups that don’t turn up. They had a good booking system but something didn’t work!
After dinner. we’re back in our cosy warm room - too warm - with heavy doonas which we should have taken out of their covers as it was a very warm night in bed. Lights out by 9.30pm.
Views to Sassalunga and Col Raiser
Dinner Firenze eggs, bacon, Roast Potatoes,cabbage salad, mushrooms