15th August 2007

Austria

We haven’t had long enough in Austria- just three short days in a fantastic little campsite in the Dolomites close to the Italian border. We’re surrounded by mountains and the Austrian dolomites themselves rise up immediately behind the campsite. We took a walk up into them a couple of days ago. It was a steep slog up the track for 6km to an alpine hut where we could sit and relax over coffee while enjoying the views. The peaks above us were of limits to all but the most seriously equipped climbers but we were happy just to have made it up to 2200m. (To be fair though, we didn’t exactly start at sea level.)

The next day we took a drive across the border to Italy where the majority of the Dolomite Mountains are located. The weather was unsettled at best with the car thermometer going from 24 degrees to 13 and back again several times. For most of the drive though we were treated to some spectacular scenery consisting of range after range of sheer sided mountains towering over forests and alpine meadows. Unfortunately we didn’t get many photos as the combination of windy mountain roads and Italian drivers made stopping and/or leaving the relative safety of the car a life threatening ordeal.

Today, just to be different, we decided to go white water rafting. This was a new experience for Jane and it’s been years since I did it. Jane had insisted that I booked us onto the Beginners’ trip. However, when we arrived, the bloke at the reception informed us that this was for kids and in his opinion, quite boring. Would we be interested in spending an extra 20 euro each and doing the proper Sporty trip? Of course we would.

We absolutely loved it and despite a small language barrier, had a great day out with our co-rafters and guide, taking on rapids and playing all manner of silly games on the flat bits. Again, sorry there are no photos but Jane wasn’t letting me anywhere near a camera while she was in a wetsuit, particularly one with the word LANGER emblazoned across it. Cork folk will appreciate this. The rest of you will have to guess.

So its Auf Wiedersehen to the German speaking would. Tomorrow it will be all Italian. This is a daunting prospect. Between us we have enough German to pretty much get by, but Italian? We hardly know a word.

Ciao!