Last night we wandered back from the shops and took this photo of the main church in Cortina with a (partial) mountain backdrop. Unfortunately low clouds have ensured we do not see all.

This morning, around 6 am this was the view out one of our bedroom windows. It was a promising start.

Unfortunately, that was the best of the day weather wise! At least we caught a glimpse of it.

Our ride today therefore was a shorter one of around 40 km, climbing Passo Tre Croce (1809 m) and then heading into Lago de Misurina.

It is quite a stiff climb, with non cooperative cold legs protesting somewhat. As can be seen from our climbing graph, within 8 km, we went from 1200m to just under 1800 metres a.s.l. By most measures, that’s a killer warm up.

The rain was drizzling quite lightly but consistently. You are heating up quickly despite the very cool temperature. A layer of clothing came off.

The camera did not venture out a lot due to the moisture. As you will see there are drops of water on the lens on some photos.

This small lake is only a few km up, and there were signs dictating dogs were permitted.

The following three photos show damage caused by rains, floods, snow melting.

I was pleased to get to this pass. The raincoat went back on. I double gloved as my fingers were really cold.

The road plateaus and descends before turning off to Misurina. You can see that the clouds are extremely low and you only get glimpses of the mountains occasionally.

The lake was frozen. The duck has the ice field all to himself.

We drop into the first open cafe complete with bike parking. We hang our bikes and head inside for coffee.

The view from the cafe paints a fairly bleak picture.

So we order a second coffee, as the rain is now heavier, and the temperature below zero.

We note the stuffed animals! Can’t say that I am a fan but is this a mink?? Vicious looking thing, quite unlike The Mink I know all too well! 😂

Rain or not, we needed to bite the bullet and press on. This is the view from the other end of the lake.

This is a ‘borrowed’ picture taken on a nice day!! It highlights the fickle nature of alpine weather.

We then descended, slowly and controlled as the road was very wet, and it was cold. We did not want to slip and fall.

The rain eased up once we had descended a few hundred meters which was good as we were cold!

At the junction, we then turned left towards Cortina. The weather was a lot more comfortable now…4 degrees Celsius. A pretty junction that we will pass again tomorrow (heading out to Dobbiaco).

We did enjoy our hot shower back at the hotel.

We leave here tomorrow as we head towards the Tyrol, very close to the Austrian border.

There is unfinished business in the Dolomites. Any excuse to return!!

Todays map.

Thanks for reading

Ooroo

😊💪🚴