21 km, 1090 vertical metres up
After an excellent night's sleep, we continue along the valley floor before a climb with a number of switchbacks but on bitumen with considerable traffic.
Norbert resting, Kevin is ahead and Volker way out in front.
It feels straight up but levels out and we pass the point, on the right here, where we need to leave the road and head to the Es Cha Hut. The rain is not forecast for the next couple of hours. Norbert and Alexander ahead.
Our bikes at the last of the bitumen and an expresso at the Gasthof at the end of the valley. You can see the beginning of the Abula Trail in the background. We take this trail as far as the turnoff before heading up, mostly walking . . . below. You can see the Abula Trail on the other side of the road.
I am exhausted and just about done when we make the pass. And where we can see the hut, it is still an hour away to the right of the picture below.
The weather is closing in and the trail is becoming less ridable.
Still a way to go, we stop at a stream and look at the cows. Below, on the other side of the stream crossing . . .
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We finally get there, just in time for the rain. It actually hails...the view from the front door. This place has beds for 50 people. It is packed but we all manage to squeeze in with some hikers turning up during the wet weather. We are sleeping in the roofspace of the building behind this one, another 10 more vertical metres. Dinner is hot and so are the showers. |
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Old men under a rug facing east in the afternoon. Photo by a fellow camper.
