Midweek

One week of vacation is already behind us, halfway there. For that, we celebrated a very special midweek, the first real mountain hike from Hochjoch to Innerkappell-Alpe and back. Let me give you the important data right away: 6.8km in 3:20h (including breaks) and 318m between the lowest and highest point. I had wished for something like this beforehand 😍.

But first, we took the Zamangbahn up from 700m to 1862m. Our hiking tour started with a good climb up to Sebligasee, which is a reservoir that feeds the snow cannons in winter. From there, we continued uphill to the so-called 'Surblies' viewpoint at an altitude of 1980m. The view from there was absolutely breathtaking... you sit in the midst of mighty mountain peaks and look down into the valley, where the houses look like toy houses. Really cute, even if you see that there is so much space between the individual properties. No concrete buildings or areas overloaded with real estate, but nature around your own home as far as the eye can see. That's how you should live!

However, the bench from which we enjoyed the amazing view was on a grassy rock, which seemed to be the home of hundreds of flies. It buzzed and hummed the whole time, so we couldn't stand it for too long. But no problem, we had just started.

So from the highest point of the tour onwards, our path led us downhill for 3km. But not just like that, the exciting part began now. Narrow trails over roots and stones, past flower meadows and incredibly many herds of cows. They just stand or lie there on the path we actually want to pass, but they don't care. It's their area after all.

We really experienced something while hobbling down the path, left, right, big step, mud and swamp, moss and cow dung... everything was there. The motto at the time was 'be careful with your feet!' (insider 😉). And neither looking forward, nor when you turned around, could you see the path very far. It always went meter by meter, step by step. In between, we used a larger stone for a short break and tried to figure out from which mountain peak we had actually come down here. Impossible!

After about half of the entire tour, we reached Innerkapell-Alpe and each treated ourselves to a Wanderer-Radler (and I had the most delicious butter sandwich in the world 😋). We spent quite a while there and were really, I mean REALLY happy, about what we had achieved and seen up to that point. The sun was shining down on us with full force, once again disproving the prophecies of that old toad! Stupid guy.

The way back to the train station no longer led us through narrow trails, but on a well-maintained, wide gravel path through the shady forest. Right at the beginning, we discovered mushrooms, but of course we left them there. We simply don't know anything about them, but the mushroom experts among you will tell us what's going on.

As good as the condition of the path was, it was not easy to hike because from the train station (about 3km) it was constantly uphill. Not steep, but continuously upwards. We took short breaks every now and then and were dripping with sweat! But when we could see the mountain station, we quickly covered the last steps.

Up there, we treated ourselves to another Radler and ice cream in lounge chairs with a fantastic view of the paragliders, for whom Hochjoch is a coveted starting point.

Stretching our legs, feeling like in paradise, being completely satisfied with ourselves and overwhelmingly happy about completing the tour... that was the successful conclusion of this precious day!

Now we are still drawing on the impressions before we hop into bed not too late and maybe can look at the stars again. Because last night, the sky was so clear and we couldn't get enough through the skylight...

Stay happy

Tina & André