Overnight road noise and mossies at the Adler were more than compensated by its fine breakfast. We took our time, so it was 9.30 before we set off on our scenic walk to Dornbirn.
Gently downhill through pristine farmland, past an aviary where Sue attracted wolf whistles and I set off a barking dog. Through mixed woodland with buzzards and long eared deer, and down to the River Bregenzerach that flows down the gorge from Egg.
The bridge we planned to use was closed due to forestry work. There was no sign of any work going on but we played safe, taking a detour along the lovely riverside path towards Langanegg, passing far underneath a road bridge spanning the gorge, before doubling back to Müselbach by 11am.
Sadly no venue for elevenses was spotted so we continued on up the drippy hill, with fine views back over our recent route (pictured, top), to Kaltenbrunnen for an hour's break. They were busy with mountain bikers and holidaymakers, but we were quite happy to laze in the shade of trees whilst waiting for our rosti. When it arrived it was a top notch offering.
Leaving Kaltenbrunnen at 1pm, we soon gained Lorena Pass and our first of today's many views of Lake Constance. Heading onwards to Bödele we gradually paid our farewells to the higher alpine peaks of recent days and settled for hazy views of nearer, albeit dramatic looking, hills and villages (pictured, bottom) above Lake Constance, and of the town and lake as we finally descended to Dornbirn.
We were met at 5pm by a Lazy Austrian camera shy pin-up (aka Markus) who whisked us a few metres to Wolfie and Jutta's flat, which they have kindly lent us for a couple of nights. Hopefully they are enjoying their Tyrolean holiday and won't be worrying too much about our wrecking their home!
A quick turnaround then saw us returning up the hill for ice cream and fruit with most of the rest of Markus's family, including Silke, with whom he completed the TGO Challenge in 2011.
Then it was back down to Dornbirn's beating heart (really, it was) for an excellent Austrian chicken dish and some fine beer from one of Markus's sponsors, the local brewery, who are in the process of labelling three million of their bottles with information about one of Markus's environmental campaigns.
Comments:
Alan R - apologies for the error, we just saw Rebecca in the olympics - we should have realised we were on the German countryfile channel when the sheepdog trials came on after the fencing, and we know that isn't an olympic sport!
I can just picture you fumbling with your tablet in a plastic bag on an LDWA walk!
Nick - I don't remember anything vertiginous either. Perhaps a read of our diary from 1980 will reveal more...
Anonymous - some food for thought there. Certainly worth considering photographing important documents on a separate memory card.
Data:
2 August 2012
21km in 7.5 hours with 1000m ascent
Flower of the Day - Giant Bellflower, lots of it!
Itinerary - http://www.topwalks.com/E5%20Route.html
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1 comment:
Caught up with my emails. R dealt with your request so I am sure all is well.
Still enjoying your travel news though it sounded like tough going the last few days.
Hope to catch up with you soon.
Love to you both
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