In which Sid and Doris discover that winter starts early in the Dolomites.
So at the end of the last post we had got to Bolzano, in the Italian Tyrol, and today we are making our way further east to Cortina, in the Dolomites. Up and down the hairpins we go, as the rain turns to cloud and turns to snow leading to roadbook sections which say “Next 25km with stunning views” and crews who say “My god my arms ache and I haven’t seen a view all day”.
Yes it was real snow, in early October, which is apparently pretty normal for this time of year in the Dolomites. I have included a picture of one of the rally support vehicles taken by Gerard Brown who is on the rally taking Proper Pictures, which you can see more of if you go to the rally page here and click on “Photos” or at Gerard’s own website here. Do have a look, they are fabulous.
And while we are talking about cold weather in the Dolomites, it is worth remembering the Italian/German/Austrian battles fought here in WW1. I can only find the museum’s website in Italian but to be honest the pictures tell their own story – take a look at it here.
OK back to the rally where we were making our way across some fairly invisible Dolomites into Cortina. We stayed here for two nights, giving us the chance to wander round the town, eat some local pizza and spot the world’s second cutest bunny (after Mr Rabbit). Also the clouds lifted on the second day and we all got busy with the cameras again.
We also got to meet Luigi the Local Rally Fixer who has somehow got us permission to drive all our smelly loud oily cars through these people’s beautiful countryside. Luigi has a file with 420 letters of permission from villages, communes, markets, and goodness knows who else. What a dude.
Oh yes, and were you wondering about the Mini’s starter motor that is being DHL’d or rather TNT’d out here to Cortina to wait for us? Well, it’s not here. It’s stuck in Italian customs somewhere in the Veneto area and as we are currently in Trentino, that is where it is staying. Welcome to Boris’s Brexit, we say grumpily.
PS Results so far: Middle of the field.