17th August 2011

Today we had booked a combined bus trip and hike that sounded really interesting but after the big day yesterday, I was not too keen on the 700m height gain on todays hike. But we decided that we should go as we were too late back home yesterday to phone and cancel. So another early start on the bus from Mayrhofen, via Innsbruck and then the Brenner Pass into Italy. Our first destination was a small town called Sterzing/Vipiteno in Italy. This town was originally Austrian but hundreds of years ago when the borders of Italy and Austria were defined, this Austrian town became an Italian town. Today, Austrian(or German) is it's main language but everything in the town has both languages. The street signs are in both languages, newspapers are printed in 2 languages, even the town name is listed as both. This dual language of everything is law. Even in the schools, both languages are taught. And it is a very quaint town and in an amazing location.

After a tour of the town, we were bussed up the valley to the start of our hike, which was to take us up and over the mountain to Pfitscherjoch Hutte and then across the border back into Austria to end at Schlegeis Reservoir. The trail began steeply upwards through forest (which was welcome as we had both been very sunburnt yesterday) and then as we left the tree-line behind, very rocky and even steeper still. But no turning back as the bus was to meet us on the other side.

                          The mountain with the sharp peak  in the middle of the photo is our destination.

This road wasn't our trail. We just kept crossing it occasionally. Used for transport of food etc. to the hut and used as a bike trail.

           Looking back along the valley we travelled to get from Sterzing to the start of our hike.

                                 The hut in the middle of the photo represents the border into Austria.

Ray and I seem to be swapping days when one or the other struggles. Today was my turn. Yesterday was a big day, but I really enjoyed it and was ok up to the very end. Yesterday Ray struggled but was ok today. When we were having lunch at the hut, we spoke to our guides and happened to mention the 700m gain. He promptly told us that we had started the hike lower down than usual and we had actually climbed 900m and walked a total distance of 15km in 4.5 hours. I didn't feel quite so bad for struggling today. A huge couple of days!!!