An Italian turquoise mountain lake

On our first full day at the Italian Dolomites we decided to head off to a hike to a mountain lake. We drove quite a while through the majestic scenery, stopping at the first shop we saw (shops are few and far between, as we learnt at our accommodation town) to buy savoury snacks and Coca Cola for Nikki.

We’d had breakfast at the nearby café in our town, where I enjoyed strudel and Nikki chose a croissant, the least-sweet option on offer after the café man good-humouredly laughed at Nikki’s request for a panini – no, they don’t offer savoury stuff for breakfast, lolz.

So anyways, off from DeSpar we went.

According to the instructions, we had to continue on from Cortina towards Misurina (what a name for the latter), and stop when we see the 215 path. Well, I think we managed this pretty well, and only after slight hesitancy and wandering we were parked, out of the car and off down route 215.

Our 5,5km hike was to a mountain lake situated nearly 2km above sea level (1,925m to be precise), and apparently it can be reached only by foot or by helicopter. The turquoiseness comes from something as magical as dust from a glacier. The lake is called Sorapis, and we both found it ridiculously difficult to remember the name of properly, lake Sarupo? Surapa? Sapuro?

The route started off pleasant, hot and foresty. We walked through the pretty forests and stopped for an early lunch break on some rocks – Foccaccia and “plum cake” from the shop. (The Foccaccia was dry and again, not my fave, like last time I was in Italy, but the only bready take-away food type there was.)

We’d crossed a few streams, but that was about as exciting as it got.

After the forest it did start to get more exciting, though. We were gradually winding higher and higher up, the views becoming more impressive and Nikki’s fear-of-heights becoming more prevalent.

The sun was hot and it was exhausting, and as we approached what we assumed and hoped to be the end, I was sure as hoping that this sweatiness would be worth it. I mean, a turquoise mountain lake sounds magically fairytalesque, but turquoise mountain lakes can also end up being non-turquoise mountain puddles or similar.

Let me tell you, it was worth it.

As we passed the Helipad and finally climbed over the last ledge to see the perfect turquoise glistening in the sunlight, a helicopter was flying towards us, then over us, making a spectacular loop around the lake as all them fellow hikers looked up in awe (I think he was putting on an extra loop for sake of show, but can’t be sure). Then it helicopted up (what verbs do helicopters use??) into the mountains.

It was forbidden to swim in the lake, unfortunately, though to be honest I’d rather say fortunately, because it would obviously remove the calm glacier-dusted turquosity of the lake. We did watch disapprovingly as two women decided not to just go swimming, but go in topless too and pose for pics on the random rocks (I personally have nothing against nudity and believe it should be less of a taboo subject, HOWEVER I still think it’s not completely appropriate to reveal more than others – especially children – are prepared to see, and not even to mention that you are practising a forbidden activity which everyone is obviously YEARNING to do but adhering to the rules, unlike ye) (Also, hilarious situation – Nikki was judging them in her Nikki-manner in Finnish, interjecting an English “I mean, like really!?”, to which a passing woman (with a young child) agreed loudly, using rather more extreme language to express her agreement.)

We took some pics (topped, not in the water) and I found a nice high-up rock to settle down on, enjoy the views and lunch part two, a can of sweetcorn. (Ever since Madeira I have been a huge fan of sweetcorn, and realised in that rare find of a shop that it’s the perfect on-the-go snack, isn’t it!?) The clouds around the sun were fascinatingly rainbow-coloured through sunglasses. It was perfect.

Then, it was time to go. A 5,5km descent was awaiting us, along with a two-hour car-ride back in potential rain.

Going back was maybe less fun but also more exciting.

For me, the most invigorating part was the narrow path leading round the mountain edge. THIS I considered a bit crazy.

Interesting remark I made in regards to this edge: I’ve always been the one taking photos. I have taken photos my whole life, and wanted to pose in random places for pics before the time of Instagram (there was a time like that? O___o). The crazier the better, and a slight risk made the picture even more interesting. I’d’ve loved to have a pic on the ledge, ask Nikki to take a pic of me and run back to pose. And I should show off that pic and people would be like oooo that’s epic, oooo you’re brave, and I’d bask in the attention, the glory and the memory. But now, after enough crazy people posing for crazy pics for the sake of #thegram and losing their lives in the process, it just nowadays doesn’t seem like an attractive prospect. Maybe it’s to do with age. No longer would I look at a pic of me on a risky ledge and think “yay I’m brave and cool”, but more like “okay that was stupid”. Any thoughts on this? Is this age or this a hard-worn life in social media?

The views remained consistently epic though.

For Nikki, the most challenging part was going up and especially down the stairs you could sort of see the ground through. It wasn’t just once that she said “I trust nature, I don’t trust man-made constructions”.

Anyhoos, I rejoiced at Nikki’s conquering of the most difficult part of the trip.

I was relieved by the time we got to the forest, as the forest was the brief bit at the beginning. Nearly there!

But the forest went on… and on… and on… and on.

The day before I’d complimented Nikki on her fast, no-time-for-nonsense walking speed. Now she kept turning round and encouraging me on, and I decided to retract my compliment.

When we got back to the car we were worn out but very happy, this was a successful day. 🙂

It was crowned by INSANE views from the car, the “Devil’s Mountain” (our name), and a very cost-efficient dinner of leftover pizza and pasta from the previous day’s restaurant, warmed up on a pan on our stove (we had no oven, nor any grease, but the grease from Nikki’s carbonara was enough for both). Hurrah!

Stay tuned for the next entry, feat. CABLE CAAAAAARZ.

Emzy

xxx