Thursday 11 September 2025 - Almkopf and the Berwang Valley

The two pictures above were taken from the hotel bar yesterday after the rain had stopped. 

Today's weather was fine and bright. Sue and I got the number 5 bus to Bichlbach - a 20 minute journey - followed by a short walk to the Almkopfbahn. This gondola/chairlift (we chose the gondola) took us up to 1600 metres.

There's another cablecar that comes up from the Berwang side.

We headed up the path to Almkopf, a summit of 1802 metres. There was a variety of viewing platforms offering extensive views from this modest hill.

The views towards Zugspitze to the east were particularly impressive. 

In a more southerly direction lay the Lechtal Alps, encountered in my early days of backpacking and on the E5 route that Sue and I enjoyed a few years ago. Happy memories that are recorded elsewhere on these pages.

Across to the north west, the flat lands of Germany. We are right on the edge of the Alps here.

It was the first time we had used our fleeces for several days. They soon came off as the calm day became increasingly sunny.

After retracing our steps to the Hochalm from where the cablecars run, we decided there was no need for a second elevenses (having already partaken on the summit), so we headed down a lovely forest path towards Berwang.

Numerous wild flowers were observed and my 'flower' posting will be duly extended. 

Near the entry to Berwang, a sauna claimed to be 'open'.

Opposite the sauna, a sculpture. 

Passing through the village, our earlier summit, some 500 metres above us, looked duly impressive. 

There followed a lovely woodland stroll down beside a torrent to Bichlbach. We found a nice lunch spot, and we weren't disturbed by too many scooters. It appears that they can be hired for a nice downhill run between the villages. Presumably someone collects them and takes them back up the hill. We had earlier been passed by some of these scooters on the way down from the Hochalm.

We found a huge nest of Southern Wood Ants. They appeared to be transporting shreds of lichen for some reason. 

The black dots are a myriad of these small ants scurrying around the nest.

Our walk continued happily beside the Talbach torrent, and into the village of Bichlbach. 

Here's our view from the bus stop, where a five minute wait was rewarded with the 13:45 bus back to Ehrwald. 

Here's our route, as plotted by 'Ride with GPS', the App used by Collett's for the GPS tracking of their suggested routes. This was route M5 and as you can see below it was about 11km in length, with about 200 metres of ascent. A lovely morning's walk of around four hours.