Day 4 of hiking
We started with a lift taking us to the Gardena Pass, one of four mountain passes that encircle the Sella Massif. We were then hiking the Puez-Odle park, an UNESCO World Heritage site. We passed through the village of Corvara and could see into the Badia Valley, “considered to be the heart of the Dolomites region and the indigenous Ladrin people.”
Here’s Luca with an assist from Matt:
We will have a day with a lot of choices. The shortest route was the Colfosco Route: 5.8 miles, 500’ gain, 2,200’ loss. The longest route was going all the way until the hotel, The Wellness Hotel Fanes in San Cassiano, 11.4 miles 1,700’ gain and 3,100’ loss. I did the first and then left Rick and all the others who did the second and then Rick and 2 others carried on to finish out the last, walking up the last hill to the hotel. They actually ended up hiking 14 miles? I did not. We had been told that this next hotel had a great salad bar and I knew it was another sauna, steam hotel. This time, I wanted to ask without a bunch of people around, how does this actually work? If no one was around that I knew, maybe I could do the whole sans clothing thing and enjoy. And I did! I’ll get back to that.
So off we went on our hike. And here’s the Sella’s north face:
And another perspective, and Stuart holding his own in front of it:
Ötzi joins for a look and the downhill.
And a quiet moment with Sara
Today, I took the first route, main climb up to lunch and then down the gondola with all the others and then off, back to the hotel. I indulged all by myself by exploring the spa. I finally went to the woman at the desk and said what do you do with the peel? How do the interaction of the showers work? What’s with the group sauna in the turning room? And I got all my answers!
No suits for most of the areas, one sauna that wasn’t that hot allowed it. Take the peel (little pots of delicious smelling goop) into the sauna/steam room, get quite hot/sweaty rub it all over, sit for a while longer until even more sweat running off you, then shower. You’re supposed to shower after each room. Oops, none of us did that in the other hotels. I don’t think. And take one of the little white pads to sit on. Well, that’s delicate and a nice little touch.
So I found the hottest steam room, called Turkish bath. I was a little worried that you were supposed to do more since there were a couple of hoses in there. Add to the steam? Rinse off there? I didn’t use them.
The Turkish bath was very dark, little lights over head with a variety of short benches with little walls next to them. If felt very private and it was great.
Then the special performance sauna. I missed this, but a lot of the others did it when they got back just in time from the longer hikes. You’re supposed to go in the cold plunge little pool or whirlpool then into the sauna. A guy puts ice and herbs on the hot rocks then waves a towel or a large fan like a matador, walking around the space and blowing HOT air over everyone while softish music plays. That was the 5:15 one. The 6:15 one was loud music, and even hotter. Rick did this, he had a massage first so missed the soft one. When he came up just in time for dinner he was in a complete daze. I decided I’d rather try for the soft one tomorrow.
For dinner, we were on our own again so 6 of us had the great salad bar and other things – the salad bar didn’t even count in terms of having dinner – and then to bed.
Reb's Walks! 