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Appenzell & Morgins

Sunday, 12 July 2026

We did at least get a free breakfast at our eyewateringly expensive hotel, so we were up early to make the most of it then left around 8 to get to a cable car that would take us to the start of a ridge hike Zali had planned for us.  

Unfortunately the altitude and uphills have been taking their toll on Zali who is feeling particularly fatigued at the moment, so after half an hour she reconsidered and took herself down the mountain via an alternative route. 

 

 

 

Jon, Jett and I continued on and it was pretty spectacular although brutally steep - both up and down.  We took around 3 hours to do the 11k circuit from the top of the cable car, along the ridge, down to the lake then further down back to the car.  The last 3km took us past a beautiful little lake where we passed about a zillion people who had walked straight up from the car park to see it.

 

 

When we reached our car we realised just how popular the lake was as the parking places were all full to bursting and there were parking assistants directing the chaos.

With not much time for recovery we jumped into the car for the 4 hour drive to Morgins, stopping only briefly for lunch and snacks.  We're now comfortably settled in our Airbnb ready for the start of the Swiss O week tomorrow.

Innsbruck to Brusilau

Sunday, 12 July 2026

We didn't have too much to do but still managed to make a fairly long day of it.  I woke up fairly early so took myself for an easy run by the river before returning for breakfast and packup. 

 

We got going at about 9.30 and made pretty good time to St Anton am Alberg - where a school friend of Jon's has a guesthouse/hotel and he kindly took us for a tour of both his hotel and the very fancy ski-town. This town actually happens to be one of the two Austrian towns blamed for the superspeading of covid to Europe in 2020.  Anyway - it was nice to take a walk though it and meet Jon's friend Christopher and his family.

 

 

Leaving St Anton we drove half an hour on a winding road over the montains and then made our first expensive driving mistake - somehow we managed to get ourselves into a 16km tunnel travelling back towards St Anton - in fact worse - it emerged even further past St Anton than we had started 30 minutes ago, AND it cost us 13 Euros for the pleasure.  After some tense monents in the car we decided that rather than retrace our steps and take another 40 minutes to get back to where we'd started, we'd pay another 13 euros and go back through the tunnel - emerging where we made our mistake, 30 minutes earlier, 26 euros lighter and considerably more tense!

The rest of the trip went smoothly and we arrived at a guesthouse in Brusilau in the late afternoon, giving us time to relax for a bit in our very expensive, very basic room before going downstairs to enjoy some very average, very very expensive dinner. Ouch Switzerland!

 

 

We returned to our hot (no A/C of course) room and watched the world cup before falling asleep.

Innsbruck

Friday, 10 July 2026

When we planned this trip we put Innsbruck into the itinerary as a convenient touristy stop as we work our way west to the border of Switzerland and France.  Knowing it would be right after our Dolomites hike we gave ourselves two nights here to recover and wash and get our wits back.  I'd say we've managed two out of three of those things as unfortunately our Airbnb doesn't have a washing machine.

What our Airbnb does have however, is a very very comfortable couch, fast wifi (finally) and a big screen tv which we found ourselves unable to leave until the afternoon (after watching soccer, cycling and orienteering). It's not surprising that we all needed a long morning of doing nothing after the last few weeks.

 

When we eventually left (without Zali who stayed behind to do some uni work), we drove the 20 minutes to the old ski jump but then baulked at the 11 Euro per person entry fee given we were't super enthused.  So we jumped back in the car and found a park nearer the old city. From there we strolled around some gardens, through the old city, and down to the river to take some photos.  

 

 

 

 

The old town was very pretty - there were lots of people out enjoying themselves at the cafes and icecream stores.  It was all very nice but we didn't really have the energy to do much more than the stroll so after a few hours we headed home to have dinner and prepare for our next destination.

 

Italy & Dolomites Wrap

Thursday, 9 July 2026

I love the Dolomites - returning was everything I'd hoped for after our brief visit in 2019. The sheer volume of the walking trails and incredible mountain views and flower filled meadows plus ample refugios for purchasing Coke Zero makes them a massive winner for me. We had great weather which certainly helped but I'd certainly love to come back for more walking or ski-ing.  The only crappy part was the stupid busses.  

I also love Italy - I think it's my favourite continental country (in my very limited experience)  - the variation of landscapes is incredible - from seaside to the mountains, the prices are fairly even with Australia and there's something charming about the slight italian chaos that seems to apply to many things.  I wouldn't mind less smoking, supermarkets that stocked a better range of food (hello indian and mexican) and better public toilets - but aside from that, it was great.

 

 

Dolomites Day 4 & Alta Via 1

Thursday, 9 July 2026

I normally carry all the passports but today I had to issue them to everyone before we started as we were going on our separate ways with plans to meet later on at Lagazuoi but of course with a real chance we'd all end up in different countries.

Jon and Jett were going to continue to the end of the normal Alta Via Day 3, which would involve 1700m climb (Mt Wellington plus almost half again),  I was going to join them for the first big climb out of the valley then take the longer but mostly downhill route back to Cortina (virtually mapless) - to get the car, while Zali (who decided to decline any further huge hill climbs) was going to take 3 busses (on the already mentioned terrible Dolomites bus services) and meet us over there.  She had the highest risk of ending up in Austria.

After a nice Refugio-provided breakfast us walkers left just after 8.30 and I think we had made it to Refugio Fannes, almost the top of the first big climb, by around 10:30 where we stopped for a drink.

 

 

This is the normally finishing point for Day 2 of the Alta Via 1.   A few kilometres after that I left J & J and proceded down the Fannes valley which had incredible canyons plus some nice waterfalls along they way. While I avoided a lot of the days climb, I had the longest distance to cover and after connecting with the bike track I made it back to the car after 24.5kms.  I could have caught the bus to avoid the last roadside section but because they are so infrequent walking the last 8ks turned out to be a faster option.  

 

 

 

Once I got to the car park in Cortina I had a 30 minute drive past a million cyclists up to the Lagazuoi cable car where I took it to meet everyone else at the top. Zali had arrived first, beating all of us by hours despite a long delay along the way due to a delayed bus and consequently missed connection.  Jon and Jett were next having zipped up the 2nd huge climb, and I was last to arrive. After enjoying a hot chocolate at the top of the cable car we returned to the car and drove the 3.5 hours to just outside of Innsbruck which is our plan for tomorrow.

Dolomites Day 3 & Alta Via 1

Thursday, 9 July 2026

Some days, getting to the start of the activity is as challenging as the activity itself, however despite having to pack up the airbnb, find a free parking spot in Cortina and take 2 busses (one that we had to prebook), the activity outdid the logistics on the challenging scale today.

As it turned out getting to the start went as smoothly as possible despite the fairly terrible Dolomites Bus schedules. The famous Lago De Brais is the starting point for the Alta Via 1 - and we were outnumbered on the bus by the zillions of regular tourists going for the photos and pleasant walk around the lake.  

  

We could only walk pleasantly around half the lake before we had to take a right turn and walk unpleasantly up our first and only major climb for the day. Just a lazy 900m climb out of the valley which did give us some incredible views along the way.  

 

 

Once at the highest point we actually got to descend a little bit before stopping for cold drinks at a refugio.

 

 

resting at the pass 

 

After that we had a gently undulating 5 or 6 k before an incredibly steep drop down the the valley floor. Along the way we passed the refugio that most people stay at on Day 1.   We had a longer walk as we found it impossible to book the refugios we wanted - in fact our initial plans were to do 2 or 3 nights of the Alta Via 1 but it was just too hard to book as an individual person - I think the only way to do it is to go via a 3rd party walking company who already has the spots booked. It didn't matter in the end though - we got a good taste of it in our one night with long walks either side.

 

After some more nice walking we then had to descend to the valley floor to the amazing Refugio Pedaru - which was a delight in every aspect - incredible views, lovely host, really nice family room with our own bathroom and absolutely sensational food (which we won't look at the cost of).  In fact I had one of the nicest vegetarian restaurant meals I've ever had- beetroot ravioli with goats cheese on a celery sauce base - it was amazing.  

 

 

We fell asleep to the amazing views outside our bedroom window.  

 

 

Dolomites Day 2

Tuesday, 7 July 2026

We are lucky that we have Zali to get her head around some of the complications of being a tourist in Italy. Turning up in Rome without prebooked tickets would have been a disaster and today we used a prebooked parking pass at Tre Cime which saved us a lot of hassle with busses and remote parking. Our prized parking pass gave us 12 hours of access from 4am this morning and last night we decided it might be good to get to Tre Cime before sunrise.  Given we're 50 minutes drive away sunrise was 5.26am, that meant getting up at 3:50, leaving at 4.15 and starting to walk by 5ish.   Unfortunately it was a bit drizzly and cloudy when we got there so although the views were still clear, the sunrise wasn't anything special. Still, being there early gave us the advantage of having most of the circuit trail to ourselves, and also gave us the rest of the day to recover and prepare for our multiday hike (and airbnb checkout) tomorrow.

The walk itself was great although my legs were tired from the big day yesterday! The views were spectacular of course.

 

 

 

 

Dolomites Day 1

Monday, 6 July 2026

Today we had just one thing on our to-do list - drive to the Cinque Torri chairlift, take it up to the Cinque Torri themselves, then walk a bit of a loop to get back down to the car park.  
Wanting to leave earlyish due to expected crowds, Jon and I walked to the nearbyish (2k away) bakery at 7 and got some delicious bakery treats and bread for lunch. 

 After we'd all had breakfast and made our lunch we got going around 9 - a bit later than we wanted but it turned out it wouldn't have really mattered how late we left as we were turned around 10k from our destination with the news that the rest of the road was closed for a bike race and wouldn't be open again until 4pm!

Luckily we're nothing if not agile holidaymakers. After a stop to reconfigure our plans, we drove out of Cortina in the opposite direction to the Rio Gere chairlift and took it to the top where we did the most amazing walk back down after enjoying a hot chocolate at the cafe. The route down took us via an amazing little tunnel cut through the rocky ridge at the top and then down into the most beautiful pine forest.

 

It was absolutely sensational and there was barely another hiker around. We were so lucky to be able to do this as we wouldn't have considered it if it wasn't for the road closure.

 

 

 


With a few hours still to kill before the road openened again we revisited Cortina and did a food shop to get us through the next day or so, then we retraced our route towards Cinque Torri Chair, happily discovering it opened a bit earlier than 4.

From the top of the chair lift we did a short loop near the rocks, being amazed at both the views, and the stories of surrounding battles during the first world war. Then we headed up and around another huge rocky outcrop before descending steeply then gradually back to the carpark.  I'm amazed at how vast the mountains are - they are huge in every direction.

 

 

 


So what would have been a relatively easy day turned into quite a demanding but absolutly spectacular day - we didn't get home until after 7. 

Unfortunately we have terrible internet so I can't upload all the photos I'd like to tonight, especially as we have a 3.50am wakeup tomorrow.

Italy 5 Days - Day 5

Sunday, 5 July 2026

I'd been looking forward to this day as it was going to be a forest/town sprint - just 2ish km for me and mostly downhill after a 2km slog up the hillside to the start. On paper this should have been my best placed run as I love sprints but I totally stuffed up the first control which would have actually been visible from the start point.  It took me 6 minutes to get to it which blew my race - luckily I had my phone with me so I could at least make the most of my disaster and take some nice photos as I completed the rest of it. 

   

We got to run around the ruins of the Ossana Castle which was fun :

  

As for the rest of the family; Jon was ok not great, Zali was pretty good, while Jett had his best run of the week and ended in 2nd place.

We'd already packed up our Airbnb so once we'd all finished (I was last back not surprisingly!) we headed off to our next place - San Vito di Cadore.  It would have been Cortina but even in summer and looking a long way in advance, there was nowhere affordable so we are just down the road.  The drive was about 4 hours and I was amazed at how mountainous it was nearly the whole way - it was spectacular.

 


We arrived in the early evening and are making plans for a not too taxing hike tomorrow and a bit of planning for the rest of our days here.

Italy 5 Days - Day 4

Saturday, 4 July 2026

Today we were back at the lake, this time with much earlier starts so we avoided any parking hassles but we still had to negotiate the very narrow road complete with a one way tunnel on the way up.

 

We also had to factor in the extra time to walk to the start which was a massive 2km away but much more taxing was the 200m climb that it included. And despite that, my course still had 150m climb before a long descent down the finish at the lake. The first half of the course felt like a log obstacle course while the 2nd part was really fun through much nicer forest with the occasionaly glimpse of the mountainous view. I took my phone out with me again so I got some nice photos.

      

One nice thing about the european events we've been at is that they normally manage to group at least all the people of each club into similar start times, and sometimes they even manage to have all of one country starting within 45 minutes or so, so everyone arrives and departs at similar times - it's very handy for catching up with everyone else. Once we all finished we stayed on at the lake for a few hours, firstly so Zali could do some sketching, and secondly so we could make sure all incoming traffic had cleared. It was a nice place to hang out.

 

 

When we finally left we dropped Paul off back at Mezzano, bumping into Dani who had been having her own rafting adventures in the morning. Then got some last lunch and dinner supplies and returned to our airbnb to do washing and start tidying up for our departure tomorrow. Tonight we're watching the Socceroos at a much more convenient time than the rest of Australia.

 

Italy 5 Days - Day 3

Friday, 3 July 2026

Today was a highlight. The blue skies were back and we had a new orienteering area called Lago dei Caprioli which was only 33 minutes away according to Google. Only unfortunately it wasn't because the narrow road and limited parking created a gridlock situation so it took us more than an hour to get to a parking spot. Luckily we had allowed extra time so we just made it to our starts on time.  The terrain was steep and hard to move through (and interpret on the map) - Jon had a less good run, I made one big mistake but was otherwise ok and managed to make the top 10 for the first time, Jett bungled up some numbers and Zali was her usual clean self, both in body and navigationally.

 

The arena was a beautiful little lake surrounded by the steep hills we'd just run on, so it was lovely to relax a bit by the lake when we had finished running  (unfortunately we weren't allowed to swim). The drive back down to the valley was much quicker and we drove straight to the Mezzano train station where everyone but Zali hired bikes and we went for the loveliest ride up the bike trail up the valley to the castle of Ossana.  Paul, Dani and I hired e-bikes while Jon and Jett toughed it out on real bikes.  It was so pretty and super fun.  

 

 

While we did that, Zali took a small budget and went and bought us all gifts from the various souvineer and wood shops in Mezzano. I'm very happy with my christmas decoration bell :)

Afterwards we availed ourselves of Paul and Dani's washing machine and shower then drove to the event centre to pick up our event shirts (that we got for entering early), then straight back down to Mezzano to get pizza with Dani and Paul - which was delicous.  We finished the evening with some gelato then zipped up the 9 hairpin bends to get back to our place. 

 

Such a fun day (except for the parking bit!).  Tomorrow we finally have early starts which will hopefully make the parking a bit easier as we are back in the same place.

 

Italy 5 Days - Day 2

Friday, 3 July 2026

Back up at Passe Tonale but with an extra section of terrain on the map this time.  The starts were changed from the planned times to a punching start free-for-all as there was a storm forecast for 1.30pm. This was good for us as we would have been out in the middle of it otherwise.  Today the start was a fair hike up the hill - which when added to the already high altitude, was tough work!

 

As it was all of us but Jett made it back before it really started to rain. I had a better run but got my controls out of order and had to fix it up while Jon had a really good run and was 4th. We dropped Paul off on the way home and headed back up to our place to wash everything and watch the rain for the rest of the evening.

Italy 5 Days - Day 1

Friday, 3 July 2026

Our first orienteering day had us driving back down the hill, then back up the main valley (picking up Dani on the way) to Passe Tonale where we were orienteering high up in the mountains. The views were great but our orienteering skills were not. Jett was the best of us and was a solid 6th in his class.

 

Rome to Folgarida

Friday, 3 July 2026

This day was always going to be big.

 

We took an early bus to Rome Central Station, had a relaxing 3 hour train ride to Milan, smoothly cleared the train station without getting our stuff stolen (unlike an unfortunate Australian orienteer who lost his passport and laptop in a split second of distraction), jumped onto an airport bus to Bergamo (Milan's most inconvenient airport, but the airport we are flying to Dublin from in a few weeks time). At the airport we had our most stressful 40 minutes as we tried to negotiate with the car rental lady who was unhappy with the lack of an issue date on our licences.  Thankfully it ended up ok and our next stop was a shuttle to the rental cars, then a supermarket, then a 3 hour drive up and over a mountain pass then up again to our airbnb in a little ski town called Folgarida, high above the valley. 

 

 

 

Rome Wrap

Friday, 3 July 2026

 

Rome was incredible - the amazing history that is scattered everywhere in tumbledown blocks or semi restored columns and all the other sites where they are unearthing mosaic floors or old arches from behind construction fencing.  The streetscapes were really cool and public transport was frequent and easy.  But it was really hard to fully enjoy it in the heat - our apartment was our only respite as despite the 6 flights of stairs it had air conditioning and was just a short walk from the colosseum.  

 
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