AA Day 05

Today was an early start for one of the tougher sections of the Alpe-Adria.  We left Stall on a grassy path, and walked straight across the road onto the next path.  This was a big mistake.  We reached a fence after about 150m and were just debating what to do when the farmer arrived.  He dismantled the fence and we asked him how to get to the road, which we could see above us.  “Go that way”, he said, so we climbed up to the road on our hands and knees.  (We should have followed the road at the crossing point, but there was no sign).  Now that we were on the road we made good progress with our vertical climb, following numerous hairpin bends.  We eventually reached the point where we left the road and went onto a path, still making good progress.  This slowed considerably as we reached a section which traversed the mountainside, having to make our way over stones, rocks, and fallen trees.  We saw the Goldberghutte in the distance and eventually reached it, having finished the traverse.  We sat here for about an hour, admiring the spectacular views across the valley and into the distance.  The path on leaving the hutte involved a steep climb, but we then got onto a forest track.  After a short distance, we joined the Rollbahnweg, which had been built to provide access to the high pasture from the valley.  This narrow path kept an almost continuous elevation around the cliffs, including passing through a tunnel.  We reached the end of it and joined another forest road.  The final part of the day was the worst; 600m of descent in about 3km.  We finally reached Innerfragant and found our hotel, one of only a handful of buildings in the hamlet.  We celebrated with a soft drink and a large piece of chocolate cake and cream.