Day 7 Munich to Venice - Wattens

From a planning perspective this is a tricky part of the walk. On my preferred itinerary tomorrow's stage is a high altitude walk from Glungezer Hutte to Lizumer Hutte. It's supposed to be a wonderful hike, one of the best on the whole trip, but it's tricky and needs good weather.  The weather forecast is poor for the next two days so we could have been stuck up there for two days waiting for the weather to clear.

One of the great things about this walk is that there always fellow travellers to discuss options with.

Our room mate last night was Remé from Munich.  He told us that the first Munich to  Venice itinerary, to avoid 'cheating' and using chair lifts, went via Wattens.  Once Christine realised that this meant staying in a hotel rather than a hut the decision was made and I'm now bashing out this blog in a comfortable hotel room rather than the top of a bunk bed.

Climbing up to Lafatscherjoch (2081m)

Today was always going to be an anti-climax after yesterday's epic walk (a contender for my top 10 walks of all time) but it was a good day nonetheless.  Expecting rain by lunchtime, we were walking by 7-30 and climbing up to a pass about 500m above the hut.  Mist and clouds were swirling around the surrounding mountain tops creating a dramatic but slightly foreboding atmosphere.

On the pass at Lafatscherjoch

After climbing 1500m yesterday, today's ascent felt like a walk in the park. On the pass we were presented with the huge Inn valley full of cloud.  The mountains on the other side towered above the valley bottom cloud, only to have their tops covered by yet another layer of cloud - a sort of cloud layer cake and very beautiful.

Cloud filling the Inn valley

From the pass we started what felt like a never ending descent and on the way encountered about every sort of surface imaginable, from scree to mud. It was however much better than expected with some particularly nice forest trails.

On the final approach to Wattens a woman on bike stopped for a chat.  It turned out that she had lived for a time in Bristol and Brighton (where I live) and had, 30 years ago, found a lot of love in Brighton. I told her there was still plenty there and she should come back soon but that I was now a long way behind my wife and would she mind telling her, when she went past, that I would catch her up if she didn't go so fast.  She did and also told Christine that she had found a lot of love in Brighton.

To be honest Watten isn't the prettiest place in the world.  It's very busy, has a huge paper factory and a Swarovski crystal factory (I thought Swarovski was Polish but what do I know). It does however have a nice hotel and a restaurant which had some green stuff on the menu, the first we have seen in a week.

Heading back to the hotel, Remé, our German  friend from last night, runs across the road to see how we are getting on.  We exchange notes on tomorrow's walk up to the Lizumer Hutte.  He said he had met a woman on a bike who had met us and that she was thinking about a trip to Brighton.

Apologies for the lack of photographs - I'm taking hundreds but keep forgetting to take some with my phone which is where all the blog pictures come from.