Just a note for those who might be interested in a walk in Austria.
Randall has been in Austria for a little over a week now to walk with some male friends. He has done this sort of activity for four of the last five years and finds it a very useful an often exhilarating way to learn more about himself and the retiring life whilst exchanging aging men's views on world activities.
For 2015 the aim is to walk a circuit from Bad Ischl to Bad Ischl over about 200 kms and 8 walking days over mountainous areas and along beautiful glacial age lakes.
This brief report is written after walk day four when the group is resided just outside Strobl on Wolfgangsee.
Using only general comments and observations.
At least here, Austrians are very conservative whilst being very proud of their heritage. There are heaps of people wearing traditional clothes and holiday life here feels very much in the 1970s.
We have felt that people can be a bit over conservative to the point of inflexibility in the way visitors are dealt with. Often here there is the right way and the wrong way. No questions are asked and no quarters are given.
But the ambiance of the place and the scenery are to die for. The walking can be quite challenging at times and the walking days long. So far we have walked from Bad Ischl to Unterach thence to Abersee. Today we walked from Abersee to Strobl including a wonderful few hours travelling one of the oldest cog railway systems in the world-the Schafbergbahn, the oldest cog railway in Austria. This took us high to about 1780 metres and we enjoyed several hours, ice creams and lunch up on the mountain. The views are simply breathtaking..
From there we had just seven kilometres left to walk along the lake to out home for the night.
Tomorrow we must deal with about 30 kms of tough walk with plenty of altitude changes over the ranges to Bad Goisern.
Do not miss this part of the world is my message for the day, even though Austrians are trying very hard to keep the whole place in the secret past.
