Unfortunately, dinner last night matched all the terrible Google reviews. Our room was OK, and breakfast was alright but not worth the price.
It was 4.5C as we headed for the start of the trail, both wearing two fleeces, a woolly hat and gloves. The sun was out and the weather looked much better than yesterday. The first part of the trail led down to the lake, with lots of hairpins and partial steps. We made it slowly to the bottom and took a photo from the point where the glacier had been in 1980. There was no glacier at all 16000 years ago, and it has been growing and shrinking ever since.
We continued round the lakes, then enjoyed a walk through woods, but with some big descents as we dropped from one valley to another. We stopped for a short rest and removed our fleeces and swapped our woolly hats for sunhats. There was a huge waterfall where we stopped for photos and I noticed that the flow over the top had suddenly increased. We retreated higher up the path and watched as the water rose under the bridge that we had just crossed. A further few kms through pasture land and we stopped at a small café in the middle of nowhere. We had a good coffee with cream, and apple strudel with cream. Revived, we carried on to where we joined a small road and followed it to our hotel in Heiligenblut.
Max elevation: 2374 m
Total climbing: 345 m
