Random Geese Post

Main Event: Day 1 to St. Pöltner Hütte

After one night in a pension in the valley, we went back up the mountains with Ellen and Christiaan. The weather was terrible, which made Christiaan smile, because he could wear his new raincoat.



The rest of us were not smiling...



... until we reached the hut, of course.



Christiaan brought his own game to play in the hut.

Even though the proprietor of the hut was a very unpleasant man, there was a wonderful Trockenraum, and we were looking forward to getting away from this hut in the morning with dry clothes.

In numbers: 2:55 h, 7.89 km, 1198 m ascent, 248 m descent.

Day 1: Fürthermoaralm to Berghotel Rudolfshütte

A beautiful day with a beautiful hike. After hiking up from the Alm to the lake, we hiked along the lake towards a beautiful valley with a gorgeous waterfall.





The waterfall was more impressive in real life.



And these little bridges still freak me out.



Then over the Kapruner Törl, with some nice glaciers... and on and on (it was a little longer than expected).



Finally we were there, in a private room with shower, a sauna with view over the mountains, and buffet dinner where the main course was veal's head in its own sauce.

In numbers: 6:45 h, 15.81 km, 1733 m ascent, 1235 m descent.

Tour 2: Day 0 Zell Am See

After taking a train and doing our laundry, we ended up in Zell Am See, which is full of Muslim tourists! (See here for background and more pictures.)

The infrastructure for non-hikers is (therefore) very well developed. We decided to go with the flow, and went up by bus and the contraption above.



These brought us to the huge dams that provide are used to create electricity. The electric company owning these dams obviously thinks PR is important as well, and provides touristic photo ops, a museum, etc.





After unashamedly being a tourist for a day, we walked down a few hundred meters to an Alm, where we spent the night.



UPDATE:

Below are the webcam shots from the dam.

And two more.

Spring in Ithaca

Another Weekend, Another Hike

We went on a 3-day hike this weekend.



Even though it looks sunny in the picture above, it was mostly cloudy, rainy and even a bit snowy.



The views were fantastic though (when the clouds were not there).



The second day we had to hike over snow fields, making a track for the people following us. We then arrived in this mini hut consisting of basically two rooms (one room for eating and drinking, and one for sleeping). You can see the hut in the next picture.

During the evening it snowed, producing beautiful views the next morning.



And more incredible views on the way down to the car.

Ithaca Is Cold

Last Throes of Fall

Xcalak

We spent the next days on the Costa Maya in Mahahual and Xcalak. The sea was too rough for scuba diving, and maybe this was a good thing because my head hurt for 3 days after our previous dives. Instead, we took a snorkeling tour from Xcalak. It was beautiful!



Xcalak is so laid back that we waited 45 minutes for these fish tacos and panuchos to be made by the lady running the "restaurant".

And finally, here is the mangrove that forms the border with Belize. It is supposed to have manatees, but all we saw were some egrets. Still, we did not have any regrets (pun courtesy of F).

Blackwater Falls

Forgot to post these pictures from our trip to West Virginia.



Ellen has already returned home. Here you can find some blog posts about her visit on her excellent blog.



This was the energy bomb we enjoyed for breakfast in the park: a baked apple pancake, which must have been covered in sugar before it was put in the oven. Surprisingly good!

Jiuzhaigou National Park

And then it was time to visit the park. We picked a very sunny day to visit this Unesco World Heritage site. We were most certainly not alone, as this is a main Chinese tourist attraction.



After you buy a ticket and walk through the gate, you find a parking lot with buses and minibuses waiting for you. The bus will take you to one of the two endpoints of the park, about 30 kilometers from the entrance.



You can already see (and take pictures and/or movies of) the beautiful scenery, slightly ruined by having this busy road next to it: mountains, waterfalls, and splendidly colored lakes.

Next, you can choose to walk parts of the way back, and take buses for the other stretches. Everyone is walking the same parts basically, so by choosing carefully which parts to walk, one can sometimes even enjoy the quiet of a park.

The colors of the lakes, and the clarity of the water, seem really out of this world.

Sadly, the view is sometimes blocked by some idiot.

Very special!