Friday 21st June: Weather: 15°C to 22°C: Blue sunny skies and warm, thunderstorms in afternoon and rain
Lermoos to Reutte: 25k: 6hrs: 8.15am to 4.15pm: 8hrs: 2 x 30 min breaks and 2 x 15min shopping stops
Accommodation: Wei Wei’s Hostel Reutte
Morning tea above Lermoos
Meadows and hay barns
Train enroute Reutte to Lermoos
Walking into Heiterwang
Mowing the grass automatically
Painted houses in Heiterwang
Directions to Highline 179
Across to Castle Ehrenberg
View down to Reutte
Ancient drawing Ehrenberg
Layout of Fortress
Lunchtime View from Fort Claudia
Moving quickly across 400m Highline
Half way across Highline 179
Highline 179 world’s longest single span footbridge at 405m
Statistics of Highline 179 footbridge
Highlight today was unexpectedly stumbling across the world’s longest suspension footbridge near Reuette, Highline179, which connects a complex of ruined castles and forts at Ehrenberg. After re-routing our walk up the valley to Reuette instead of going over Fernpass and being stuck in snow trying to get to Anhalterhutte which was closed anyway, we had a magnificent 25k walk criss crossing the valley road and railway, with views to our left of the Lechtal Alps. Then down to Reuette to do some shopping before going to our wonderful home for the night at Wei Wei’s Hostel in Reutte, just before it started raining.
Awake at 6am to wonderful views of the Zugspitze from our balcony. A Jetboiled cup of tea before leaving at 7.45am to visit the Mpreis supermarket just 50 metres from Happy Camp Hoffher. Planning to have breakfast on the way, we buy fresh bread, butter, yoghurt, cream and a soft Brie cheese. Then up the valley on the panorama wanderweg, following signs to Lahn and Bichlbach. At 9.45am there’s a seat with views across to the Lechtal mountains. It’s cool but warming up fast as we sit in the sun to have breakfast with a cup of coffee.
The valley is a beautiful meadowed valley full of wild flowers, and the track weaves back and forward across the train line, the road, and through the forests on a cycle way with dozens of cyclists up and down the patch. The train between Lermoos and Reuette only passes every 2 hrs, so it’s very quiet beside the train line, and when it does come, it’s ever so silent. Soon we’re walking into Bichlbach, an ancient village renowned for its carpenters and bricklayers. At 8.5k, this is almost half way and the going is easy, with only small ups and downs, and no huge ascents or descents.
By 1pm we’re walking across meadows to Heiterwang, set in a most beautiful backdrop of pine forests and snow capped mountains, the white church steeple standing out above the painted houses. Once through the village, we come across the first signs to Highline 179. The first that we became aware of this magnificent structure was the night before when when Ian was planning our route for today, and we noticed that Komoot, his track planner inserted a straight line from one side of the mountains to the other across the valley. Thinking it’s a blip in the route planner which couldn’t find a track from one side of the valley to the other so simply connected two points, I then did a search on google earth to see what was going on and I could see a wire stretching across labelled Highline 179. Another search revealed thsi to be the longest suspended footbridge in the world connecting two ancient fortresses, Fort Claudia and Ehrenberg Castle.
Highway 179 was the brainchild of architect Armin Walch who was committed to the restoration of the old fortress ruins and secured a private investor in 2012 to construct this enormously popular structure, that is surely a winner at 6 euro pp. Today there were hundreds of people who had driven in cars just to see the bridge, not necessarily the ruins.
It took us another hour and a half to hike around the mountainside to get to Fort Claudia where we found a seat to have our lunch of fresh bread and cheese with a view of the Highline to the ruins on the other side. Then we did as all tourists do, and paid our 6 euro each to walk the 400 metres across this swaying bridge. Definitely a view with a thrill, being 110 metres above thin air.
The collection of ruins includes the gothic Ehrenberg Castle, built around 1290, which has over the centuries been home to many counts, princes and kings. Today the ruins of this once mighty fortress lie at the heart of the Burgenwelt Ehrenberg, an ensemble which also includes the baroque Schlosskopf Fortress, the Ehrenberger Klause in the valley and the Fort Claudia. Together they once formed a formidable defence structure.
Once over Highline 179 from Fort Claudia to the Ehrenberg Castle, there was a steep track down to the valley of Reutte arriving about 3pm, enough time to do an extra 2k into the village to the MPreis supermarket to buy dinner. We leave with 2 dark Kozel beers, 3 Zipfer beer, a packet of Bergworst sausages, lettuce, cheese, onion, jam, and chocolate. It’s spitting to rain when we leave and dark clouds are looming in the mountains behind us as we walk quickly along the valley cycleway to Ehenbichl, the next village after Reutte. My google maps takes us to this lovely house at the foot of the Lechtal mountains. We need to ring the owner and 10 minutes later Wei Wei, a loveley Chinese man turns up with his wife and grandson to let us in and show us around. Just in time before the rain starts.
Again we are amazed at the standard of accommodation we have had in Austria. This is called Wei Wei’s Hostel, but it’s not a hostel, it’s whole house! We have a large bedroom with ensuite, lounge room, kitchen and dining room with a magnificent view up to the Ehrenberg ruins. Wei Wei tells us there’s three Chinese people coming to sleep upstairs later. We suspect it’s his spare house for when his family visits, and he rents out one room through booking.com. After a hot shower and time sorting photos over a cold beer and cheese, we have our dinner of Austrian sausages heated in the microwave with salad and mayonnaise, plus the rest of the beers. The 25k wasn’t difficult with only a few hundred metres up and down, but it was a magnificent day to end in a magnificent place like Wei Wei’s.
Beer and cheese after a long day
View from Wei Wei’s dining room