Today’s route started with a return walk up the valley to the Stappitzer See lake, so we left our rucksacks at the hotel and enjoyed walking with no weight on our backs. The lake and surrounding mountains looked great in the early morning light. We saw the German couple with Lou the dog, who are walking the whole way like us (though they get their luggage transported and didn’t walk yesterday’s stage) and the Dutch couple who are walking for about eight days. We walked back to Mallnitz with the Dutch, then went to the supermarket, retrieved our rucksacks from the hotel, and then had an excellent coffee and apfelstrudel before starting on the next part of the day’s stage. We left Mallnitz and headed down the valley. The walk through the gorge was closed due to damage to the path caused by last week’s storms, so had to follow a diversion. This took us through woods, and as we worked our way down the valley, we tried to spot yesterday’s route on the opposite hillside high above us. We reached another section of gorge where a sign told us we could walk through the gorge for nine euros each, or follow the road instead. We took the road and were soon on the outskirts of Obervellach, reaching the end of the stage within the proscribed time, despite having had over two hours of breaks. We cleaned up and enjoyed a drink on the bar terrace opposite the hotel in the warm sunshine; there’s another four or five days of cloudless sky forecast.
After one week, we’ve walked 125kms, climbed 4424m, and descended 6066m.
