THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, NOVEMBER 2-3, 2019 THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, NOVEMBER 2-3, 2019 6 TRAVEL + INDULGENCE theaustralian.com.au/travel theaustralian.com.au/travel TRAVEL + INDULGENCE 7

THE HEIGHT OF GOOD TASTE

ABOVE AND BELOW LEFT: ANDREW BAIN ALAMY

(three peaks) that monopolise all attention. stones, walking through a landscape that ap- Walking towards Cima Una, left; delicious The trail sets out across a flat valley floor, pears lifeless until you look closer and notice hiking fare, centre; Rifugio Lunelli, right amid mountain scenes that remind me a little IN THE KNOW tiny forests of wildflowers peeping between of walking in the Yosemite Valley. At the base the stones. Far below, a neon-blue tarn is of Cima Una, we turn up the Sasso Vecchio Hedonistic Hiking runs a nine-day aglow in sunlight. been stalking us for a few hours, and the Valley and ascend into the bare and barren Austria and the Dolomites tour, starting We rise to a pass, a small notch in the first clap of thunder reverberates like the heart of the Sesto Dolomites. in Innsbruck, Austria, and ending in mountains surrounded by more gun emplace- opening shot of a war. Soon lakes of water, The sun bores down from a cloudless sky, Verona, Italy. It includes three nights in a ments, and make our way to Rifugio Pian di and briefly hail, are falling from the sky in a reflecting mercilessly off the white rock, with spa hotel near Sesto, with two days of Cenglia for a well-earned lunch and beer after storm of the intensity only mountains seem the prediction of an afternoon thunderstorm hiking in the Dolomites. The tour costs 1000m of ascent. able to generate. seeming like fanciful forecasting. €3025 ($4900), single supplement Perhaps even more than the Tre Cime, the The trail becomes a river, and dozens of The valley ends in a sheer wall of rock split €325, including all accommodation, descent from Rifugio Pian di Cenglia provides waterfalls pour down cliffs where moments by a waterfall, but the trail winds easily up meals and wine. a lasting sense of the deceptively massive before none had been. I’m dripping wet, my past its edge. After three hours, the Tre Cime ■ hedonistichiking.com scale of the Dolomites. These toothy peaks, hands are like ice, and I feel intensely alive. suddenly bursts into view, three massive bul- few of which stand above 3000m, are lower The sun is returning and my discomfort let-shaped rock towers dwarfing Rifugio Loc- than the mountains of most of the world’s will soon become absolute comfort, because atelli and the tiny white chapel just a few standing on a ridge opposite, on trails that as- other grand ranges and yet I’m continually awaiting us in Sesto this evening is a dinner of steps above it. We have arrived in the nick of cend to the Tre Cime from the more popular struck by the illusion they’re taller. tuna tartare, followed by tagliatelle and time, with the outcrops beginning to spin Cortina side of the mountains. Even the doz- Rock walls seem to climb overhead for- prawn ragout, washed down with Bolzano’s cloud around themselves like cocoons. Soon ens disperse at this point, with a web of trails ever, creating the sort of large-scale scenery I most prized pinot noir. they will be gone. radiating from Rifugio Locatelli. We are imagine of Pakistan’s big-wall mountains The heavens may have opened, but a heav- I share this view with dozens of other hik- heading east, tucking in behind Cima Una rather than this coral reef turned to stone. enly finish is ahead. ers, though the crowd is like loneliness com- across an enormous scree field. It’s high drama matched only by the storm pared with the hundreds of people I can see For an hour we crunch across the loose that has finally arrived. Black clouds have Andrew Bain was a guest of Hedonistic Hiking.

ALAMY he small chapel seems halfway Mountain spectacle and fine food on a Dolomites trek were fixed to cliffs, and ladders clipped to the to heaven already. High in rock to make the impossible possible. Over Italy’s Dolomite mountains, it ANDREW BAIN subsequent years, they’ve become recreatio- straddles a ridge above a grassy nal routes known as via ferrata, or iron way, alpine meadow, with a view providing an exciting middle ground between that, in a natural sense, might hiking and rock climbing on the cliffs. Tbe said to include the holy trinity. We pause atop the fort for lunch and, as COASTAL WILDS OF TASMANIA The chapel and adjoining Rifugio Locatelli the company name implies, the focus of He- stand across a high valley from the Tre Cime donistic Hiking trips is as much food as feet. di Lavaredo, a mountain composed of a trio of Dinners are in some of the finest restaurants dark, monolithic towers that seem to erupt of the area, and lunches are as gourmet as the For true explorers from the scree slopes that wrap around them. restraints of a hiking trail allow. This day it’s a It’s a mountain that’s every bit as dramatic picnic spread of spelt salad, cheese from a Join an exploration of the wilderness areas of our most southerly coast, aboard as famed alpine counterparts such as the Mat- local village, bull’s heart tomatoes, salami, the yacht-like Coral Discoverer. With just 72 guests, our expedition guides take terhorn and Eiger, even though it stands hun- mortadella and wine carried up the mountain you to some of the most pristine and beautiful landscapes on earth. dreds of metres lower than either. From to further civilise the day. As conditions allow, spend two days hiking, kayaking, and bird-spotting in outside the chapel one thing seems clear: the Beside us, two Italian hikers also rest and Port Davey and the Southwest Wilderness. Encounter fur seals and wombats Alps may embody European mountains, but eat, with a pair of chihuahuas in pink ribbons as you explore Wineglass Bay, Maria Island National Park, and Tasman National the compact Dolomites may be the conti- on the blanket beside them. Did a massive Park. Visit a local cheesery and sample the freshest oysters. Come back after nent’s most spectacular range. war ever really rage here? the day’s excursion and relax at Coral Discoverer’s panoramic Explorer Bar to In all practical ways, these great white After lunch we explore a neighbouring taste Tasmania’s own gourmet fare, complemented with cool-climate wines mountains are a natural border, as they’ve World War I fort — a ghostly warren of am- and locally-crafted brews. Our new expeditions allow even more time to been throughout most of human history. Italy munition stores, pillboxes and soldiers’ dor- explore and relax in surroundings of remote beauty. legs it away to the south, and German-speak- mitories running deep into the slopes — and ing lands reach all the way to their northern then continue rising up the slopes. Soon we’re If you are curious about the world around you, and freedom from the crowds slopes in the autonomous Italian region of just metres below the cliffs, crossing gravelly is your idea of luxury, Coral Expeditions is your cruise line. For 34 years, Sud Tirol, otherwise known as Alto Adige. scree fields, with rock walls and spires tower- we have taken like-minded guests closer to remote cultures and nature, I’ve come to explore the less-trafficked Sud ing hundreds of metres above. with personal service and warm Australian hospitality. Tirol side of the Dolomites on foot with tour From the trail, we look deep into a forested company Hedonistic Hiking. It’s an area that valley below, where, for a time, the only thing PRISTINE TASMANIA - 2020 was part of Austria until the end of World Chapel across from Tre Cime di Lavaredo, main; hikers near Rifugio Pian di Cenglia, above that breaks through the tree cover is a cara- War I, and the chalet-filled towns still look al- van park. It would be an unremarkable sight, 7 NNights,ights, aallll iinclusivenclusive >> HHobartobart –– HHobartobart >> D Departseparts J Januaryanuary t oto M Marcharch 2 2020020 pine and Austrian, while the predominant at Rifugio Lunelli, the serrated peaks of the heavily fortified during the war, when Britain except that on this night the Caravan Park language remains German. Dolomites are seemingly rising directly over promised Sud Tirol to Italy if it joined the Al- Sexten will offer us something remarkable. NEWNEW EEXPEDITION:XPEDITION: CCOASTALOASTAL WWILDSILDS OOFF TTASMANIAASMANIA -- 22021021 Though we’re based near the Sud Tirol our shoulders. lied fight. Housed in a series of cellar-like rooms, town of Sesto, we begin our hiking on the Compared with more weathered and worn Today the pass simply marks the border Patzenfeld is curiously the finest restaurant 1010 NNights,ights, aallll iinclusivenclusive >> HHobartobart –– HHobartobart >> DDepartseparts J Januaryanuary t too M Marcharch 2 2021021 Dolomites’ Italian side. From Val Grande, we ranges, including the Alps that wrap around between Sud Tirol and Italy’s neighbouring around Sesto. As evening turns the Dolomites will hike back into Sud Tirol, crossing the bat- them, these mountains appear so raw as to Veneto region, but the cliffs remain punc- from white to black, we dine on saffron risotto tle scars that remain along the one-time seem almost unfinished. With their craggy, tured by a long line of windows and pillboxes with prawns, followed by a tender beef fillet, international border. We set out walking into razor-sharp skylines, they are the mountains — gun emplacements protecting the border slow-roasted and then hand-smoked on a bed a world blanched white. The stone on the of the mind, the sort you more often see in — all connected by tunnels burrowed of straw inside a wine box. It’s a meal I’ve trails is white, the streambeds beside me are mythology and Tolkien-esque fantasies. through the cliffs. never imagined in a caravan park anywhere white, and the mountains rise ahead as sheer From Rifugio Lunelli, the steepest climb of Though such defence posts are clustered in the world. white walls of rock. It’s like walking in a world our trip begins, ascending in fierce but brief tight here on the former border, they’re not The next morning things get truly spec- with the contrast set to extreme. fashion towards the base of the mountains’ unique to this particular spot. Throughout the tacular as we set out on foot for the Tre Cime We ascend through an ancient pine and summit cliffs. Here, through a lost world of Dolomites, the cliffs are scratched with un- di Lavaredo on what is the longest and tough- call 1800 079 545 beech forest, with the stream beside us per- giant boulders, the trail climbs on to the likely trails that are also remnants of wartime est day on any of Hedonistic Hiking’s Italian- visit w www.coralexpeditions.comww.coralexpeditions.com forming disappearing acts. One moment it’s grass-covered roof of a wartime fort peering ingenuity. based trips. It’s also arguably one of the finest pouring strong, the next it has dived under- down on Paso Monte Croce. Before World Italian soldiers built these routes during day walks in Europe. The 19km hike circuits email c [email protected]@coralexpeditions.com ground, always flowing, but not always above War I, this low pass served as the border be- World War I so troops could move through the connected peaks of Cima Una and Crode the earth. By the time we step out of the forest tween Italy and Austria. As a result it was otherwise impenetrable terrain. Steel cables Fiscaline, but it’s the simply named Tre Cime

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