Day 2: Neue Bonner Hütte – Innerkrems

When we woke at 6.15 a.m. it was very foggy outside. We slept very well and though there were quite some people staying in the hut for the night it was utterly quiet. Well, except for the constant peeping of the low battery of the smoke detector every 30 minutes… 😂

I forgot to post the photo from the view from our room yesterday:

Such beauty! And the wonderful smell of the mountains! I don’t get it why people have to put on perfume when they go for a hike. What for? That the cows hide behind the next tree until the horrid smell has passed? 😕

Since regular breakfast is only from 8 a.m. (the only negative thing at the Bonner Hütte because 8 a.m. is way too late for hikers) we were provided with bread, butter and jam already yesterday and therefore had breakfast in bed looking out at the foggy horizon.

When we left at 7.15 a.m. no one else was up, and so we started in a peopleless (is that a word?!) day enjoying the quiet of an early morning in the mountains.

Our first destination would be the Laußnitzer Hütte in a rather short distance:

The way up was easy and quite comfortable to hike though without any views thanks to the fog.

But we saw some pretty horses around:

Soon, it wasn’t even 8.30, we reached the Laußnitzer Hütte. One of the inkeepers was outside when we came along and was rather surprised to see anyone that early around. But we could stay and got a wonderful blueberry cake, coffee and hot chocolate. Getting up early pays off! 😅

Afterwards we continued upwards, this time a small and rather steep hiking path up to the Laußnitzer See. Unfortunately everything was still foggy and the view was rather restricted but the lake was still pretty – and it was all ours. 😎

A while later we had a very pleasant hike along the mountain ridge. Still fog around but no rain and utter quiet.

Soon we arrived at the Schwarzwand:

Not much to see either so we signed the summit register and continued on.

And then from out of the fog this beautiful cattle emerged, it was very eerie:

See the long horns? They looked at us as curious as we at them but then continued grazing.

And we went on and nearly felt like hiking in the Scottish highlands:

We passed one of the Anderle lakes:

From there we always hiked a little up and down and up… until we arrived at the Gaipa-Höhe, some kind of summit. So far we haven’t met a single person and had the summit for us only. 😁

For the first time the fog began to lighten up and it got warmer so we stayed for a break and a little snack.

Only then, on our way down to the Blutige Alm (“Bloody pasture” 😂) we met a few people hiking up from where we came. And again, the two ladies were perfumed as if going to a dinner in a posh restaurant. Honestly, wtf?! ❓

And finally, when arriving at the Blutige Alm we understood why all of a sudden there were so many people: there was a chair lift going up here! 😂

We paused for a quick lunch and since the vegetarian options were rather limited I had chips🍟 and – for the healthy addition – a salad with it. 😜 Felix chose Kaspressknödel. And that was it with vegetarian dishes on the Blutige Alm – perhaps the name says it all?

The way down was at first below the line of the chair lift but very soon we left it and had a nice way down. Even the sun came out for the first time!

And we saw some horses again:

Our accommodation for the night is an inn in Innerkrems, unfortunately not for the early-to-bed-going hikers but more for loud-TV-watching bikers (the one with more than 1 PS). Otherwise it’s quite nice, dinner was huge and the room is very big with even a balcony.

Some figures:

• 18km
• 850m up
• 1090m down
• Highest point: 2214m (Schwarzwand)
• Rain: none
• Blueberries: too many to eat them all!!!