Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 8

Fear of a scorcher, and knowing I had two climbs ahead of me in one day, led me to start today’s walk earlier than ever, at around 8:20. As it turned out, the sun and the hot weather didn’t actually arrive until around 1 pm, by which time I’d actually finished the walk – in record time, and actually faster than the guideline time for once.

Before the sun emerged, the morning was clammy, but cooled by breezes and even a little occasional light rain. I was grateful for now at least of being spared the upper 30s temperatures currently being experienced in southern England, and hoped that I wouldn’t face some of the particularly extreme weather occurring in other parts of Europe either.

I started with a brisk climb, mainly on zigzags of roads and forest paths, and by 9:30 , when I approached the top, I could hear laughter and voices. It turned out they belonged to three women, Erika, Ruth and Doris, who were doing the same day’s walk as me, to Danielsberg, from Obervellach. All were relatively local, from another part of Carinthia, and were celebrating Doris’s birthday. After a little chat, and telling them that I was aiming to do the whole route (which they seemed amazed at) they said they would see me at the Herkuleshof, a restaurant and hotel on Danielsberg, at the end of the walk today, and so it turned out.

So leaving my new acquaintances behind, I carried on. Again I was walking above the Moll valley, with the main road, river and pylons below, and a forested mountainside opposite. On this side of the valley, once again, it was mainly little farms, and the walking was easy, mainly on tarmac roads. After a long level section I started to descend a series of hairpin bends and passed beneath an enormous railway viaduct.

Immediately beyond the viaduct, the tower of Niederfalkenstein castle, looking kind of medieval, but apparently only dating back to 1905, was visible through the treetops.

The route lead almost down to the main road, but turned off before, passing through a series of little villages- Gappen, Penk and Litzldorf- that looked they had expanded somewhat in recent years with holiday homes.

Then, as expected, the route started to rise again, and led into the forest, for the final climb to Danielsberg, which had visible from the previous peaks for most of the morning.

Here I amazed myself by reaching the top in about half an hour, when a sign said it would take 45 minutes. It just shows that I’m not too slow going up, only coming down.

Arriving at the top, your first sight is of the front of Hotel Herkuleshof. I carried on a little bit further, passing Herkuleshof’s lovely little garden and pond to reach the Church of St George, which had been visible earlier, and was right at the top of Danielsberg. The views from here were fantastic. I also ventured in the church to have a little look too.

Unfortunately the Herkuleshof’s rooms had been fully booked that night, so I had to get a taxi back to Obervellach instead. While I was waiting for this, I managed to at least have a drink and an apple strudel on the hotel’s lovely terrace. And true to expectations, there were Erika, Ruth and Doris again, who’d arrived while I’d been looking at the church and were having a meal and celebratory drinks.

With the sun now out and full heat of the day the shady terrace of the Herkuleshof was just perfect. Finally, we said our goodbyes, I wished Doris a happy birthday and I went to meet my waiting taxi back down the hillside. I’ll pick up the walk from Danielsberg again in the morning, after being driven back.