ED Memories: July 25, 2023

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Obviously I went to sleep before I finished wrapping up my thoughts for the day, but suffice it to say we found a rifugio thanks to Andrew again, and now I'm sitting having breakfast at 7:30 AM. Ham n' cheese, coffee, bread and the most delicious peach jam!

My sleep wasn't the best - flip out chair - I was on a slope for the night so I kept slipping down, plus there was a ton of thunder and lightning. The room was very nice though - this was a fancier, less rustic place (with commensurate price upgrade). I can't fault Andrew for managing to find these places, bringing all of his European experiences to bear, and certainly alleviating me of any of that burden. Kind of spoiled!

We take the breakfast time to have a good discussion of shot plans today - there are lots of good opportunities for drone footage with clouds, etc in the mountains around us as we head towards Venice. We will take advantage for sure.

Somewhat surprisingly, Andrew opens up about his concerns about his housing situation - unprompted - it's short, but he is very pragmatic about his timeline - I think he's going to buy a house. It's a stressor for sure. Not sure what I would do in the same situation. But I'm glad he has this great adventure to at least take his mind off it for most of the time. It's hard to think about much else when you are carving through the twisties!

I can feel that I am tired, and will hope for a good sleep tonight. But the day's activities will override that feeling until the evening I am sure. My ears are ringing a bit, wonder if that's from having the radio earpiece in. If the roof is up mostly coz of the weather, I may try just using the radio speaker instead of the earbud. Overall the day is starting off a bit uneven, kinda cranky / unsettled like the weather, but driving will smooth that out. More notes en route.

We spend some time going up and down the pass close to the rifugio so that Andrew can get some cool drone shots. It took a bit of time and we don't get it right on the first pass. Or the second. It is actually really tricky to do, but it worked well in the end (I think).

We are conscious of time, and the need to both make progress but also capture the experience. One thing I know slows us down, and am sure is frustrating for others, is that every time I get back in the car, I have to hook the headset back up to my ear and click the microphone back onto my seatbelt. It's a little process that I am starting to be able to do unconsciously but it still takes time. This time around I discover that the wiring has caught inside the seat mechanism, so I have to carefully free it, which took  a long time. But I didn't want to risk damaging the wire, that would be far worse. 

Also, the Cobra FRS radios are proving to be a bit of a frustration as we don't seem to be able to charge them. They only come with a charging base plate that is kind of rickety and that thing isn't working. Grrrrrr. My mood has not improved thanks to these hiccups, but thank goodness, we are now heading back up to the Passo Giau.

This is where we were yesterday, but better now because the weather is good and the light is good, the  twisties in it are extremely good, and the pavement is excellent. The curves are strung very tightly together which means you can get some very good cool overhead drone shots of the cars going up and down those serpentines.

Cue a better mood because it is a blast, and it is a shame it has to end.

As we make our way towards Venice the clouds have fully parted, and there's a full-on sunny day here now, so much so that I have to put the top up to take a break from the heat! A nice change from the last couple of days of rain and drizzle. There is some cloud cover moving in, so I'll be able to go topless again soon. I really do love the feeling of driving with the top down. Although not so much when following a very stinky tractor, towing a trailer of logs at 31 km an hour … sure hope there is a passing zone somewhere close.

We stop for groceries and lunch supplies and now just need to find a little picnic spot on the outskirts of town along with a gas station to get some nice cold drinks. Once again we pass by the same little church that we saw in 2018. And sure enough, all three times it has been raining as we are in the middle of a little shower right now, putting a crimp in our picnic plans!

A bit more driving and we make it to tonight's rifugio early, so we can have our lunch under cover as it is sprinkling a bit here and there still. It'll be a nice relaxed start to the evening, with a later dinner. I suspect before dinner we will go out to take a few cool sequences over some little hilly bits we drove in over. 

Early tomorrow morning we will drop Jenn off in Venice so she can continue on to meet up with her Irish friend for the rest of her holiday. Well, her proper holiday, as this has been a 'job' for her! We've got only 100 kms to Venice in the morning - along a lovely bit of twisties where we hope to do some more drone and car-mounted camera work.

~ Luke

p.s. You can read the full, no-holds-barred accounting of this day at gtschronicles.com.