Day 14 - 5th November, 2016

The alarm went off at 5.30am and I was up and dressed. Steve was coughing again all night, and he slept on the couch out in the lounge-room the poor thing. He isn’t sounding better at all now, actually getting a bad chesty cough. It’ll be a chest infection by the time we get back to Australia, then he’ll be forced to take drugs. If only he’d take the bloody Codral I have…stubborn men! Argh!

We were downstairs and in the car by 5.45am. Off we went up the mountain. The skies in the dark looked like they were clouded over. We could see the outline of the lower mountains here in the valley, but no stars.

We headed up the valley and up the mountain and it started to snow!! YEAH BABY – SNOW!!!

I was so excited! No one else was as excited as me, as it meant we probably couldn’t take photos.

The higher we climbed, the heavier the snow fell. It got to the stage when Tim said ‘nope, got to turn around now”. So we never made it to the top. Not that we could have taken photos, not with the heavy snow falling the way it was. Plus the roads were icy and it would have been an interesting trip down with all those hair-pin bends. PLUS you don’t know if a random Italian will close the road! - It is a possibility of happening, and we didn’t want to get stuck up there all day! (it would have been alright if we had food and water, but I had only just taken all the food out of my pack to make it lighter for the hike – and who needs water at 6am??)

So down we came. We got back to the apartment at 6.45am and we were straight back to bed for another couple of hours. It is raining in the valley. I hope the snow comes down this far – I so want to see the town covered in some white stuff – it will be even more magical and there will be no stopping me from running around like a big kid on Christmas morning then!

Tim & Scott went out for breakfast. Steve and I slept till 8.30am and then we had our own breakfast that we had bought last night from the supermarket. Coffee and a custard strudel, juice and chocolate biscuits – a breakfast of champions.

Oh and guess what…. Steve took some Codral!! YAY (means he knows he is sick!) A few days too late, but at least he is taking them.

A long morning spent in the apartment watching the rain fall and the clouds move across the mountain valley behind us. Very pretty. The boys were editing images. Steve was busy trying to work out what the hell it is we do in our remaining 8 days after OOAK.


This is what the view outside our bedroom window looked like around 9.30am this morning.  I love the way the clouds look like they are gushing out of the valley opposite!

Over the course of the morning we were now going to Zermatt….but then we ditched that idea again, only because we would like more time, and the big hotel on top of the mountain – Gornergrat was fully booked.

And now we are not going into Austria! Bugger…. it’s all to do with the bloody snow tyres needed for the hire cars. You don’t need them in Italy, so most hire car places don’t have them available, but it is a legal necessity for Austria. It was proving to be all too hard. Luca was helping Steve speak to some hire car places, but nothing was available. So no Austria!


It was hard work getting Luca out of bed today.  He was in "siesta" mode all of the morning!

Steve has booked us a Fiat 500L (it better be red in colour so it goes faster!). We will stay around the Dolomite region as there is still plenty to see here. Then we will go to Slovenia into Lake Bled.

From there we will do more research with some locals there as to whether it is worth while going to Croatia to see the waterfalls at - Plitvice Lakes National Park. They will look the best with the autumn colour around them.


Here is an autumn foliage shot from outside our bedroom window taken early this morning!

The Autumn colour is still around in the valleys here in the Dolomites, but they are fading fast. Already on top of the mountains the colour has gone and the trees have dropped their leaves. Luca seems to think as Croatia is lower than the Dolomites, the colour should still be around as the waterfalls are at a much lower altitude. So much planning to do around photographing a waterfall! lol

And then we will be back to Venice for our last remaining couple of days before flying home.

Well, that's the plan today, and that could change tomorrow. But at least we have the hire car all taken car of, and the rest will be up to us!


I love this view out of our window.... I love how it changes with the clouds during the day!

Well, the afternoon rolled on and on and we basically spent the day on the computer looking at our itinerary for after OOAK. It has changed from this morning (surprise surprise). I didn’t leave the apartment which is a shame. The weather set in and it rained the whole time and it was really cold out there. It was just easier to stay indoors. If we had our own car, I would have driven around and taken a look. But it was probably good for Steve to stay out of the cold today and get some rest.

We have booked accommodation for the night at Lake Carezza and from there we will drive straight to Croatia to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. At this stage we will most likely spend 2 days there as the park is enormous and with so many cascades and waterfalls, we’ll need lots of time to explore. The park is approx 6km in total and can take up to 4 hours to walk around – without stopping to take photos!

Sorry....had to put more autumn foliage photos in to show you.... I can't get enough of them!  

We left the apartment at 7pm to have dinner back at Cascades. It was just Tim, Scott, Steve and I. Luca stayed at home as he spent the whole afternoon at the pool and he ate there.

We had a hilarious dinner. After Tim left the waiter last night a HUGE tip – tonights waiter was all over us – even gave us some grappa to finish. Watching Scott scull his was hysterical! All I can say is that the rest of our trip will be very boring without Scott around!

Steve drank my grappa! Hopefully having 2 good glasses of the stuff will help him with his lurgie!!

Tim and Scott are going to do sunrise tomorrow. It will no doubt be an exact replica of this morning.

The day has been cloudy and foggy. When the cloud went off the mountain for a good 20mins around 4pm, I could see snow on the tops of the mountain near the hotel. Then the fog came back and the rain has settled in. The weather is only getting worse from here, so we are going to sleep in and let the two boys drive up and mountain if they want.

Tomorrow we check out and Luca is going to take us past Lake Carezza for a look and hopefully a photo, before checking into our last nights accommodation. I can’t remember the name of the place, but I will confirm it tomorrow once we arrive!  Most of the day will be spent traveling apparently, so another cushy day.

Steve is going to spend some more time working out where exactly at Pletvice National Park the main waterfall we want to photograph is, and then we’ll have a nice early night in bed!

Buone Notta Ortesei

xxx