Monday, 16 July 2012

Nassfeld

Wirthaus Starhand

26.1

1517.4

Mostly sunny and mild

Dolzinger Alm, Wirthaus Starhand

Fruit and yoghurt, scrambled egg, rolls and jam for breakfast; cheese and ham rolls for lunch; soup, goulash and polenta, and strudel for dinner.

None

It was foggy when I got up, but began clearing while I had breakfast and by the time I started hiking at 8:30am it was mostly sunny and cool.  Perfect.  The morning's hiking started along back roads and across some high pasture before some beautiful walking through pine and deciduous forests on relatively level forest roads.  There were still rocky crags atop the surrounding mountains, but the landscape seemed less severe.  There was still a lot of hail on the ground in some places from yesterday's storms, and I saw evidence all day of significant erosion and storm damage.  I reached the small holiday village of Egger Alm just before 1:00pm.  It seemed typical of other little hamlets I saw later in the day.  Just a collection of small log holiday cabins in small yards with sometimes a rustic Alm (Pub?) at its centre.  There were a lot of holiday makers about, many of them walking along the roads and paths through the nearby park-like valley through which the Via Alpina also ran.

Shortly after, I found a nice bench in the sun with a view down the valley for lunch.  Very pleasant.  After lunch, there was some more easy walking along back roads and forest roads for an hour before my route left the roads and followed some fairly rough single-track trail down to a rushing stream.  The last part of the descent involved lowering myself down a steep slope on a knotted rope left there for the purpose.  Because of all the rain in the past few days, the grey sediment-filled rushing stream was going to be a challenge to cross, and I spent about 30 minutes exploring up- and down-stream in difficult country trying to find a way across that would not involve getting my feet wet, but to no avail.  Just as I was about to wade across, two hikers appeared on the other side of the stream, going in the opposite direction.  The stream was too loud to talk to them, but I gestured that I had searched for a better crossing place unsuccessfully and started my crossing.  Using my trekking poles to feel my way through the grey torrent, having made sure everything was watertight and undoing the belt and chest straps on my pack just in case I fell, I crossed without incident, apart from soaking my boots and socks (it had taken the two days I was in the hotel to dry the boots out!).  I could see the two guys really wanted to get across without getting their boots wet, but I think they had no hope.  I didn't wait to find out and continued on my way.

The balance of the afternoon involved steadily climbing through forest and farmland to a high grassy ridge with lovely views and then descending to reach the holiday hamlet of Wirthaus Starhand which straddles the Italian-Austrian border just before 5pm.  I had intended to walk for another hour to Feistritzer Alm, to make it a short day tomorrow, but two guys sitting outside the Alm tried to persuade me, in German, to stay there.  Then the Austrian woman, Lili, from the threesome I had been hiking near two days ago, appeared and said that it seemed a good place to stay and that some other hikers had told her it was better than where I was going.  Sold!  I agreed to stay and got a room to myself at a very reasonable price.  It's all pretty rustic, but friendly, and it will still be a short day tomorrow.  After dinner I had a few quiet minutes outside the guesthouse savouring a perfect peaceful summer evening in this beautiful valley surrounded by forested mountains thinking to myself how lucky I was to be having this experience and how soon it will all be over.