Drei Seen Hike

The alarm went off at 7 to make sure we got up early enough for our big hike in Austria. We got our bags ready, got dressed and hit the road around 8. After arriving in Tannheim we parked near the cable cars and had our overnight oats for breakfast. At 9 on the dot we took our first steps towards the mountain. It started out fairly calm and I told Julian that it was strange that the first ascend was not steep at all even though we had to climb around 1000 m of elevation. I quickly regretted what I said, the start was in fact fairly calm, but soon enough we realized how we were going to make up for the elevation. Arriving at the ski piste, we soon had to start a climb of around 30%, even up to 39% at the steepest parts.

The views were absolutely incredible, but they were not to be enjoyed yet. I was struggling to get up and had to catch my breath every 25 steps or so. Julian supported me the whole way, even though he was also struggling to keep his breath and muscles under control. Finally we made it to the top of the biggest ascend and reached the highest cable car station, completely out of breath and drenched in sweat we hoped for a place to have some food and rest in the shades for a bit. But since the cable cars were booked and busy the top was full of fully alive and fit people who had not yet walked more than even 5 meters. We got very annoyed since no one seemed to get that we were really tired and no one had the idea to give up their nice bench in the shade for the people who actually hiked up there. Of course we had no right to feel this upset, which we realized. We were just really tired and hungry so everything would have upset us in that very moment.

We decided to walk a little further, enjoy the nice views, and look for a more secluded, cooler place to have lunch. Luckily a few minutes later we found exactly what we were looking for and had our cold macaroni of the day before, I don’t think anything I ever had tasted that good.

After cooling down and filling our stomachs we walked further while still enjoying the absolutely insane views. Even though it was still busy, the further we got from the cable cars the more the people started to drift away in different directions. We reached a point where we had a choice to go to the very top of the mountain for another steep climb of around 30 minutes. I opted to stay where I was, because if I went up there, I had no idea how to get back down to the car. Julian felt like he had to and chose to go alone, I kept his backpack to make his trip a little lighter and about 45 minutes later, he happily showed me the pictures of what the top looked like. We had a little break while Julian caught his breath, and we had to hurry along to make sure we got back to Limão before sunset.

Along the top of the mountain, we followed a beautiful hiking path along the mountain ridge. We went through the alms, between the cows and up to the highest part of the hike. We then started the descend, which started fairly calm. We soon reached the first of the three lakes we would pass, here the path went through a restaurant, but we decided to keep walking. The descent quickly got more steep and technically challenging. We had to remind each other to keep an eye out for loose rocks, and to keep walking neatly without increasing the impact on our knees and hips. After reaching the second lake we started looking out for a place in the shades to have a second lunch. To our surprise there was one big tree where some people just left so we could take a perfect place, in the shades and looking out over the lake. Sadly, the baguette we bought earlier was extremely stale, but we were hungry enough to not really care.

It was now around 2 and the descent was far from over. In fact, we were only halfway through the projected distance. The coming descent was hard on our knees and hips, we kept tripping over loose rocks and there were so many people on the narrow paths. We were still able to laugh and we were still in awe of the surrounding mountains, so it was worth it. The people did let us pass, which meant we could at least keep our own pace going without having to stop for young children or older people. The last lake came in to view and we almost wanted to hurry down even though our legs couldn’t keep up. It also turns out that a very big lake seems closer to you than you might be in reality, every turn we thought we were there, and then it would just keep on going. But, eventually we reached the final lake, which was on the same height as the parking lot where we would finish, so no more descending had to be done.

As a reward we swam and cooled of in the lake for about 30 minutes before walking the last 5 km to Limão. These 5 km were killing me, my legs only worked on auto pilot and I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry because of how tired I was. Julian was also near breaking point, but we kept pushing and even passed a lot of people on the way back to the parking lot. We said to ourselves, the faster we walk the sooner we’re there. As we saw Limão we were so happy we didn’t have to walk that far anymore, but those last steps took forever. We arrived at the parking lot around 6. We kicked off our shoes, opened the entire van to let it cool and drank 1,5 liters of cold ice tea in the shade of a horse statue.

If you want to see the details of this hike click HERE

After the big hike we decided to go to the grocery store to buy lots of cold drinks. We headed back to the campsite, and to our very surprise, it was full. It was past 8, we were hungry and tired, and in the last two days this place had not nearly been full. But we had to accept and find a new place to sleep. We opted to go to Austria, to sleep at a gas station near the highway, not ideal, but it would have to do. The way there was not easy, we still had to buy a vignette and fill the tank. At the gas station where we would sleep, it seemed like staying overnight was not allowed. But after asking at the register, they said it was fine and we could finally park and settle for the night. We both went to shower, and after I made dinner. We craved breakfast for dinner, so we had breakfast muffins with eggs and the fake burger cheese. We watched some episodes B&B vol liefde and fell asleep around 1.

At 5 in the morning we heard the truck behind us start, and not even a minute later someone was knocking on our door. We got startled for a bit, but then realized we were probably in the way of the truck. Julian opened the door, and as expected, the truck was too big and needed more space to exit the parking lot. With me in bed, Julian relocated the van and during sunrise we fell back asleep. In the morning we would be heading to Innsbruck to work at Ikea and see the city for a bit.