Wednesday: 16th August: Weather: 9°C to 27°C: Light cool north easter on a sunny day.
Cortina: 17.3k walk: 6hrs 15 mins: 10.45am to 5.0pm: 1 x 30 min stop: Ascent: 730 m: Descent 1050m
Day Walk: Croda da Lago: 10.35am bus Cortina to Pocol: Walk to Croda da Lago, return to Cortina
Accommodation: Hotel Nord Cortina
From Pocol through Pine Forests
Views to Nuvolau and Lagazuoi
Families on way to Croda da Lago
Best Viewpoint to Cortina
Best viewpoint to Cortina
Views to Cinque Torri and Lagazuoi
Coffee break Lake Federa below Croda da Lago
Rifugio Croda da Lago 2046m
Waterfall Federa Gorge
Waterfall Federa Gorge
Waterfall Federa Grogs
Been to the Federal Gorge
5pm at Cortina with Church Spire and Dolomites in View
Highlights today were the magnificent views half way up to Croda da Lago, of the Cortina Valley and back to the Cinque Torri. Then finally reaching Lago Federa at 2000 metres nestled beneath the sheer rock wall of the massive Croda Da Lago.
Awake again at 6am to a brilliant mornining with a jetboiled cup of tea. Then down to breakfast at 7.30am for another wonderful buffet of fruits, apple strudel, cales, croissants, meusli and yoghurt. Together with a hot coffee. Back to our room to finish organising our small day pack for a walk to the Croda da Lago before walking down the 2k into Cortina. We don’t trust the Line 1 buses anymore and we wanted to make sure we got to the Autostazione in time for the 9.15am bus towards Falzarego which stopped at Pocol on the way, a good point to start our walk to the Croda da Lago. That was the plan.
We arrive at the Autostazion in plenty of time at 9am and wait for the 9.15am Dolomiti bus marked Falzarego. 9.15am, no bus. We see two girls asking bus drivers questions, and obviously being told teh wrong bus. So I ask them which bus they are looking for. It turns out they are Australian and they’re going to Falzarego. Still no bus. I ask the lady at the ticket office about the 9.15am bus to Falzarego. It’s late she says. Ok we waith til 9.45am and the girls also ask at the ticket office. They are Australian of Italian descent and speak Italian. They come out and say teh bus left at 9.15am - on the dot - but it was a red bus not a Dolomiti bus and it had the wrong destination Tre Cime noted at the front of the bus. Typical!! Next bus is at 10.35am. We wait. Meantime the real Tre Cime bus turns up and thr girls ask us where does this go. I said this walk is teh most popular most famous walk in all teh Domolomites and we went there two days ago and were blown away, not only by te view of Tre Cime but the throngs of tourists jammed on teh track. Go! You won’t regret it and go to Falzarego tomorrow. So they did. We know they would have enjoyed it.
At 10.35 amd the real Dolomiti bus arrives to go to Falzarego, and we hop on. Twelve minutes later, we hop off at Pocol, a small village at an altitude of 1535m, about 300 metres above Cortina, and start descending the road towards Pass Giau to a Car Park which joins Track 434 heading up to the Croda da Lago. There’s a dozen cars there, a miniscule number compared to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, and a few families on the wide track which climbs steeply up the old logging trail for 2 km. It’s warm and we’re sweating as we climb up through the pine forests, eventually arriving at a small log cabin with a spring water fountain where there’s already other hikers filling water bottles.
We continue up the steep Track 434 with views across to the Cinque Torri, Nuvolau and Lagazuoi, until we reach a spectacular view point at 1900 m looking over the Cortina Valley. A bit more uphill before the track levels out and at 1pm, we arrive at Lake Federa, nestled beneath teh massive wall of the Croda da Lago. Time for a coffee and a spicy fruit roll, while admiring the view with many other day hikers.
At the Rifugio Croda da Lago at 2,046 m, there’s even more tourists, not hikers, who have paid for the privilege of being driven in several Land Rovers up the forestry track from Cortina. This is track 432 which we take on our return journey, every so often moving to one side to allow te Land Rovers to pass on their way up or down. At Malga Federa, there’s a sign to the Gorges of Federa, a newly constructed track through the gorges, which wed planned to walk through. It’s a narrow wet track, winding down over tree roots through pine forests, following the Ru de Federa, a streeam which has cut deeply into the limestone rocks to form gorges and waterfalls. Considering there’s few running streams in the Dolomites, it’s quite unusual, and very spectacular, as the track cuts backwards and forwards across the torrent over newly constructed steel bridges. Eventually we emerge on the narro 4wd road on the way to Cortina. There’s still 4k to walk into Cortina on busy roads, and it becomes a bit of a drag after such a spectacular day in the mountains. At 5pm, we arrive at the SPAR supermarket, and Ian goes in to buy a platter of ham, 3 beers and a bag of ice before we walk up to the Autostazione in plenty of time to catch the 5.34pm bus up to our Hotel Nord.
No bus! We wait and wait, and at 6pm when we’re dying of thirst, still no bus. I ask the lady at the ticket office when the next Line 1 bus is due and she says they come every half hour just outside. But we’ve been there waiting for 45 minutes and still no bus, I say. She says, half hour from now. OK, by now we know that Italian buses are very variable, either late, cancelled or non existent, and the time table of buses marked, f or F or Ff, for holidays, festivals, daily, or weekends is meaningless. The bus comes when it comes. So the next Line 1 bus did come at 6.04pm, and who knows what happened to the 5.34pm. But using buses in teh Dolomites becomes a necessity as driving anywhere by car is crazy hopeless and teh girls we met at the station, were told not to drive anywhere vecause you won’t get a car park at the other end.
We arrive at our Hotel Nord at 6.15pm, and immediately have cheese with an icy cold beer which had been sitting next to our bag of ice for the past hour. The view from teh balcony is amazing, looking back at what we now know is the Croda da Lago. Dinner of lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, ham and German bread and butter is washed down with another beer and teh rest of our red wine. It’s cool outside now and the temperature has dropped to 15°C. We re-arrange a few bags ready for the 4hr, could be 5hr or more, bus/train/bus trip to Bolzano on the western side of the Dolomites where we will stay in the Anita Apartments for 7 ights doing day walks in that area.