The walk today was, quite literally, gorgeous. By which I mean, not only beautiful, as you can see from the image above, but took in two magnificent gorges.
On the face of it, the route was a little unusual. First it headed north out of Mallnitz, on one side of the Winkelbach valley. The objective was ostensibly lake Stappitzersee, but to be honest it just gave an excuse to walk up the river valley one side and back down the other. Which was good enough for me, because it was an opportunity to enjoy an easy level walk with views to the head of the valley one way, and then see the view back south towards Mallnitz and Obervellach.
Most people clearly drove out of Mallnitz to a little car park near the lake, but to my mind that meant they missed the best bit, the lovely woodland and riverside walk between the town and the lake. Never mind, it meant once more I had most of this part of the walk to myself.
Coming back into Mallnitz, the valley became more industrialised, with the railway emerging from a tunnel under the Alps. A helicopter hovered overhead and I saw it carrying on a winch a cut-down pine, hanging it upside down, and then release the tree somewhere in the forest. I hoped they knew what they were doing, because it seemed a pretty dangerous activity to me, particularly with pylons and railway lines nearby. But maybe it was just easier to transport trees this way when on a steep hillside.
Not far past the railway station, itself a bit out of town, I began my walk alongside the first of today’s two gorges, Rabischschlut. Perhaps because this gorge lived in the shadow of the other one I visited later, and was a bit less dramatic, it seemed a bit neglected. No one was there when I arrived despite it being only a mile or so out of town. It could also be the walk was a little too hard for children and families. But having said this it wasn’t really difficult either- there were lots of tree roots, but there were also plenty of wooden steps . The noise and the power of the water was impressive and I found the usual handy seat to have lunch.
After 45 minutes or so, I left the gorge and there was a little interlude of first farmland, and then woodland. When out of the shade, for the first time, it felt very hot – probably in the upper 20s (but not as hot as London today apparently). But even then there was often a cool breeze, and in the shade it remained very pleasant. I arrived back on the path I’d inadvertently joined on day six, before descending down to the next gorge, Groppensteinschlut.
Here I have a confession to make. I should have paid seven euros on my way out of Groppensteinschlut gorge, but I couldn’t see anywhere to do so. Only Alpe Adria Trail hikers were supposed to be walking north to south anyway, as everyone else parked at the southern end, and walked north, looping back by a different route. Luckily people didn’t seem to mind I was going the ‘wrong’ way, and it wasn’t particularly crowded.
Entering the gorge what first struck you were the walkways, hanging from the sides of the gorge, looking like something out of an Escher painting. But as I descended past Zechnerfall and Groppenstein fall, and the rapids in between, it was impossible not to be drawn to, stop and admire the falls themselves, and the sheer power of the water. It was the same river, Mallnitzbach, as before, but the drops and force of the water seemed even greater than at Rabischschlut.
At the bottom of Groppenstein, the light shining through the water produced this lovely rainbow, which isn’t done full justice in this photo, but which can at least give you an idea of how it looked.
With the walkways being nice and shady, plus the spray from the water itself as you walked along them, this was a lovely end to the day. All that remained was a mile or so walk into Obervellach and my bed for the night.
Tomorrow is also a shortish, easy day, although there is more uphill than today. I am only hoping that we don’t see the high 30s temperatures predicted in the UK here next week.
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 