Monday 10th June: Weather: 14°C to 19°C: overcast then warm and sunny with only a threat of rain.
Riedenberg to Gwercherwirt: 16k walk from 8.30am to 12.30pm via Kaiserhaus
Accommodation: Gwercherwirt Gasthaus Pinegg
6am - cows outside our window
Lovely forest walk on E4/O1
Fallen trees cleared from track
Kaiserklamm - Emperor’s Gorge
Morning tea Kaiserklamm
Kaiserhaus tourist haven
Lunch at church Gwercherwirt
View from balcony Gwercherwirt
20k walk around Chevreuse
Highlight today was walking an extra few k along the Kaiserklamm gorge via a track cut into the limestone by loggers over a hundred years to help push the logs down the torrential Brandenberger Ache River. Next highlight was getting to Gwercherwirt Gasthaus early at 1pm to find they have good WiFi and I’ve received emails to confirm that the next 4 days of hiking over the Karwendal Mountains is possible with a one detour that turns a 17k day into 27k. They hadn’t had as much snow/storms in this region compared to St Johann so we’re lucky to be able to do it at all and the 27k is mostly along valleys.
We’re woken at 6am by cows trampling past our window back to the pastures after their morning milking. But that’s OK as we’ve already had 10 hrs sleep. There’s no WiFi, no TV, no Phone so nothing to do except pack, shower and go down to breakfast at 7.30am. Breakfast is a magnificent spread of breads, fruit, jams, juice, meats, cheese, eggs and coffee - enough to feed 6 people like yesterday. We eat sparingly and make a ham roll to take for lunch, and there’s still food left. Ian pays 80 euro, a cheap night for a guest house with a few beers last night plus breakfast this morning and asks Lydia if we can buy some honey please. Ian loves honey in his tea. No problem, and she waives any payment.
We're on our way in light rain at 8.30am, back down the path we came in on to rejoin the E4/O1 towards Kaiserhaus. There’s a few bikes, many ebikes, but not as many as yesterday. The wide forest track wends it’s way through pine forests deep at the bottom of a narrow valley set between mountain ridges. In 2 hrs, we’re at the entrance to the Kaiserklamm track where there’s already dozens of day hikers and tourists walking along the narrow path chiselled by hand into the limestone hills. It’s set about 20 metres above the raging torrent of the Brandenberger Ache River, which, over many millennia has cut a deep path through the rock towards the Inn Valley. The narrow track is quite safe with wire railings along the entire edge for about one kilometre.
At the end of the track, there's a bench seat. It’s 11am and a perfect spot for a Jetboiled morning tea. We’ve just started on our Aldi powdered milk, after using UHT cream for several days and it's nice in tea or coffee. The rain has stopped and the sun is trying to come out as we continue along the gorge track, do a U turn at the end on to a bike track through the forest back to the start, detouring off at the end to Kaiserhaus. In the late 19th Century, Emperor Franz Josef and his beloved wife Sissi would often come to this romantic gorge deep in the Brandenberg Alps and stay at the lodge which became known as the Kaiserhaus. Likewise, the gorge became known as the "Kaiserklamm" (Emperor's Gorge).
Continuing on down the E4/O1 towards Pinegg, it’s a hive of activity with cyclists and kayaking enthusiasts everywhere. By 12.30pm, we’re in the 10 house village of Pinegg, and see a sign to our Guest House Gwercherwirt. But we’re early, and just over the road is an old church with a seat outside. Perfect for another cup of tea with our ham roll for lunch. There’s a few drops of rain as we hurriedly pack up and hope that the guest house accepts us early. They do, and what’s more they speak English and have great WiFi - no phone, but WiFi is still good for using What’s App and Messenger.
Our room is big with a king size bed, lounge, desk and ensuite and we’re booked in for dinner, bed and breakfast for 92 Euro total. A quick check of my emails and there’s replies from Bayreutherhutte and Binsalm to say the Adlerweg into and out of these places is clear. We had noticed on the way in this morning that there’s not as much snow high up and we’ve seen no major track closures with fallen logs so we were hopeful of being able to continue without catching buses around the valleys.
Time to blog, catch up on emails, plan the next few days route and wait for dinner - and a beer of course. At 5.30 it’s time for that beer. I have a wheat beer for a change - dark and sweet. Dinner is a 4 course meal - a slice of vegetable pie then a small salad, main course of pork fillet with a mountain of boiled potatoes followed by dessert of chocolate mousse and cream. We were hoping for some genuine apple strudel but we’re already full so a light mousse is ok.
We’ve been impressed with Austrian guesthouses and food which we like better than French food and is much more reasonably priced than Switzerland for the same kind of scenery. After emailing a bit more, it’s time for bed at 9am.