Day 23 - Dolomites

What a day ….

This morning started off like normal. It was my turn to take Marla for her first thing wee and poop, so we nipped up to the woods behind the campsite for privacy, she did her business and I walked her towards a dog poo bin I had spotted the previous afternoon. When I got almost to the bin, a random dog appeared in the road and looked at us. I couldn’t see anyone with it, so decided beat course of action was to turn and walk away. I looked back and it was following us, then Marla started to speed up; and I followed suit. Then Marla started to run, and I did the same. The dog followed. I’m pretty embarrassed about this - I know that running away will just make myself look very exciting - but I was alone and fight or flight kicked in. I’ve been wary or other dogs since we had a run in with a pack of collies in Belgium. The dog followed me and Marla all the way back to our van. He seemed to roam the camp site for the next couple of hours and I felt awful, what if he was now lost and it’s all my fault. So I went out with a lead in hand to see if I could find him, he popped out from among some caravans and looked at me, then turned off in the other direction. I followed at a distance and he left camp, went back up the hill and on to the road that I first saw him on. I followed for a bit, but didn’t want to spook him - my guilt about making him lost subsided as he trotted around the place looking like he owned the road, I now think he’s just a local dog that likes to wander around.
I would love to say that if I’m in a similar situation again that I won’t panic, but I can’t guarantee that…. Thankfully the rest of the day was not as eventful (for me anyway!).
Charlie went off for a run this morning, it’s so hilly around here that I didn’t think me and Marla would have a good time running too, so we stayed in, watched a bit of TV and did some crocheting.
Charlie’s route was about 8km, just as he set off his watch told him he should be able to do the route in about 35 mins, knowing it was going to be hilly, he laughed at that.
It actually took him an hour and 15min! It was more of a hike up and then a run down. It has been a cool, wet morning so he was literally steaming when he made it back to camp.
After a shower and hand wash of some clothes to keep us going, it was time for lunch. We are still enjoying all of the very different vegan / vegetarian options that we are coming across. Today was vegan pate (liverwurst), it was a bit runnier than pate but the taste was pretty much spot on. I’d definitely buy it again.
Today was forecast for rain pretty much all day, so after lunch we donned our wet weather gear and took Marla out for a hike, pretty much as soon as we left camp the clouds blew away and it was absolutely boiling! I ended up taking two layers off and I was still boiling. We found a fun river which Marla had a splash in, although she jumped in at the deepest part and scared herself a little bit. She also scared me and she was attached to me on our hiking belt.
Charlie then took her off my hands so she could paddle more. We ended up following some of the same route as yesterday, but not before finding a ‘oasis garden’ and owl sanctuary on one of the paths.
Back at basecamp we spent some time planning tomorrow’s journey to the next campsite, figuring out if we want to do toll roads or not, but keeping in mind as we can’t check in until 3pm so we aren’t in a big rush. We have a loose plan, let’s see how that goes tomorrow!
Dinner tonight was red cabbage, vegan frikedelle and kaiserspätzle. We also finished off the Aperol spritzes and beers from the fridge - just to keep travel weight down, obviously….Leggi altro