I'd already been to Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Lake Durrensee and Niederdorf today, and I finished off the day at Pragser Wildsee, also known in Italian as Lago di Braies.
My plan was to find a parking lot and camp for the night, and I got to a parking area at about 5:30pm. There was no one collecting money for parking so I was fine, and I parked in the furthest-away park there was, next to some trees. I had a snack then decided to go and see the lake. My idea was to stay overnight and get up to see the lake at dawn (on my birthday no less!), but I thought there was no harm in going to have a look now. I walked about 20 minutes there. It was still really busy, with lots of people milling about, but not too bad as most of them seemed to be looking for somewhere to have an aperitif. I walked on to the lake.
Ok so I've seen pictures of the lake on Instagram, and it looks all very pretty but it really didn't prepare me for really how beautiful this spot actually is. The water is the brightest, most amazing blue you've ever seen, the cliffs rise up out of the lake and tower above, and in the afternoon light they picked up some beautiful golden light. I walked around the lake through a path in the forest, but you couldn't walk the whole way because I think there had been some damage, so I walked to the end of the path and back again, all the while marvelling at the blue! Now for some photos I think...
I spent ages walking around the edge. I also sat down on a bench near the edge and contemplated how funny life is that I, a 30-something from Sydney, Australia was currently in the most heavenly spot I think I've ever been to, after driving myself here from England... I started walking back to the lake's entrance as the clouds were rolling in, but it didn't make it any less beautiful. They were pulling in the little boats for the night, and photographers were beginning to jostle for their places near the boatshed, presumably to see the sun set (though I'm not sure that was going to be the case with the clouds!).
I tried to decide what to do while I walked back to the camper. Should I stay or did I go and find a campsite for the night? The lake was beautiful but was it worth staying to get up super early? Were there going to be millions of other people doing the same thing?
Eventually I decided what to do when I got back to the camper - the parking lot was full of other campers. I'm ok with wild-weeing when there's no one around but wasn't really keen on doing it with an audience. With that in mind, I gave up my campsite to a gigantic motorhome that had just pulled in, found a campsite somewhat nearby and drove there. I say "somewhat" because it wasn't too far, as the crow flies. But the hills of South Tyrol meant that it took almost an hour. I'd almost started regretting leaving, until I saw this beautiful scene....
Also, the regret at leaving Pragser Wildsee quickly went away when I settled in to my campsite. It was absolutely the best site I went to in Italy, and one of the best in the whole 6-week trip. It was a good end to a bloody good day.
Campsite: Camping al Plan
Rating: 10/10. One of the best campsites I've been to. It was clean, quiet, good facilities, very helpful staff, cheap, had a restaurant and bar on-site and the gate opened early in the morning (7-7:30am). All in all, a great site.