Hiking the Alpe Adria Trail: Day 15

The last 24 hours has been pretty eventful, and not turned out at all how I had imagined. Never mind- all’s well and it’s a day I’ll never forget.

At about 5:30 last night, when I’d been in the Erlacherhaus mountain hut for about three hours, the hot weather finally broke and it started to rain. As we all ate dinner indoors, the cloud came down and the rain grew more intense. I’d just finished eating my goulash when the lights went out. There were flashes of lightening and then it started to hail outside heavily.

A further twenty minutes passed and it actually starting snowing, the wind picked up, and torrents of brown coloured water started shooting down the hillside, rain mixed with mountain rivers and streams. By the time an hour had passed the scene had entirely altered from only two hours earlier. I can honestly say I have never seen weather like it. Ever (admittedly I’ve not experienced a Caribbean hurricane or Indian monsoon).

But we didn’t really know how bad it was yet. Brunhilde and Christian, the couple from Linz I’d met a few times over the last couple of days, were at dinner with me and said they had heard that the bad weather was very localised. It was possible we might be able to walk tomorrow if we travelled together and we agreed that would be sensible.

I had nothing else to do but go to bed to read my ebook. The power came back briefly and I spoke to Jeni and messaged Rachel and some friends, but soon the power cut out again and I was unable to contact the outside world, with no 4G or wifi. One of the women running the Erlacherhaus knocked at my room’s door to tell me they would need to find out what was affected in the morning but hiking in the high mountains for the next few days didn’t look likely to be possible.

Dawn broke and after a cold shower (no power) I heard the sound of a helicopter landing close by. A police officer was dropped off. As the only non German speaking person staying there it was a bit alarming, but I am immensely grateful to Brunhilde, the lady running Erlacherhaus and a friendly German father for keeping me informed. (He was hoping his car and caravan, parked further down had survived, but couldn’t be sure.)

It turned out that the road up to the hut had been cut off, as had the trail I had taken yesterday. Huge amounts of water had burst the banks and destroyed the mills around Turkhaus I’d passed. I later saw the devastation for myself just above the hut when I took a five minute walk to where the trail I had intended to take had been severed.

People staying at Erlacherhaus and other huts in the vicinity were being evacuated by helicopter later that day. Police with a bloodhound were looking for people that might be hurt or trapped. The helicopter was surveying the damage from the air first before commencing the airlifts.

Everyone stayed remarkably calm- children were well behaved and played ludo and snowballs.

As midday approached we were told that the evacuation would start in about ten minutes with the hut lower down the river gorge. True enough it did. At 1 pm I boarded a helicopter, courtesy of the Austrian police, for the first time in my life, for an amazing five minute flight back to Radenthein, through which I has passed yesterday.

The devastation could be seen from the sky, with the river having burst its banks and blockages across the wide trail I had walked up the day before. A mother was trying to reassure her scared child who was sharing the helicopter with me. And before we knew it we had landed, a five minute ride- the reverse of the five hours it has taken me to walk up yesterday.

A vehicle was waiting to pick us up from the football field where we had landed and we were taken to the local fire station. A local tv crew was outside ready to go on air.

We had been rebooked to a hotel there (Radenthein) from where I am writing this blog entry, and we’re to be taken by taxi to Bad Kleinkircheim tomorrow. After that, from Monday my walk will resume.

So it’s a shame that I won’t be able to do the whole hike, and especially that I’m missing today’s stage. But in the circumstances I’m relieved that sensible precautions have been taken, because I have seen for myself earlier the damage rain and fallen trees can cause and I wouldn’t have wanted to take silly risks. Everyone involved has been brilliant, stoic, helpful.

I have to say the thought did cross my mind- what would have happened to anyone caught out in that weather last night? I hate to think. If they were far from shelter, I think they would have been in really severe danger and could easily have been killed. So I’ve had a remarkable escape really- by about four hours.

And 24 hours that will live with me for the rest of my life.