Saturday 22nd June: Weather: 12°C to 25°C: Overcast skies, cool then warm, rain after 3pm
Reutte to Stanzach: 20k: 6hrs: 8.30am to 3pm: 6hrs 30 mins: 2 x 30 min breaks
Accommodation: Hotel Garni Waldhof Stanzach
Leaving Wei Wei’s 8.30am
Cycle way beside Lech River
Lechtal Valley snow capped mts
Morning tea with cake from Mpreis
Following the Lech River Trail
Footbridge near Weissenbach
Lunch in Forchach
Broad gravel strewn Lech River
Checking snow on mts ahead
Hotel Garni Waldhof
An easy day walking 20k mostly on the long distance Lech River Trail following the Lech River. Such a surprisingly pretty walk with the Lechtal Mountains high above to our left and ahead up the valley, still covered in snow. Highlight was discovering that this is a famous walk as it is designated as the only wild river landscape in Europe with untouched country between the alpine farming villages of Weissenabch and Forchach on the way to Stanzach. Highlight also today is that we have so far covered 300k from St Johann, at an average of 17.8k per day.
Awake at 6am and it’s quiet. The other three guests upstairs have left early and we’re have the kitchen to ourselves. First a cup of tea, then the usual Saturday morning phone calls home, before having our breakfast of Muesli and yoghurt, followed by a hot Cappucchino and Chocolate mixed with powdered milk. Retrieving our frozen bottles from the freezer, Ian packs our “fridge” with the cheese and butter, and I carry the bread and capsicum.
Leaving at 8.30am, it’s a cool overcast morning, and soon we need to stop to put on an Aldi jacket. The walk follows the Lech River Trail through the Lechtal Valley, largely untouched, and recognised in Europe as one of the last wild river landscapes in Europe with only a few villages strewn along it’s length. The Lech river is a tribute of the Danube and we're following it for the next 70k to Lech further up the valley where we’ll be in 4 days. There’s a few cyclists and hikers, but they are few and far between.
At 10.30am, we’re in the largish village of Weissenbach where we know there’s an Mpreis supermarket, the only one we’ll see today. Stopping to buy bread for tomorrow (Sunday when everything is closed) and 2 sweets for morning tea, we then find a seat in the village square and have a cup of coffee. Ian has banana mousse cake and I have a hazelnut spread cinnamon roll.
Following the large L signs painted on trees and buildings, indicating the Lecht River Trail, it’s another 2 hours through pine forests beside the 200 metre wide river that has now spread out into several channels, winding and pushing hundreds of cubic metres of stones down stream. There’s a river management plan in place to divert some of the River into “gravel collection” points, to prevent the River from clogging with stones and allowing the gravel to be collected for construction.
At 1pm we reach the little village of Forchach and find a seat in the village for lunch of fresh bread and cheese, then we share a piece of my left over nut roll to have with a cup of tea. We’re in Stanzach by 3pm, and google to find the Hotel Garni Waldhof just off the main road in a quiet spot near pine trees. Our room is very nice - it would need to be at 100 euro, the most we’ve paid since Paris and almost twice as much as we paid at Wei Wei’s last night!. Time to wash, have a shower and sort photos while watching the rain fall as it has for the past 3 afternoons right on 3pm. Ian watches Ash Barty and Federer play tennis while I blog.
There’s a pay as you go fridge downstairs with beers and at 5pm, Ian trots off to buy 1 dark and 1 lager while I throw together some bread, cheese, lettuce and capsicum with mayonnaise - vegetarian today. It’s a cool night after the rain, but tomorrow is supposed to be 29°C max and the day after 34°C. We spend the rest of the evening searching for a petrol station en route tomorrow, as it’s the only place that will be open and likely to have any fresh food for tomorrow night. There’s one at Haselgehr so Ian is happy! It will probably sell beer!