26 Days Along the Via Alpina

Just back from 26 wonderful days walking along the Via Alpina through Austria, Germany and Italy.  Everything "self-organised", it was another example of how rich the walking experience is in Europe and how lucky we are to have such accessible trips on our doorstep.  The only thing that surprised me was the fact that we only met one other person from the UK on the whole trip.

Day 26 Villach

We survived our night in the primitive Schultzhutte without any ill effects despite the interesting smell of mouse droppings on my pillow. The view from the window was stunning, a lovely clear night with a distinct view of the Milky Way above and the lights from Villach at the bottom of the valley below.

Schultzhutte

Day 25 Feistrizter Alm

There were clear signs today that the walk was beginning to fizzle out. The scenery was less dramatic and the number of other walkers dropped, despite wonderful weather and the fact that it was the weekend. At lot of Germans on the Hohnweg don't seem to bother with the last two days.

In terms of the Via Alpina schedule, today's walk combined two stages and was a big day 30 kilometres long with 1500 metres of climb. The target was the Schultzhutte at Feistrizter Alm, a hutte I hadn't been able to contact until at the last minute before we left Nassfeld the receptionist at the hotel managed to book it for us. We knew it was going to be small and remote.

The eastern Karnischer Alps are not as high as the western, everything is about 500 metres lower and as a consequence much of our route was through trees. There has been very little tree walking on this trip and it made a change to have the views so limited. You had to concentrate more on the navigation as well as the route has occasionally been destroyed by forestry work. The GPS trail on the IPhone saved us several times today.

Looking back to Egger Alm

Day 24 Nassfeld

What a difference a day makes, woke up stomach back to normal and ready to face the Austrian diet.

Zollnersee Hütte

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

Day 22 Untere Valentinalm

Christine doesn't like staying in huttes but accepts them as a necessary evil if you want to enjoy this style of walking. I had argued that the amazing locations, the sense of sharing the experience with other walkers, meant that the huttes added to the enjoyment of the holiday. Last night the balance of the argument shifted in Christine's favour.

Hochweissteinhaus

Day 21 Hochweissteinhaus

Definite improvement on the weather today, so much so that by early afternoon I was wearing shorts. I didn't see anyone else wearing shorts, and even I had gloves on, but the weather was less bad as the day went on.

Just past Bärenbadegg