Friday 8th May: Weather: 15°C to 25°C: sunny and warm
Gaudeamushutte to Hintersteinersee: 15k walk through forests and farm roads: Sound of Music country
Accommodation: Barnstatt Guest House
Our “Fridge” hanging out window
Picture post card today
Pine forests meadows and alps
Morning tes with a view
Wild flowers galore
Forest tracks
Lunch with a view
Barnstatt Ian happy as pig in mud
Watching Nadal and Federer
An absolutely amazing Sound of Music day with meadows, forests, wildflowers in a setting surrounded by snow capped alps. After yesterdays debacle in the snow, our host Anni suggested taking a forest road lower down to go via Reidlhutte and Jagerwirt, mostly following forest tracks and farm roads, as the higher rout via Hochalm at 1500m was still snowed in. Next highlight was arriving at our home for the night, Barnstatt Guesthouse to find the French Open tennis between Nadal and Federer had only just started and it’s a perfect picture on the TV in our room. Ian is happy!
It’s so quiet in our 2 person double bunk room that we slept in til almost 7am. A quick pack up and we’re down to breakfast at 7.30am to hot tea/coffee, make-your-own-muesli with oats and a variety of nuts and seeds, and a selection of breads, cheeses and ham. We check out the best route with Anni and head off at 9am down the steep gravel road towards the turn off to Reidlhutte on track 822. It’s a glorious day, cool and sunny, with lots of day hikers around. The forests and meadows are riddled with tracks dotted with many huts and guest houses for the day hikers to visit. Every where we walk, it’s Sound of Music country with meadows, forests and wildflowers in a setting surrounded by snow capped alps.
By 11am we’re passing Reidlhutte and look for a possible track back to the higher route, thinking if we re join the main track, it might be past the snowed in area. There’s a ranger just setting up her little hut for the summer and we ask her what’s the state of the track on the higher route to Hintersteinersee. She says “Well 6 men went hiking that way yesterday and we don’t know if they made it or not”. Ok. Thanks. We’ll keep going down the valley!!
Soon after stop in a stony field with a magical view for morning coffee with real UHT Cream. Track 822 goes to our next maker, Jagerwirt guest house on our way to Hintersteinersee. By 1pm, we’re only 10 minutes away from Barnstatt Guest House near the large lake and decide to stop for lunch incase the place isn’t open. Two day old German bread from Innsbruck tastes really nice with butter and camembert cheese, plus a cup of tea. We stop a little longer than usual to absorb the wonderful alpine view and then it’s only a short walk to the Guest House Barnstatt.
Melinda welcomes us with perfect English and shows us to our room. I head for the shower to do some washing and Ian manages to find a sports channel to watch the Nadal/Federer match. He’s like a pig in mud lying on our Queensize bed watch the match which has not long started. And to top it off, there’s news that Ash Barty has won her semi final.
Dinner