Breakfast was at 8am and then we did a 5 km walk with Nico. Last night we had showed him the cache notes for a cache 2km away and he said he knew the place and had walked there with Brian from MUSAC.

We headed over the river and along a track . On the way, he pointed out various sites from WW1. We saw some of the former trenches and also a tunnel. .Nico's family has lived in the area for generations and his father has a keen interest in military history so he could tell us lots.

There were the remnants of a castle on the trackside but Nico said it was better visited in Autumn when the ground was clearer. As we had discussed the snakes and scorpions that are present I was happy not to bother. We also saw the effects of large boulders that had fallen in recent times down the massive cliffs from the Dolomites that dominate the skyline here. Two of the walls in our room have cracks which he told us had formed in an earthquake. There was also a nice waterfall.

We got to GZ which is near a swimming hole in the Astico river. It is very popular with locals in July and August, for swimming diving and fishing but was deserted today. We didn’t have full cache details with us or we could have found the right area to look more quickly. Instead we ended up meeting a couple of locals who Nico knew. Once we found it, Nico also signed it but then said we should not tell the other locals about it because they may be worried about being inundated by geocachers!!

We walked back along side the road. I lagged behind a bit as I was being cautious as Nico told us of the various deaths from road accidents on the stretch of road . We celebrated our very enjoyable walk with bitter lemon drinks at 11am. We admired the great veggie gardens and Nico told us about the pigs the family raise and how they make sausage and salami from them, to serve in the restaurant and also to sell to locals. They use traditional methods which are time consuming but make a lovely product. W had some of the salami for tea and it tasted so fresh but was in fact 14 months old. They will not serve it until it has aged for a few months

We were given a map and advice and set off for a drive down the valley. We wanted to find a specific place for lunch and an internet café. Instead we had a great time finding neither. We met 3 helpful locals who advised us to go to the library but we ended up at the wrong library. We didn’t find the lunch spot but had savories and gelato which was the right amount. We headed back to Nico’s with plans for tomorrow. (We also navigated some of the narrowest roads to date – Twiggy on a diet going sideways downwind would have struggled !!! - JB)

Nico then took us for a drive in our car after dropping his car in for service. He pointed out the lunch place we had missed earlier and also told us about an alternative library with internet. We crossed the river and drove 20km up the other side of the valley to a WW1 'fortress’ built at the top of a mountain, Monte Cengio, with various tunnels carved into the solid rock cliff faces, including one which acted as a field hospital . They were built by the Italians to stop the Austrian advance as it was part of a last line of defense before the Italian plains. We were above 1000m here.

The cliffs were sheer and up to 300m high. We walked around the edges of the cliffs on a path about 4 feet wide and along the tops, which is a special ecomuseum. At one place the track narrowed to not much more than 3’ and the drop was incredible – you couldn’t see the bottom. (CB was very brave and I have the pics to prove it - JB). The views were absolutely fantastic and we found the towns at the bottom of the valley were much bigger than we had realised.

We spent more than an hour just exploring the caves and walkways. You had to be very careful in some areas as some unofficial tracks just disappeared over the edge! The area is closed in winter as the access roads are not cleared of snow. It is hard to imagine soldiers living in the tunnels particularly when the snow is around. The last stop was at the chapel near the car park with a statue made from old shrapnel.

A highlight was seeing eagles soaring. Nicohad told us already that eagles were in the area and we looked out of a gap to see 2 doing circles. We also saw 2 paragliders also taking advantage of the updraught.

On the top of another mountain is a US military base that used to house rockets aimed at Russia . It is supposedly closed now but the Americans still keep guards there and Nico says that he has seen US jeeps creep up the valley in the middle of the night heading towards the mountain. Nico’s brother used to work there but he has been sworn to secrecy on what the base is/was used for.

We also heard about the bear that had been in the area recently. Bears have not been here for a couple of centuries before this 200 kg visitor from over the boarder. It killed a number of chickens but also 15 horses which was a concern for local people. It was then tracked by GPS and the Forestry wardens had hoped to leave it to its own devices. However with the number of dead horses, concern about human risk had grown so consideration was being given to drugging it and returning it north, before it moved on itself. (JB and Nico also saw a black snake on the road when we drove up).

We then drove further on the other side of the mountain but near the top to Asiago. Here we went to the information centre before going to the cheese factory to pick up an order for Nico’s trattoria. They had lovely samples of a cumin cheese. Nico had a couple of jobs to do so we met a family friend who had had winemakers from NZ staying the previous week We were then back in time, after a great drive back down the mountain, for a break before tea at 7pm. John finished with grappa which the family also make. I made sure I had the small jug of wine tonight.

(This was a fantastic day, and the cliff walk at the top of the Dolomites will remain a vivid memory. – JB)