Tonight was not very restful because it was rather warm in the room but we couldn’t leave a window open since our accomodation was next to the railroads and a street.
Nonetheless we got up rather early to have breakfast at 7 a.m. as today’s stage would be quite long and it was going to be hot! 😰
Breakfast was quite ok at the Pension Fürstenhof and I was positively surprised by the good choice of fruits! So we left with rather full stomaches. 😉
We headed to the Kurpark again and resumed the AAT trail from there. For the first part we hiked through the forest which was not only cooling in the morning heat but really beautiful! Surprisingly many people were already up and running or Nordic walking. The route we hiked was along the Römer Weg (Romans’ way) which had run from Italy to Warmbad Villach. It was fascinating because you could still see the wagon tracks on the old stones!
After 3km we reached a street (before we had to fight our way through some dense undergrowth for some 100 metres – the way didn’t seem to be very cared for) which was like a slap in the face after the pretty forest track. We had to walk 2km next to the street without pedestrian lane and some trucks really zipped by dangerously near!
Thankfully the track then led into the next forest through the Schütt. This area with large rocks was created when big parts of the Dobratsch broke off during an earthquake in the 14th century. The whole area was being put under nature conservancy in 2002 and therefore being the first region under conservancy in Carinthia. It was again so gorgeous to hike here! The only thing that was awful was when we saw three hunters carrying a dead deer down some 100 metres ahead of us. 😢
Next to a stream we stopped for a break and we could easily have stayed there much longer. The only noise was the stream and some birds. No one else was around. Beautiful! But considering the length of today’s hike we continued after half an hour.
After leaving the forest after two more kilometres we walked through the small village Oberschütt before the track continued on a nice, broad path through a forest again. We saw quite some people on bikes but not a single hiker!
After about 3km we reached Lisis Almwirtschaft Schütt, a nice tavern along the way which totally seemed like a mountain hut with the mountain Dobratsch in the background:
We stopped for a break and had something to drink and eat. It was really very relaxing! All the other guests came here by bike. Again no hikers.
An Italian family wondered about our backpacks and we talked a bit. The woman was so funny when she told Felix that he looked more tired than me. 😂
After continuing on, the path led along the Gail river with great views to all sides:
It was also here when we entered the “bears area” (we didn’t see any, btw):
There was also a pretty stop for a break:
Shortly before reaching Nötsch we saw this lovely resting spot:
From here we had to hike 2km to Nötsch. It was insanely hot, no shadow at all and it felt way too long! I just mastered one picture in Nötsch (then all I wanted was to find a spot in the shadows):
We truly felt so dried out on reaching Nötsch that we stopped at a restaurant for something to drink before we were mentally capable of continuing the last 3km to Feistritz.
It was even worse. Asphalt road next to a street (though with pedestrian lane this time) and only heat all around us. We passed a supermarket and did some shopping. Inside it was so cool that I nearly started to shiver, being heated all over.
Somehow we managed the last 2km to Feistritz but on trying to find our accomodation, the Hotel Alte Post, we saw that some road works were going on. As if the normal heat wasn’t enough we walked along fluid tar being put on the street.
Never before was I so happy to finally stand under the shower!!!
We ate at the hotel since there didn’t seem to be anything else in Feistritz. 😉 But it was very good, we chose baked potatoes with vegetables and pancakes with icecream (for me) and chocolate cake with icecream (for Felix).
For the rest of the evening we were busy with murdering mosquitos. A stream next to the house might be nice but there are disadvantages in Summer… 😉
Some figures for today:
- 26km
- 315m up
- 265m down
- Hiking time: 5h
Murdering mosquitos, but sorry about a deer…. hmmmmmm 😉
Mosquitos are the biblical plague, they deserve to die. 😂