Today we’ll finally be hiking over the boarder to Italy. So, this would be the last day in Austria after hiking here for 24 days! All in all, I loved the Austrian part, especially the Millstätter Alpe and the Nockberge. I’m not sure whether the Italian or Slovenian part can get close to it but let’s wait and see.
Again we didn’t sleep too well. It would have been very quiet outside and we could have let the windows open but after playing hide and seek with what felt like 1000 mosquitos in the evening we didn’t feel like risking anything. 😉 So again it was very hot!
Breakfast was again ok, good choice of muesli but unfortunately no fruits. At around 8 o’clock we left the hotel Alte Post. The road works were already starting and we were quite happy not to have to endure them. 😉
At first the AAT led on an asphalt road up for 2km. On the way we saw this tiny church, the Parish church of St. Martin:
Then it changed into a comfortable 4×4 road slowly winding uphill. Unfortunately comfortable meant that there were also quite some cars and even two smaller trucks driving by and some of them left us in quite a heap of dust! Ruthless drivers!!!
After some kilometres and some 700 metres up mainly shaded by trees (thankfully because it was already so hot!!!) we had the first good views again:
We made a little break and just enjoyed the cool breeze up here.
Then we continued to hike uphill again and at around 11.00 a.m. we reached the Feistritzalm. What an incredibly beautiful spot!
So we decided to have an extended break up here for lunch. Felix had the best Kaiserschmarrn on the whole trail so far!
After about one hour when it got little crowded at the hut we continued our way. We headed up to the church Maria Schnee:
The church is in memoriam to three brothers who died at World War II.
The view up here was unique:
Afterwards the path led down a bit again until we reached the state boarder:
From there it was again upwards and we passed the Achomitzer Alm, some private houses that had a damn good view to all the mountains in the surrounding. Nope, I wasn’t jealous at all. 😉
From there the path led down again. At first quite slowly on comfortable forest ground for around 2km. But then it began! Our guide called it “knee-jarring”, and man, it was just that! The path was so very steep and on all that gravel I slipped too often. Once I even fell onto my butt. 😠 We had to stop quite often just to take a breath and give our legs a break.
After 4 horrible kilometres we finally were down in Camporosso in Valcanale, a small village before Valbruna. There was a nice resting spot with a spring of water and we stopped for a few minutes and sat down to ease our weary legs.
By the way, the whole Italian part of the trail was marked especially well! They also indicated the kilometres still left to each destination and had these pretty signs on trees, streets etc:
Then we continued our way to Valbruna. After leaving Camporosso, we went through an underpass under the motorway and then hiked along a bicycle path for 2km. Though path is the wrong word for this highway for bikes! Two lanes for bikers, one in each direction, all asphalt. I wish there were nearly as great bicycle lanes in Austria!
Finally after reaching Valbruna we found our accomodation, the Valbruna Inn easily. Our room was called the Bivacco, a tiny room with bunk beds and a bathroom that was nearly as big as the room itself. But we had a balcony!
After showering we walked a little through Valbruna, a strange village with both pretty and ugly houses and awesome mountains just directly in the background, and did some shopping in the only supermarket in the whole area!
Since dinner was served only from 7 p.m. we went to a lovely bakery just one minute from our inn. Ordering was one special task. The young waitress didn’t understand one word English! It was only when she fetched the old lady from the kitchen who looked easily over 60 but spoke English we got our gorgeous cakes and coffee. Good espresso for 1 Euro, yay, I’m in coffeeland!
Dinner at our inn was also very good! We had salad from the buffet, vegetable strudel and muffin and for dessert Tapioka al lemons and Tiramisu caffé. And one espresso for me. 😁
Later we sat outside in the porch swing even when it started to rain a bit. It was cool and the air was fresh and we enjoyed it very much!
Some figures for today:
- 24,8km
- 1390m up
- 1200m down
- Hiking time: 5h 38m