This was the view of the Isi and Wolfi's place from a walk around their house
The next day we started work cutting asparagus and pulling out weeds. In the afternoon though we picked up Isi’s son’s car and then Steve and I drove to watch the friendly soccer match. This was really interesting as they were playing Serbia and the Serbian fans were really passionate. Throwing fireworks and running onto the pitch. Sadly for Serbian team New Zealand was one goal up and because of all the disruptions by the fans the game stopped for at least 10 mins and there was no overtime so New Zealand won. Hopefully Australia will be as successful when we play Serbia in the world cup. So for the next few days we just worked on the farm picking asparagus and pulling out weeds. This was a great time just working in the field and just doing some walks around the town and the surrounding areas. Also we had a multicultural exchange of cooking. As there was Steve from NZ, Miram from US and me from Australia. We all did our part to cook different things such as pancakes from the US, ANAZC biscuits from NZ and pavlova from Australia.
See I can cook and I represented. On our final day on the farm we took a road trip to Trieste, as you do. We drove for a few hours to get there through the most amazing landscape through the Austria/Italian Alps. I was really taken back by the generosity and kindness of both Isi and Wolfi to open up their home to us. Also it was an eye opening experience to do some actually farm work and what it is like to live on a farm.
This is everyone when we went to Trieste. So from Tiffen we had a whirlwind trip to Salzburg. I think for 2 days Steve and I eat nothing but cakes, strudel and sacher torte. We had a great time in Salzburg and was very different to farming in Austria. Also we got catch up in a rally by the Turkish community of Salzburg protesting against Israel’s treatment of Palestine. Politics just follows me everywhere.
One of the protesters, bit young maybe? So now onto the main course hiking in the Austrian Alps. So from Salzburg we went to Kufstein and we were couch surfing with a local Kufsteinen (Not sure if thats right), Monika. This was again another example of Austrian hospitality as we ended up having not 1 but 3 amazing dinner with her family and stayed with her for 3 nights. Also on one of the nights we also got to see their pet snake get fed, which was very interesting. Kufstein was a really beautiful town and is quite unique as it has an outdoor organ which you can here throughout the town. It was fantastic to get such a great insight into life in Kufstein. Truely awesome.
Monika, Steve and me. Now it was off to do some hiking. We decided to do some hiking in the Kaisergebirge mountain range which is actually a natural reserve. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaisergebirge) So we started off from Kufstein not really knowing where we were going but we were armed with a map and bread, cheese and schnapps. We knew there were some huts in the mountains somewhere where we could sleep and get some food but had no idea what to expect. We took a tent just in case but as it turned out you can’t camp within the natural reserve. So we just picked a route and towards one of the huts, Hans-berger-Haus (936m). From the minute we started hiking it was surreal we had mountains all around us and wild flowers growing everywhere. The landscape and nature beauty of the area was just incredible. I was in a daze for most of the first few hours as we climbed up into the mountains as it was just that amazing. This was heightened by the fact that low cloud had surrounded the mountains and it was like we were walking up into the clouds. In our dazed state we decided for a touch of Frisbee on the side of a mountain while being surrounded by mountains in a field of wild flowers. Not a bad spot for Frisbee.
Ultimate frisbee We reached Hans-berger-Haus without too much trouble and it was extremely well priced only $10 euros a night. The room was a dorm with beds for 20 other people but surprisingly it was just Steve and I so we had this huge room to ourselves. As it was early in the afternoon we decided to do a casual walk up towards the Ellmauer Halt which is one of the trails over the Wilder Kaiser mountain. After climbing for a few 100m there was heaps of snow which was just crazy as we both were wearing t-shirts and shorts. Then we made our way back down to our hut and just had dinner overlooking the mountains.
The view from where we eat dinner.
The next day of hiking we took it really easy. We spent like 2 hrs with a pack on but it was quite a steep 600m climb to the next hut Stripsenjochhaus (1577m). We reach this hut late morning and then dumped our packs and headed to the Stripsenköpf (1807m) which was just one of the mountains peaks near the hut. The view from the top of this was just incredible.
View from Stripsenköpf Then we just did a pretty easy day walk and just took it easy played a bit of Frisbee and had a nap on the mountain side.
Nap time The next day was probably the most intense day I’ve ever had in my life. We left Stripsenjochhaus and headed over the Wilder Kaiser via Egger-steig. This is supposed to be a tough walk with a bit of climbing up the mountain. Also there are ropes and ladders for difficult or dangerous parts of the track. But unfortunately the track was covered in snow and so we had to make our own way up the cliff face with a full pack! Thankfully there were some Germans in front of us that sort of guide the way a bit for us. But it got pretty hairy at points and it was over a 2000m drop if we fell. Also as we came closer to the top there was snow everywhere and we had to hike the last part of the way completely in snow. Again it was just so warm that both Steve and I just had t-shirt and shorts on. I was so relieved when I reached the top and the view mixed with actually getting to the top was just indescribable feeling.
EpicFrom Egger-steig we made our way to Gruttenhütte (1620m) for a well deserved lunch. Then we decided that it might be best not to attempted going over the Wilder Kaiser again as most of the tracks were still covered in snow. So we decided to go round the mountain and spent the rest of the day walking around the mountain until we finally setup camp around Veitskirche which was a beautiful forest area around the mountain.
Camp site – (Also where we camped was technically just outside the national reserve so were allowed to camp there) The next day was a massive 9hrs of walking around the mountain and then making our way towards Vorderkaiserfeldenhütte (1388m). This was an epic day made harder by the fact it was 30 degrees. Thankfully there were plenty of streams where we could cool off.
On our final day of hiking we took it pretty easy and just went up to the top of the pyramidenspitze (1997m). Then we made our way down to Kufstein, nearly 1500m descend.
So that was my Austria trip. I haven’t included everything we did as it would probably go on for another 10 pages but hopefully that gives everyone a general idea of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. Again I just want to express my gratitude to both Isi and Wolfi and Monkia for letting us stay with them as it really made such a difference to stay and get to know local Austrians.
Anyways now it’s off to the rest of Europe for the next 2 months. It’s a really tough life here in Copenhagen.
God bless
Jono
