During this year's family vacation at Lake Garda (where else to go during the most virulent year (summer 2020), right?!... well the darkest place is under the candlestick, eh eh...) I bribed my wife and both kids with incredibly good ice creams (fantastic family ice cream shop here: https://www.gelateriacantonati.it/it - they have excellent everything and it's 2 minutes from the beach) to stay in town and broke away for a trip to the Dolomites.
The original plan was sunrise in Santa Maddalena with all those kitschy little churches, and then a trip to Lago di Antermoia, because I'm just a romantic soul and like a lake at 2500m and heart-shaped? I mean really?
On my way to Lago di Antermoia
Unfortunately, I'm not exactly a master at planning, so I getting up pretty late (the journey from Garda is just over 3 hours), along the way I get off the highway twice, obviously missing the sunrise so saying goodbye to Maddalena and going straight to the town of Mazzin from where the path leads through the waterfalls directly to the lake - hopefully (well... surprisingly yes, it did lead there... www.mapy.cz rules (the best touristic maps you can find!), they have even the smallest boar trails marked, such a helpful web site!).
It's 7 a.m., the world is ruled by a virus, and a weekday on top of that… I’m here totally alone... incredible... I vaguely start to remember what silence looks like (I kind of forgot it a bit over the few years I've been married and those two little chatterboxes my wife gave me finished it completely... oh boy they talk a lot… xD).
I haven't been walking for half an hour when Cascate di Soscorza emerges from behind the trees. It's soo beautiful and majestic... but even better is that you take another 10 steps and two more waterfalls emerge… I had no idea about those…
View of the waterfall - Sony A7 III, Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8, ISO80, 1/100, f/13, VFFOTO magnetic UV GS adapter 67-82mm & magnetic ND filter 16x (1.2) NANO-PRO 82 mm
The only thing mapy.cz doesn't excel at is time estimation. The climb is supposed to take about 3 hours, but I got there finished, hungry, and incredibly thirsty after about 6 hours!? Fortunately, the Italian mountain spirit took pity on me and built a mountain hut there where they give you a drink and have an incredibly good strudel with vanilla sauce (I think my strudel addiction was born right here that day).
Lago di Antermoia is a beautiful, kitschy lake (after all, like all alpine/mountain lakes) with emerald green water, a beautiful view, and rock massifs (Croda del Lago - 2806m, Seekogel - Croda del Cimel - 2893m) lining the lake all around!
The journey from Mazzin is not exactly “for free” (I mean energy wise…), from the waterfalls, there’s not exactly the easiest trek, but… I would not be afraid to go there even with older kids (however, I would probably reconsider it in the spring/fall, when all the stones on the way will be wet and slippery. A few places I slid down there unintentionally on my buttocks and it does not stop exactly easily, so watch out…).
Well, just to make one thing clear… the problem wasn't exactly in www.mapy.cz, as I made it back in 2.5 hours... taking pictures with the camera at every second little flower probably took some time... =)
MS
GEAR:
Camera: Sony A7 III
Tripod: 3 Legged Thing Mike Legends Mike
Drone: Mavic Air 2s
Backpack: Shimoda Action x70