We stayed at the Explorer Hotel in Bad Kleinkirchheim. This is number nine in a chain of ten, opening a new one every year in Austria or Germany. Facilities included cubicles for bikes or skis in the reception area, a bike repair station, and bike washing facilities. They were also advertising fell-running and cross-country ski courses. Not many people in the bar yesterday evening, but plenty at breakfast, where you could cook your own eggs as you wanted them. We were presented with a card each which allowed (amongst other things) free access to the Kaiserburg cable car. We decided to use this, as the cable car took us to near the top of the mountain, saving us at least three hours of climbing up 1000m on the Alpe-Adria trail. We had a 25minute walk to the cable car along a path next to a stream, and then were whisked to the top. From there, it was a short uphill walk to the summit of the Wollaner Nock at 2145m, which provided 360 degree views of the surrounding mountain ranges. We headed south, dropping off the summit before climbing to the summit of Vorderer Wollaner Nock at 2090m. From here we could see Arriach far below us in the valley, our destination for the day. We had left most of the people on the first summit, and from here we hardly saw another person. The path dropped quickly off the summit before joining a forest track. This slowly worked its way down the hillside. We stopped and had our photo taken by a webcam at the “geographical centre” of Carinthia, before finally getting onto tarred road. The road quickly took us to Arriach. We did some washing and then had a nice dinner, finishing off with a visit to the hotel’s wine cellar.
The photos are stunning, so dramatic!