Hiking in the Salzkammergut

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We just finished a 3-day hike in the mountains east of Sazlburg - an area called the Salzkammergut.

The first day we started out at a pretty lake called Offensee, and climbed a rather steep path to gain about 800 metres. When the trail levelled out, we reached Rinnerhütte, a small hut where we had bought coffee and cake to go with our packed lunch. A gentle climb of a km or so brought us to Wildensee, a small but deep lake with cows grazing on the far side. Lynn, who had cleverly brought her bathing suit, had a brief dip in the very cold water.

Another few km of up and down and we reached another hut, Albert-Appelhaus, where we stayed the night. We were greeted with cold beer, and later had a massive bowl of lentil stew with an enormous dumpling. That night we had a room with 2 bunkbeds to ourselves.

The next morning there was a generous, though limited, breakfast buffet. I think we ate one of everything on offer!

The second day's hike involved a gentle climb in the alpine over curiously-eroded limestone. After a couple of hours we reached a very high pass, beyond which we descended steeply, giving back all the altitude we had gained, and came to the next hut, Pühringerhütte, at the end of a long valley with another deep lake. The day was so hot that I joined Lynn for a cooling plunge in my undies.

Another welcoming host, and a delicious radler on the sunny deck. We were still pretty full from the night before, so just had bowls of cream of potato soup and beet salad - but we found we had enough room for the host's homemade pear and chocolate cake.

That night we slept in a "Lager" - a small dorm with bunkbeds for 10. There were 4 other people with us, all very quiet sleepers. (I could hear snoring faintly from another room - poor roommates there!)

Today was a long, steady descent (about 1000 metres) to a cute town called Gössl. On the way we passed another, very large mountain lake. And we almost had a run-in with mountain cows! About 6 of them were coming up a narrow stretch of the trail towards us. We decided it was best to get out of their way, so we climbed uphill a bit. Fortunately there were two upward-bound hikers behind the cows, giving them gentle prods to keep them climbing!

From Gössl we returned to Salzburg by bus, train and bus. Tomorrow we're off to Bolzano in Italy to prepare for our next hike, in the Dolomites.

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Photos

Wildensee
Lynn cooling off after an 800m ascent!