Day 23 Zollnersee Hutte

Writing this a day late because last night I was feeling far too sorry for myself to blog. My dodgy stomach, rumbling in the background for a couple of days, was as bad as it could be with all the symptoms which need no description. I completed the walk (just) but it was not much fun.

Untere Valentinalm

The walk itself was completely different to the walk to Unter Valentin - for the time being we have switched from limestone to granite and things are, relatively speaking, gentler. We spent the first part of the morning walking through fields (often very muddy fields) full of the brown and white cattle that seem to dominate the Alps, before climbing steadily up through trees and into even higher level summer Alpine pasture. Stopped at a little Alm not used at moment and Paul and Christine ate sandwiches and I went hunting for a toilet.

Obere Tschintemuntalm 

Having climbed nearly 800 metres the route then took on us on a lovely contour walk around the end of the valley before the final climb up to Koderkopf which, at 2150 metres was the day's highest point. Suddenly we were in the middle of the First World War again, trench works and the remains of buildings everywhere - the mountain top was clearly an important fortified vantage point.

Trenches on Köderkopf

A very steep descent from the mountain was followed by a long and almost perfectly contoured path around the end of the valley. The quality of the path and the amount of construction work suggests it was built by the Austrian military to supply the front line and the fortifications up on Koderkopf.

At this point we had been walking for about 7 hours. It was getting hot, I was feeling worse and walking slower and slower. Have never had food poisoning on a trek before but have been on trips with others who have, particularly in Nepal, I clearly have had a charmed life.

After a particularly horrible final climb we make it to the very pretty Zollnersee Hutte and I collapsed horizontally on a bench in the sun. It's a very small hutte but Paul had persuaded the host to put Christine and me in the only double room in the place. I can't face any food and have not eaten anything for twenty four hours.

Zollnersee Hütte

The hutte is not busy and Christine is soon discussing my symptoms with everyone. Included are two married German doctors who come up with a very specific remedy. It consisted of eating three blueberries every ten minutes and six tea spoons of warm black tea over same period. Christine managed to find about 20 blueberries on the mountainside (the light was fading and it's been a poor season for blueberries), enough to treat me for an hour. Unlikely as it seems, the treatment was a complete success, I slept well and in the morning awoke a new man.


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