It rained on and off all
night and the rain continued after dawn. While the mountains around the
Ossiachersee and the lake itself looked inviting, the weather didn’t. Low cloud
clung to the mountains threatening rain. Rather than stay another day we
decided to push on to Germany where we planned to spend two weeks.
Packing up in light rain
in a muddy camping ground wasn’t much fun and to think that 3 weeks ago we were
having to contend with the heat of Turkey. Getting ready for the road wasn’t
made any easier by the hundreds of worm casts that appeared on our outdoor mat
overnight. There was no way of getting it clean and we chucked it in the boot
as it was.
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| Just About Ready For The Road |
We hitched up Smarty
watched by a number of Germans from a distance, paid, and were on our way well
before 9:00. Satnav showed an ETA at Berchtesgaden of noon.
We stopped at a nearby
Lidl for a few groceries that included a loaf of bread with a density similar
to depleted uranium. We rejoined the motorway we had left yesterday. The road
was quite quiet and the going easy except for the additional concentration
required in the long tunnels that passed under mountains. The longest was 6.5km
while others were more than 4 or 5km. The grey skies of Ossiachersee soon gave
way to sunshine. The scenery of rural Austria was quite beautiful with houses
dotted over well manicured mountainside pastures where cows grazed and looked
contented. The housing in valleys was denser and houses were decked out with
boxes full of brightly coloured flowers. The alpine scenery was very similar in
the different European countries we had travelled through. Austria today could
have been France earlier in this trip, or Switzerland two years ago (except
Austrian cows didn’t seem to wear bells, much to Jane’s disappointment). We
wondered whether we would find the same when we reached the Bavarian Alps later
in the day.
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| Alpine Austria |
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| Austrian Manicured Meadows |
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| Austrian Church |
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| Hilltop Monastery |
As has happened before on
our trip, a tunnel seemed to have an effect on the weather because when we
entered one the sun was shining, but 4km later we emerged into heavy rain that
stayed with us on and off for the rest of the trip. We also experienced
temperatures unheard of since leaving France at the beginning of June. Mabel’s
gauge showed 8.5° which was due in part to the altitude (1,250 metres) and also
the weather.
We stopped to change
drivers in a rest area at about the half-way point. We were making good
progress as I rejoined the motorway, but shortly afterwards just south of
Salzburg traffic came to a standstill. A sign gantry ahead of us indicated
something to do with a tunnel, but my German failed me. (It was then that I realised
my German lessons were over 50 years ago, and I wasn’t that good at it then, so
it’s perhaps not surprising I was a little rusty). We sat and we sat, there was
absolutely no sign of any movement up ahead, save for people getting out of
their cars to stretch their legs and, in a couple of cases, to relieve
themselves by the roadside. We had the luxury of being able to use Mabel’s
toilet, and we did.
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| At A Standstill - Something Has Happened In A Tunnel Ahead |
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| Roadside Relief |
Forty five minutes after
we stopped it was 12:15 and there was still nothing moving ahead of us. We
decided it was lunch time and Jane made toast from the heavy Austrian bread
spread with two types of dip and topped with avocado. The bread was very good
and I was also able to enjoy a cup of tea. Absolute luxury compared to the
motorists waiting around us.
Just as I was finishing
my tea the traffic ahead started to move and we were soon back to our usual
cruising speed. There was nothing to indicate what had caused the stoppage, but
it had cost us at least 90 minutes and our ETA was now 14:00.
The remainder of the
motorway drive was uneventful. We crossed into Germany to the west of Salzburg
and left the motorway shortly afterwards. The remainder of the trip was on a
two lane road that climbed steadily into the Bavarian Alps. The mountains were
shrouded in cloud so we were unable to tell how German alps compared with
others. However, we could see that autumn had arrived, while there was still a
lot of greenery the leaves of some trees were beginning to adopt gold and brown
hues.
At one point we had to stop
at roadworks on a wet and steep hill. Jane feared a repeat of our Cappadocia
embarrassment and had her shoes on ready to bale out. However, Mabel pulled
away without even a hint of wheel spin.
Camping Simonhof didn’t
look particularly inviting. Grey and damp with what looked like antiquated
facilities and a notice advising reception was only manned mornings and
evenings. We selected a pitch. It was only 5° outside, but then we were nearly
900 metres up in the mountains. Hopefully, it did not represent what we were
going to experience during the remainder of our trip. We hunkered down for the
afternoon using the camping ground’s electricity to warm Mabel up to a very
acceptable temperature.
The three loads of
washing Jane did in Austria yesterday afternoon in anticipation of drying them
in warm sunshine were still wet. She turned Mabel into a passable likeness of a
Chinese laundry hanging damp clothes in every available space.
Jane had been feeling
less than ideal since leaving Istanbul. My diagnosis was not having any markets
to visit or cats that came visiting. In fact the cats she has met recently she
described as scaredy cats because they wouldn’t let her anywhere near them. Jane
wasn’t convinced with the diagnosis and had a lie down.
With slightly less than
eight weeks of Mabel living left we were keen to use up the food stored in
Mabel’s cupboards and garage. I did a stock take and concluded providing we can
come up with a lot of recipes utilising couscous and sweet corn and tuna and
pasta there should be no problem getting through everything.
At 17:30 I went to check
in. The woman only had a little English but we got by with that and my limited
German. I found we had probably parked out of wi-fi range and we will likely
have to move Mabel tomorrow. On the plus side, the woman said the weather for
the next few days should be good.
I prepared an improvised
chili con carne for our evening meal using mixed pork and beef mince, red
kidney beans and tinned tomatoes seasoned with cumin and chilli powder. It
turned out very well.
As darkness fell (the
nights seemed to be drawing in very rapidly recently) it started to rain,
heavily. The temperature dropped to 2°. We hoped the woman’s weather forecast
was correct. We couldn’t check as we were out of wi-fi range.
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| Today's Trip (210km) |
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