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Day 14
I woke up to find that the Italian hikers were dressed and packing. I checked the time and decided that 7am was too early for someone of my trekking experience to be getting up, so I dozed until eight, when the last of them left the room, casting an amused glance in my direction.An hour later the other guests were only just ready to check out when I arrived to do the same. I let them go in front, and regretted it. It started cordially enough, but soon arms were flailing and much fast and loud Italian was being exchanged. Eventually they left, and I presented myself to the now very worked up lodge owner to settle my bill. I was then stuck with the same problem the others had had, which was that the lodge’s credit card machine had stopped working. This was quite a problem, because I had no cash and the nearest cash point (ATM) was about 10 km away, and a long way down the mountain. It wasn’t a problem though. The owner wrote down her address and asked me to send a cheque. She didn’t even seem too bothered that it would be a couple of weeks.
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Day 13
It turned out that there were other guests at Zita’s, a German mountain biking couple. They spoke English in addition to German and a smattering of Italian, so we talked over breakfast about walking, cycling and why Britain hadn’t adopted the Euro.I left my big bag at Zita’s, using a complicated series of signs and muttered Italian to indicate that I would return for the next day, but no I wouldn’t be staying the night. I left with my day pack, in which I’d stowed a change of clothes, towel, waterproof, first aid kit, camera, water, map and documents. My plan was to undertake a circular trek back to Cortina, staying in a mountain refuge overnight.