Coffee and croissants with Markus, then - after a fairly ruthless reduction of luggage from a car full to two small backpacks - we abandoned the car outside his apartment and accepted a lift to the Karren cablecar.
Our plan had been to walk a 21 stage route called the Kalkalpen Traverse. It's described by Alan Proctor in his Cicerone guide published in 1986. My copy was bought in 1994 and had luxuriated on a bookshelf until recently. I couldn't buy an updated version because there isn't one.
Stage 1 is from Bödele, near Dornbirn, to a mountain hut, Freschen Haus. When I started to book the trip just a few weeks ago (at short notice because of 'all change' due to my hernia op) plans were immediately knocked back when Freschen Haus informed me that they were fully booked tonight.
So I plotted an alternative route; Markus edited it, and that's how we find ourselves tonight in a 200 year old room in this nice hotel, with panoramic views of the Rhine valley.
The Karren Cablecar, of which there are clear views from Markus's balcony, runs every 15 minutes from 9am to midnight. We arrived soon after 9am to find a long queue. Curiously large sums were being spent by several groups of people. Once on the cablecar and disgorged at a satisfactory height of 970 metres, we realised that many folk were going up to enjoy a lavish breakfast in the restaurant that overlooks Lake Constance.
The weather forecast was dreadful. But the few bouts of light rain that did pass over hardly warranted the use of waterproofs, though visibility could at times have been better.
We started with a 'selfie' on the skywalk balcony at Karren. The walk to our elevenses stop at the friendly Schuttannen Hütte (1150 metres) was through pleasant woodland on the Salamander Balcony path. There were countless salamanders.
A direct route, which included a steep descent then a steeper ascent on narrow, little used paths, took us to the Emser Hütte (1280 metres) for lunch. Cheese and ham toasties with lots of salad.
From there, the ascent of Hohe Kugel, today's high point at 1645 metres, was a steady pull past a large herd of cows up to a pleasant crest. Fine if rather cloud tainted views, and a posh box containing two fully used visitor's books.
Then a steady descent to Viktorsberg to finish the day at 4.45pm after a 7 hour outing. Just a few folk seen on the final descent, otherwise we had only cows for company all day.
Having moved some way to the west, some of the flowers are different here. Particularly noticeable are Yellow Archangels, Stemless Thistles, Marsh Gentian, St Bernard's Lilies, German Gentians, Salad Burnett, Horse Mint, and a patch of wild raspberries.
Today: 16.5 km, 1100 metres ascent
Today's pictures:
Starting with a selfie and Lake Constance
Salamanders
Hohe Kugel view
False White Helleborine
View of the Rhine valley from near our balcony
View of the Rhine valley from near our balcony
2 comments:
I sympathise with your booking problem. I plan to resume my big walk from Hellifield onwards on Wednesday. I've booked the first four nights, but it was not easy and I have had to alter my route to make accommodation fit. Looks like you and Sue are haveing a great summer out there.
Good luck on your resumed challenge, Conrad. We are having a lovely time, as you observe, and my 'wound' seems to be OK with carrying a hut to hut bag, starting the day after the six week recuperation period.
Hut to hut holidays are apparently very popular here at the moment, so plans for next year (AV2?) are already being considered with a view to booking early.
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