Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 13

I slept surprisingly well at the hut- tired I suppose- and after a hearty breakfast set off on my hike for the day, having said goodbye to my roommates of last night, Natalie and Gabby.

Today was a remarkable walk. The first half was as good as anything on the trail so far- an exceptional walk- and the second a seemingly never ending descent, getting hotter as the day progressed.

First there was a little climbing, up to above 2000 metres, and then I was up on the open ridge of the Nockberge, with marvellous panoramic views in every direction. A fellow Alpe Adria Trail walker kindly took my photograph.

And then a German couple, who had been a little ahead of me , told me they’d seen marmots. After that I was on the look out, listening for their familiar whistle, and sure enough I saw one, and then a little later, another. On both occasions they were perched on a rocky outcrop, whistling, maybe to warn their family and friends of humans, who knows?

The ridge walk was a delight- like a higher version of a Lake District walk, but with even more spectacular views. Grassy, with what looked like limestone, possibly granite, glittering quartz, little tors with marmots, cattle and numerous beautiful blue mountain tarns.

I reached a sculpted archway, the so called Garnet Gate, meant to reflect the abundance of garnet (a red gemstone) in this area. And then the descent started. At first it was quite easy. There were numerous people walking up to the ridge I had just left- I gathered they had driven to the Lammersdorfer Hutte, for which I was now aiming, rather than climbing up from the bottom like I had done the day before.

Reaching the Lammersdorfer Hutte at about lunchtime I then looked forward to a quieter descent. But first the route had a cruel trick, a forty minute climb back up to a another viewpoint, the Jufen, taking me back up to 1800 metres.

After this it was genuinely down, and down, and down, in a series of seemingly never ending switchbacks. There were amazing views of the Milstatte See below.

It took about three hours to get to the little village of Matzeldorf. And then there was still another 3 km to the town of Dobriach, my end destination. That took another hour, and by the time I arrived on the flat of the valley I was exhausted. The extra baggage I had carried the last two days had not helped, the long descent, and the hottest day so far. Also I was out later in the afternoon than I’d been for about a week in the height of the sun.

The final straw though was when I found my hotel was a further 1.5 kn beyond the stage end point. I plodded along barely able to walk by this time, arriving about 5:30 in the afternoon. I had been walking about 8.5 hours.

The next three days are also long and another mountain hut tomorrow night, although I’m not having to carry my stuff this time (phew). Let’s hope the weather cools a bit too.