24 July 2025 (rainy early morning and afternoon, mild) 25km

Here I was in an abandoned barn/garage, safe and dry but wondering when I would see Pete again. So how did all this come about?

Well we started the morning with steady rain on the tent, as it had been all night and about 8.30am we noticed the first drip on the inner tent.  I volunteered to go out in the rain and see if they had any rooms available as this place was a hotel as well. Or a cabin, or an old caravan or even an empty manger. 

No room at the inn I'm afraid.  So I grabbed our breakfast things from the handy camp shop and went back to the tent to deliver the bad news. Searching the net, I came up with a $200 a night room 2km back in the last village. Toblach Dobbiaco (2 km further on), was out of our price range.

However, while we were eating breakfast, it not only stopped raining, but patches of blue appeared. So, easy decision, we packed up and hit the road. Over to Pete.

Woke at 5.30am, but both went back to sleep. My sleeping mat keeps going down and last night I blew it up four times. Like a lot of other nights, it rained consistently.  Big Nessie is doing very well to keep us dry, but this morning, she was showing signs of giving in to mother nature. It doesn't surprise us with the amount of rainfall recently, mostly overnight. 

We had a French couple and their kids also staying in the emergency spot saved for cyclists. Spoke to her this morning. They are from Brittany, but caught the train to Munich and cycled the Munich to Venice path. They are all on e-bikes except the little girl who is about ten, and she is carrying two panniers.

The son, about fourteen has an e bike, (carrying his own luggage), as do his parents, with Dad carrying a huge amount of gear.  We can't understand why the young girl has no ebike but is still carrying luggage. Even on trails there would be some big climbs, tough for a tiny one. They were going to Cortina, (not the model you had Toff) as were we, so we had a chat.

The rain had stopped and the flysheet was sodden, but everything else, although damp, was okay. The sky looked more promising so we packed up and hit the trail and into Toblach.

Very touristy, but very nice too. Shopped for lunch at the supermarket and withdrew some cash from the bancomat and checked out some sleeping mats. Found a Salewa one for $280 but it still just seemed too pricey. Besides, I'm getting more like Jack Reacher every day. Sleep anywhere now without a mattress and only a few more things than my toothbrush.

On the trail five minutes and it turns to gravel. Twenty minutes later and still on gravel with twenty five kms to go. Road alongside us, but very busy.

The trail itself wound its way through beautiful woodland and stunning mountains. However, as was predicted, the clouds were gathering and some were a darker shade of grey.

We were snapping at every opportunity, and relished the slow pace of the trail. We definitely did not want to rush through this landscape.

We also realized that had this track been sealed, it would have been inundated with cyclists, including the speeding racing cyclists who have no time or awareness for tourists wandering across the path, mesmerized by their surroundings.  So even though it slowed us down and the clouds were getting ever darker, we could see it should stay a gravel path.

Came upon the Tre Cime de Lavaredo, the most famous of the rock formations in the Dolomites. Despite the clouds trying to obscure our view, this was still a mightily impressive sight. 

Even better, there was a covered viewing platform with only a couple of others using it, so we wheeled our bikes in and settled down for some lunch as by now the first spits of rain had appeared.

After a very pleasant lunch and with the drizzle stopping, we carried on with the gravel trail, which turned more rocky as it went on, so slowed us down further.  We also noticed the clouds gathering and knew we were on limited time.

Pete wanted to get on the road to make better time, but I was fearful of the amount of traffic, especially all the busses and campervans and no hard shoulder whatsoever, so refused to move from the track.

Then it started to rain and it really rained.  No warning drizzle, just a straight downpour and nowhere to shelter to put our wet weather gear on.  Pete stopped under a tree but was behind me so I stopped under a tree further down the track. We each had enough shelter to don our wet weather gear, so that's what we did, but while I was putting on my trousers, Pete flew past in what was now torrential rain. I yelled for him to take shelter and I'd meet him down the track (there wasn't enough room for him to squeeze under my tree).

I made sure I covered everything as it was going to be a very wet ride the last 14km to Cortina, where the next campground was.  I sailed down the middle of the track as that was now the only part that wasn't a puddle.

Then I saw a gap in the fence to get on the road and wondered if Pete had taken this opportunity.  I guessed he probably had so went up onto the road and crossed over for the downhill. A line of traffic was coming though so I waited at the side as two busses and a truck as well as about ten cars went past with their headlights on in the pouring rain and thought no, I'm not doing this. Then I noticed the abandoned building with an invitingly open garage door and thought, “yep, that's the place for me.”

What a relief to be out of the rain in a solid, watertight building, which was reasonably clean and tidy.  I parked my bike just inside so I could view both the track and the road in case Pete came back.  As the minutes ticked by I wondered, what if he just headed straight to Cortina, expecting me to be following?  I soon reasoned that I had to stay put where I could see both track and road as otherwise, I might go down one, and he might come up the other and we could miss each other. At least I was safe and dry. If he carried on to Cortina, he would eventually be safe and dry, just worried sick. If he came back, he'd soon be safe and dry too.

Luckily I only had to wait five minutes and I saw him on the far side of the road, cycling back up the track. Luckily no traffic was going past at the time so he heard me yelling “Pete!” over the noise of the rain. I dread to think where we'd be if he hadn't heard me.  He came over to the sanctuary of the abandoned garage/barn and we quickly hugged each other, realizing what a stupid mistake it had been to get separated.  We got some warm, dry gear on and made a coffee and Pete had his pastry while I had a couple of gf cookies. 

Room with a view, quiet and air conditioning included.

Reunited and it feels so good. Especially because I had the stove and gas and Pete had the tent and money!

As we sipped our coffee, realised this would be an ideal free camp, so took stock of what food we had. One pack of mentos mints, 200gm of cashews and the same of peanuts, 4 more gf cookies, half a baguette, an apple and a small block of chocolate. For the sake of saving 50 euro on the next campsite, we decided we could do it.  It meant Nessie would also get a good chance to dry out so we put her up straight away, even though it was only 4pm.

Mr Clean gets busy. Just making sure we don't have stones under the tent.... especially for those with no air in their sleeping pad!

At moments like this, our little stove is worth its weight in gold.

One of the things I love about Pete, is his thoughtfulness. Knowing that we were faced with the long wait until it got dark enough to go to sleep, he devised an impromptu game of hide n seek.  Unbeknownst to me, it started when he patted the chest pocket on his sweatshirt and said, “Just in case I forget, I've put the key to the bike lock in this pocket.”  Ok, duly noted.

About an hour later as he's fishing a tissue out of the same pocket, he goes, “Shit, the key's not there.”

Used as I am to such declarations, I didn't immediately rise to the bait. Besides, I'd just made us our one and only precious cup of coffee, and I intended to savour it.  I watched as Pete emptied said pocket and checked the rubbish bag and do a full circumnavigation of the barn/garage.

I realized though that the sun (which was kind of out now) was going down and the best time to look would be now.  So I set down my empty cup and helped him look. We searched high and low to no avail until eventually Pete sat down to finish his coffee and I joined him. It was then ‘he noticed’ the edge of the key poking out from underneath the tent inner.

It did help pass about 20 mins and by the time we'd slowly eaten most of our food (just saving a bit for the morning if we need it) the sky was dimming, the temperature dropping and it was time to dive into the tent….at 8pm.

But we're planning an early start as we have plan A and plan B and both involve riding on the road and we figure the earlier we start, the better.  There has been a noticeable drop off in traffic during the afternoon, so we're hoping the road will be empty in the early morning.