[Note: the photos from this day (and others) are of inferior quality. The original slides were very dark, so I've tried to brighten the images a little. Perhaps I had the camera on the wrong settings for much of this entire trip!]
Thursday 24 July 1980 - diarist: Martin - Near Langen to near Ravensburger Hutte
Nick woke at
5:30 and by 8 o'clock, having read the street map of
The flat site
and fine, cool weather had enabled everyone to get a good kip. By 9 am we were
striding down the path to the shops in Langen (bread required). But there were
no shops so we continued down a path south of the river to Klosterle, where the
necessaries (and unnecessaries - a 2 litre bottle of wine) were purchased after
Dave was gullible enough to volunteer to carry the wine.
Visible from
this pleasing path were the usual cornucopia of alpine flowers including some
rather large specimens of what appeared to be early purple orchids, a strange
construction on which large leaves appeared to be drying (attributed by Nick to
the clever local mice) railways and roads disappearing into the mountainside,
and a keep fit trail which we attempted to complete. Performing some of the
exercises was hampered by our rucksacks; RMP was clicking furiously in an
attempt to record items for the rogues gallery. Dave's legs prevented him from
participating in most of the exercises, but he made up for this by transporting
the newly purchased wine up the 800 metre climb to Spuller-See.
Nick and I went
on ahead, preferring to consume both today's lunches simultaneously at the top
of the climb. The bread and cheese and chocolate was most welcome, and a brew
was commenced to greet the three dawdlers, who had preferred to lunch before
the climb.
When 4 o'clock arrived we realised a large period of time had been spent here, so, despite whimsical suggestions about setting up camp, we trudged up to the Ravensburger Hutte (built 1912, 1980 m) for a welcome schiewasser (ribena). There were, due to the close vicinity of a road, a number of typical American tourists. Difficult to elect a star, but the gentleman with the unlit cigarette whose white knickers extended beyond his knee-length khaki shorts took the biscuit for me.
The weather was hazier than of late, but there was a good view south west to Spuller-See and beyond, and a large white cross on top of the Roggal-Sp was prominent on that mountain, the grey rock of which stood out starkly against the deep blue sky. (Shame about the poor quality of the picture below.)
There are also two parties of Dutch people here, one previously encountered at Muttekopfhutte, the other at Ulmerhutte. After relating to these Dutch people the story (abbreviated) of our trip so far, we set off in search of a campsite. Today's exploratory activities were the antithesis of the previous day's exploits, and within five minutes Dave was sitting on a clump of grass in the middle of an idyllic site.
The tents soon
assumed their usual 'L' configuration - to enable Nick to serve breakfast in
bed efficiently.
In the
excitement of finding such a good site, my zip burst irreparably open, and the
disintegration of my feet was found to have commenced not due to sunburn but
due to blisters caused by excessive speed up today's hill. I dubbined my boots
whilst the rest (apart from Dave) hastened to wash in the ice cold water.
Ruaridh took longest and should by now be very clean. I hope it's not too dirty
on tomorrow's route, for his sake. Dave was, as usual, too hungry to do anything
except contemplate the saliva which dribbled from his parched lips.
Enough of this
drivel, today's entry ends with tonight's meal of sweet and sour chicken cooking
merrily, having been diligently carried by Colin for nearly two weeks. Now,
over to Colin, for whom the event of today seems to have in the drying of his Karrimat.
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