Day 8 Schwaz

The Falkenhutte was excellent, perfect location and friendly staff (not a universal feature). I'm used to slightly odd arrangements and slept well but Christine, who for the first time had to share a tiny space with six other people, didn't. There was a huge thunder storm and someone shut the window to stop the rattles, it got very hot.

Leaving Falkenhutte

Day 7 Falkenhutte

Day 7 for me, day 1 for Christine, and her first "strike" of the trip; she stopped and wouldn't go any further.

After all the wonderful walking of the last six days, I was worried things were about to fizzle out. Yesterday was dull and the limited research I'd done on today's walk suggested it might be the same; a long walk on a forest trail, a climb over a shallow pass followed by a long trudge down the other side and a final climb up to the Falkenhutte. My information was right but it didn't do justice to the scenery. The second part after the pass was just wonderful. The horizon was a long line of jagged limestone peaks, scree underneath and then open alpine pasture populated with little herds of cows.

Karwendeltal Valley

Day 6 Scharnitz

After yesterday, today had to be a bit of an anti-climax, and it was. To be honest after three nights in huttes all I wanted was to get down to civilisation, have a shower and wash my clothes. I was in Scharnitz by 1 so all wishes met.

Drietorsptzgatterl

Day 5 Meilerhutte

Hard case walkers arrive at the huttes late, rolling in about 7.30. They give the impression that they have been walking all day, have crossed the Alps, and in a not so subtle way suggest that johnny come earlies are not really cutting it. Late arrivers also mean that you just can't count your "I've got this room to myself" chickens until they finally hatch. The tiny little loft space, room 13, which I thought belonged to me had, by lights out at 10 o'clock, 5 other occupants. Despite being packed in like sardines, I did actually manage to get some sleep, at this rate I might even get used to it.

Climbing up to Feldernjochl Pass

Day 4 Coburger Hutte

Brilliant days walking, only problem was it was too short. Weather was perfect, scenery amazing but the next hutte was five hours away, got there just a bit too early. The way my schedule works, it's either a mega day today or tomorrow - it's 10 hours plus tomorrow.

Wolfratshauser Hutte

Day 3 Wolfratshauser Hutte

Fantastic breakfast at the Hotel Florence, almost made up for the fact that there was a thunder storm going outside and the rain was pouring down. Despite an early breakfast everything conspired against an early start: the weather; an unsuccessful search in the village's two shops for some ohrstopsel (earplugs); and then going west out the village instead of east; by the time I was walking on the route proper it was 10.30.

The rain didn't stop until midday and the first part of the walk, a climb up and along a forest trail to the ski resorts of Rinnen and Berwang, was not that exciting. Lots of trails around Berwang and I didn't want to believe that the correct route involved following the river out of town and loosing nearly all the height I'd gained since leaving Weissenbach.

Weittal Valley

Day 2 Weissenbach am Lech

I got to Weissenbach am Lech but somehow without going along the route of the red variant of the Via Alpina. What I hadn't realised when I set off this morning is that the Prinz-Luitpold-Haus is actually on two variants of the Via Alpina and I set off on the wrong one. In my defence both variants are marked red on the map it was only when the gap between the route I was following and the trail on my GPS (no maps on my GPS) got so large that I started to get suspicious.

On the pass at Bockkarscharte (2149 metre)