I Hiked the 50 Mile Dolomiti Trail Alone ｜ Part 1

Well as you can see I'm in the beautiful Dolomites. I have a bag packed full of everything I'm going to need for the next five days and I'm about to set off on a five-day 50-mile trek through the Dolomites. It's called the Dolomiti Trail. I'm actually wrapping a little Dolomiti bandana. It's around 52 miles, four nights, five days. It's a hut-to-hut hike so I'll be staying in mountain refuges with the strangers. So I did a similar trek last year called the Madeira Trail organised by the same company and they put everything together for you so you just turn up and everything's been organised like your accommodation, your transport. I've been sent the routes which I've now downloaded and have on my phone so I have the route for every day. It's just super simple like I would not know where to start if I came out here and tried to just go and do a hut-to-hut hike by myself. So it just gives you that added layer of safety which again is so important when you're solo travelling. I'm scared, I'm excited but I'm mostly excited. Way too hot. Jesus Christ. The camera can go away for a while because that's annoying me. The problem I have which I realised yesterday is like I'm too hot with my fleece on but then my backpack straps rub on my shoulders without. So catch 22. Oh my god it's just so warm but then I'd be crying if it was cold so can't really complain. But I'm an hour in, 1.6 miles just around the lake. It was so beautiful and it got less busy as you went around the lake so if you ever come to Lago de Bres like I'd allow loads of time and just walk around the whole lake. I think I would actually get a rowboat one day if I had someone to do it with because they looked cute. It's just me, no one around. This is my trail up there. That's the lake that I've just left. Oh my god I'm just so happy right now. Let's go. Today I'm doing six miles and 800 metres of elevation gain up to my first refugio or mountain out of the trip where I'll be sleeping tonight. Somewhere up into those mountains. Okay there's cows with cowbells and there's a cafe. They're so cute. You having fun? These guys are doing the same trail as me so we just met at the cafe and we're having an afro spritz. This is an Alpen spritz and it's actually so good. So this is what was it called? Kaiserschmarrn. So it's pancake and omelette. Oh my god that is so good. Yeah. Wow. Well that was super nice and unexpected. That's the nice thing with travel base. I obviously love being solo but if you want to like meet other people and potentially hike with other people then you can do that. You can kind of arrange to meet up or you can set off together in the mornings. I'm sure I'll see them again later but I thought I'd set off and make a head start and look how beautiful this trail is. I'm just taking a little breather. I'm two hours 48 minutes in. Three and a half miles so it looks like I'm halfway but I've still got like so much of the ascent to do. So yeah that's my update. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you're sitting comfortable at home. Moderate temperature. No crazy weight on your back or crazy hills to climb. Thanks for watching though. So I've just improvised and I put a headband and my buff under where my shoulder's rubbing because it was just getting really painful and it's day one and I can't be getting shoulder blisters. One day one of a five-day trek so yeah hopefully I've taken it out. I literally could nap here. Cool breeze. Warm temperature. So it is 1.30 in the afternoon. I'm four and a half hours in. I've done 4.8 miles. Had a quick snack and it started to rain so I put my waterproof cover on and this jacket and now it stopped raining and I'm boiling hot again so I need the motivation. This is the worst part of the trail so far but I don't think there's much long much longer left. Yeah I'm getting tired. Now we have a fun scramble bit. I don't know if you can tell how steep that is behind me but I want to see if I slip at this point. It's kind of game over. Oh my god I just made it onto the path. Look how beautiful this path is. Look at this is what I've just scrambled up. Look how steep that is. I love when you're hiking and you look up and you think how am I gonna make it up there and then eventually you're up there and you look down and you think I was all the way down there and I did it. That's literally just hiking all the time. Thinking you can't do it, keep doing it, end up doing it, eventually accept that you can do it. I started all the way in the trees in the valley down there. Look at me now. Look at these guys. They're so fluffy. I just really want to stroke them. I see it. Bigger than I expected. That's what she said. So this is where I'll be sleeping tonight. Nestled amongst the mountains and the cows like right in the middle of the valley. How gorgeous is that? Six hours 40 minutes, 7.7 miles and a lot of ascent. Can't tell you what it is yet but I'll put it on the screen when I get my stat. Tough day but amazing day and it's only quarter to four. I won't film much of the evening because I want to chill but I'll just show you the I'll show you the accommodation and then I will be switching off for the evening. Hi. I'm with Travel Base. So you have room number five and six. Okay so I've just showered which is like unheard of for me in Mountain House. I didn't expect this. This feels like luxury. I'm sharing with a couple of Dutch girls who are also doing this week of the Dolomiti Trail so that's nice. I've got bunk mates tonight but yeah I feel like all fresh and clean. I'm gonna go sit down and have a Coke Zero and rest and chill and go through all my pictures and get ready for tomorrow. Day one. What a day. Day two. Let's go. I slept so well. I'm showered, I'm fed, I'm watered. Feeling very refreshed for day two. Like my hips are a bit bruised from the waist straps of the backpack but other than that like so far so good. So I've got 22 kilometers today but only 650 meters of ascent in that time so shouldn't be as tough as yesterday. And here are some cows. Got a lot of squiggly downhill walking to do. A lot of turnbacks, switchbacks, zigzags. At the bottom of this giant hill I'll be getting to a and I can have a little break and maybe a coffee. Maybe a coffee. I'm so excited. All right when people are watching me talk to myself. All right well I've left the hut. I now have, I don't know, like 17 miles uphill so I have changed my top, put my sun cream on, tied my hair up, prepared for basically going all the way up there. So many doggos. This is so cute. I've just been like head down, pushing through for the last 30-40 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this weather and sunshine but when it's just constantly on you it's getting pretty warm. Hi. So I just had lunch here at this refugio. It was really nice. They had bacon dumplings in beef soup. So good. But then it got really busy in there so I have decided to keep going. I've got about 200 meters of ascent now and then that's my ascent done for the day. Still got like six miles to go. I'm eight miles in. It's such a long day today. I've done five and a half hours obviously with stops. 8.6 miles and I'm still only like halfway. I think with treks like this you always learn things and I'm learning that I probably won't use this backpack again. Like I love Osprey. I rate Osprey so much but the problem I'm having is this waist strap. It's the tightest it can be but it's still really loose. Like it doesn't go as tight as I need it to go. So because it can't go any tighter I'm not bearing enough weight on my hips and I'm bearing it here on my shoulders. It's pulling. It's hurting my back so that's what I'm struggling with. Like the weight itself is fine. I've carried more than this before. I did a Instagram reel of everything that I packed and how much it weighs if you wanted to go and check that out but yeah that's my little update for today. I'm just gonna go and bimble on down this lovely flat path and just enjoy the scenery. So I've just hit 12 miles which is 20 kilometers. That's actually such a long way. That's actually such a long way to walk. 6 hours 50 with breaks and this is the rest of my path for now. I'm- ouch! That was my ankle. I'm literally powering down this hill. I'm so done with the today. My legs are shaking. 7 hours 43 minutes in. 13 and a half miles. I'm sweaty and hot. Everything hurts. My feet hurt. My legs hurt. My hips hurt. My shoulders hurt. And there's a pizza place at the campsite and all I can think about is pizza. Oh my god that was the highlight of my afternoon. My feet feel so good after that. That was so nice. So needed. So good. So good. I made it. So I just checked in. It took ages. I thought they were gonna say they didn't have a cabin for me because I think they didn't but they've upgraded me from an A-frame cabin to a forest cabin which apparently has a bathroom in it. So that's nice. So I'm waiting for like a buggy to pick me up to take me to the cabin and I just downed all of this. Cold water. So good. Just waiting for a lift. I can leave it. Oh that's not the keys for. Oh look. Oh my goodness. This looks so comfy. Look how huge this bed is. What's in here? Oh my god. Shower. I can actually make my coffee in the morning. I've got a fridge. Where's the champagne? If you do the Dolomiti Trail, I 100% recommend upgrading tonight to the A-frame cabin like I did. I think it was 100 euros. Otherwise like some of the rest of the group are camping. Some of the others are next door. Let me see if they're still here. Say hi neighbours. But yeah, this is amazing.