Land of Coral - Mountains of Dreams

The Dolomites by Cliff Booker

Part Two



View over the lovely town of Corvara

I would advise anyone considering a holiday in the Italian Dolomites to budget for hiring (or utilising their own) transport. While the available bus services are exceptionally clean and reliable, they lack (even at the very height of summer) the regularity and diversity of routes that eager flower walkers would prefer. With your own set of wheels you can explore those hidden valleys and remote service roads that public transport vehicles never use….you can more easily access cable car stations and chair-lifts in outlying villages and, as the ultimate incentive, one can enjoy (?) the exhilarating climbs and hair-pin bends of any number of isolated mountain passes.


Campanula Spicata


The roadside verges of these twisting undulating routes are adorned with alpine flowers throughout the spring and summer and one can even botanise from the car window (though the driver may be better employed watching his rear-view mirror for speeding motor-cycles and encroaching charabancs).


Beautiful Butterflies


We always allow double the predicted time for any journey in these parts to cater for my frequent photographic pit-stops. Sue usually drives with her foot poised over the brake pedal awaiting the customary plea. Rich with species and colour these grassy, rock-scattered verges slope gently up from the road, leading one's eye skyward to the vast white screes and pinnacles of northern Italy's majestic limestone peaks.


Gardena Pass scene

Awe-inspiring….dramatic…. simply beautiful……mere words cannot do justice to these summits….they tower over the surrounding meadows and forests like backdrops from a Disney film….edifices of white, pink, orange and buff…the colour of the rock reflecting the mood of the sun…vast canvasses daubed with pastel blotches, transient shadows, sun-splashes and the glow of evening light. For spectacle the Dolomites have no equal in Europe and precious few around the globe.


Fungi Lycoperdon perlatun


View 4


The uninitiated often assume that walks in the mountains will entail long and arduous climbs (whether up, down or probably both), but this isn't necessarily the case…our wildflower walks are designed to cater for a range of abilities and ages and advance warning is always given if steep or exposed sections are involved. We often make use of cable-cars, chairlifts, vehicles and leisurely strolls to reach the higher plants and days are frequently spent just botanising an area of special interest or suspected floral splendour.


View 5


We are out of the first (and even the second and third) flush of youth ourselves (sorry Sue), so lengthy climbs over precipitous terrain look less inviting with every passing month.


Geranium phaeum and Gentianella


Altitude is not a necessary prerequisite for a formidable display of alpine flowers however, and many of our low and medium level walks cross meadows, hillsides and glades of dazzling colour and diversity.


Gentiana Acaulis.


Campanula rotundifolia


Beautiful plants such as gentians, campanulas and arnica can be encountered on nothing more than a gentle stroll from one's chalet or hotel in each of the bustling resort villages.


Platanthera bifolia


Gymnadenia Close


Traunsteinneria Globosa


It is not uncommon to see stands of orchids, primulas and orobanches festooning the roadside verges on the approaches to these popular winter ski resorts and several circular walks begin and end in the heart of these hiker-friendly villages (usually outside a very convenient bar or apple-strudel café). Sun-drenched parasols shading neat wooden tables, ice-cream sundaes (with little parasols of their own) and the ubiquitous litre of cool, clear beer can look incredibly appealing after a day in the 'hills'.


Pedicularis rostratocapitata


Arnica alpine


Aster Alpinus


Another set of images now to tempt you to these beautiful mountains and, if the web wizards of the SRGC can spare the space and the inclination then the third and final instalment of this apology for a report we will look more closely at some of the special plants of the region and display another batch of digital photographs captured in these magnificent Italian mountains.


Bugs On Scabious



For further information about Collett's Mountain Holidays please visit:- www.colletts.co.uk : Telephone 01763-289660/289680 or write to:- Collett's Mountain Holidays, Harvest Mead, Great Hormead. Buntingford. Hertfordshire. SG9 0PB.

All images used in this article are copyright of the photographer; Cliff Booker, who can be contacted via info@srgc.org.uk

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