Lofty heights

 

Another day spent traipsing around alps....... what a dreary life we lead!!!! Anton and I even had to buy new walking shoes so we could be assured of not slipping down some shaley bank! And to top it all off, it was a perfect sunny day with only a hint of breeze....... poor us!!!!

 

 

Okay, seriously now, as you can see by the pic above, we had a fantastic time, high up in the mountains. We headed off for the Lühnersee this morning, first by train, then a big yellow bus. Oh my, the public transport system here is awesome but the places they take these buses is mind boggling! Imagine a large bus and a one lane road that winds up and up through pine forests for a very long way, turning zig zag style all the way. And imagine being the car that meets the bus on one of these tight corners and has to back up a few car lengths and then hug the very edge of the road - no railing, steep drop - while the bus negotiates the bend and powers on to the next! These bus drivers are amazing! In fact all the drivers are amazing and if I remember I'll do a post on the roads and road rules soon!

 

 

Lühnersee - 1970 metres above sea level, of which the last 500 or so was on a cable car again.......four in three days now and I think I may have conquered the fear of heights!!!! The tops of the towering mountains around the See (lake) are all approx 2500mtrs which is a bit staggering for an Aussie who is used to lesser heights! We walked half way round the lake then stopped to laze aroiund in the flower speckled meadow. Theres no grass up here, rather, lots of different herbs and tiny flowers and mum spent some time identifying some that she remembered from her youth on the alm. Sadly, I cant press any to bring home - the grumpy nice man at customs wouldn't like it!!!

 

 

I must point out that while we were lazing around in the 'grass', I was feeling like I was disobeying the rules. In most beautifuul places in Australia, you are not allowed to leave the path, but here, it seems anything goes! One of the very surprising things I've noticed is that lots of people bring their dogs to all sorts of places. Dogs are here, on leash and off, dogs on public transport, dogs in pubs and dogs in restaurants........lots of dogs!

And so it is with leaving the path too - you can sit where ever, walk where ever and not think about disobeying a law somewhere.

 

 

I took a whole heap more flower pics and these blue ones here are Enzian, one of Austria's most favorite alpen blooms along with Edelweiss. Apparently I'd need to climb up those very jagged peaks in the distance to find Edelweiss, but I don't mind missing out on a photo of those!!!!!

 

 

This one is taken from the cable car and shows the narrow hiking track that's an alterrnative to using the cable. There were quite a few hikers crawling up the steep path and the zigzag pattern looked reallly interesting from above. That long grey bit in the background is a very long rock slip made up of mostly smallish rocks. I'd say it gets added to from time to time.

 

Another day over and I'm not sure how many to go......... I'm not counting until closer to the end!

I hope you're enjoying this tour of Austria as much as I'm enjoying bringing it to you!

See you all next time!