Today, with Mitchell off early in the morning to a mountainous location he was going to explore, I decided to climb a mountain with a cross. From below it didn’t look too big. I took a photo as I was walking to the supermarket to buy my lunch as usual before a big walk.
I didn’t have too much planned for the day. I wanted to get back to the hotel by mid afternoon so I could do some more planning and sewing more patches onto my bag (I will take a photo of this tomorrow).
I decided I should take a longer way up to climb this mountain. I decided to explore a neighbouring mountain with a chair lift to find out what it was ask about.
As it turns out it was a ski field. I found myself on the ski field at the last section which was the only was up for the last part.
I reached the top and it was quite busy with tourists. I think most people catch the ski lift up the hill and walk down. A smart option.
Now that I had climbed the first hill I needed to get to the hill with the cross.
As I came down the gully ready to climb the mountain with the cross, I filled my water bottle at a running stream that I had visited once before on my first day here. I still had one spare drink left but I figured that when I sat at the top with the cross I imagined that I would want to have a spare drink.
There were so many flowers in the grass of the hills. And so many insects. It blows me away that these plants and insects are not hostile to humans. The flies don’t land on you or try to attack your face, the plants are not prickly, when your legs touch the grass they don’t get itchy, when other insects land on you they don’t bite and you can’t even tell they are there.
As I climb the final span of the mountain side, it was very hot. There was not any breeze and no shade. Not as hot as it has been such as our walk in Luxembourg, but still reasonably warm.
I climbed higher and higher through the pine trees, following a grassy trail in the sun. Below is a picture of the mountain side in which I walked through.
I reached the ridge of the hill with the cross, all of a sudden I could hear wind through the pine trees. The wind was hiding behind the other side of the mountain ridge. It was very pleasant. A picture of the ridge below that path I had reached.
As I walked along that ridge, I got a notification that I had walked 10 km and had also climbed a total of 1 km in height.
I continued along this path along the ridge until I came to the cross. The cross was much taller than I had expected. There was a sitting area and also a campfire spot.
On the cross, was another book list in which to write your name on. I wrote my name in the booklet with a short message.
I ate an apple on top of the hill at the table that somebody had built.
I took a few photos of the surrounding scenery. I also almost fell asleep in the sun. It was now a very nice temperature with the wind.
I came back down the hill a different way than which I came up. Following a shorter path. Below is a map of my route from this 18 km walk.
Tomorrow we leave the Dolomites and have a travel day. Mitchell and I leave each other at the train station and sadly head different ways. Hopefully we will see an occasional blog post from him on his solo Italy journey.
We are staying in close contact while apart. We both have enjoyed our time together.