A bike ride to Cortina

We had planned to get a bus at 9 o’clock to do a via ferrata but overslept so, after a lazy start, we decided to have a bike ride instead. There’s an old railway track that runs all the way from the campsite to the town of Cortina d’Ampezzo I hadn’t realised how far or how much ascent there would be though. It ended up being 58 kilometres with 600 metres of ascent.

From the campsite at Toblachersee it was all uphill to Passo Cimabanche, at 1530 metres. On the way we visited Fort Landro, which protected the Austrian border and the pass during World War One. We were surprised to be able to wander around it.

Then we passed Lago di Landro, with great views of the mountains, including Tre Cime, which we hope to visit during our stay. The cycle path steadily wound its way uphill past dry river beds and through pine forests. The surface was quite rough in places, especially where it had been washed out, but I was very brave 😜 It was strange to think of the dry river beds gushing with water in winter and spring.

After stopping at the pass for a snack, it was all downhill to Cortina. The views were beautiful all the way, and there were some lovely old buildings along the route, and a couple of dark, cold tunnels. I was glad of them on the way back when I was hot and sweaty from an uphill climb in the sunshine!

We had a lovely lunch in Cortina before we headed back, reversing our route… up to the pass then downhill all the way to the campsite. Once again we stopped at the cafe at the pass… this time for a very welcome cold drink.

The area around Lago di Landro was stunning in the sunshine, and probably my favourite part of the route. After this, it was downhill through the forest and back to Bertie. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be up in time to do the via ferrata.