Today was our rest day and we so wanted to jump into the beautiful Ossiacher See! And of course my parents, our trail angels, would come to bring the refill of our supplies!!!
But first, after having breakfast, we met Martin for a quick chat at a café because he wanted to continue to Velden this day and we weren’t sure when and if we might meet the next time. During the last 10 days we met each other nearly daily, either during the hike or mainly in the evenings. He’s also the only person we know of who’s also doing the thru-hike so it was a bit sad that we probably won’t meet for quite a while. 😞 Right now all the other hikers we’ve met during the last 2 weeks are about to finish their parts of the trail, too, so now no one we know is hiking the AAT. Although we love to hike just the two of us it is very nice to meet other AAT hikers along the way or have dinner and breakfast together. It’s fun to exchange the experiences on the trail, with the accomodations, about the little aches and pains… It’s so much different being a long distance hiker than a day hiker, and you experience things in a total different way. Your perspective really shifts, and you mainly think of the next stage, of what to eat when, where to get supplies etc. And suddenly small things are so important: fresh clothes, all at once the best feeling on earth. For me it’s a highlight to find good tea. And small soaps at a hotel suddenly are one awesome present. 😂😂😂
Anyway, after having said goodbye to Martin we went to the public bathing beach of Ossiach. It was only 10.30 a.m. and there were so few people around. It wasn’t very hot yet and at first the lake felt a little cold. But it was so great swimming around and even jumping from the cool “Iceberg” there – kind of a jumping castle in the shape of an iceberg in the lake where you could climb up on it for a few metres and jump or skid into the water. Ok, probably it was for kids in the first place but who’s the first to cast a stone? 😉
Afterwards we did a short cultural programme and visited the Benedictine abbey of Ossiach. Inside there were obviously rehearsals for a concert being held but the music was rather sinister so we soon left the abbey again.
At around noon my parents arrived and we got a lot of things to refill our supplies. My mum even made gorgeous little chocolate chunks for Felix (who had birthday yesterday) so it all felt a little bit like Christmas. 😉 You can’t imagine how happy you can be over tiny, one-portion bags of peanuts which are perfectly for that little hunger on the way. 😁
We then had lunch together and chatted for quite a while before my parents left again.
For the rest of the day we went for another swim in the lake, had a snack and strolled around a bit. Felix even mastered the energy to go for a run!
Tomorrow we’ll be hiking to Velden and meet Angela, a friend of ours. 🙌
Some figures for today 😉:
- 0km (for Felix: 12km of running)