A walk to Wolfgang

The forecast today was for cooler weather and rain, so we all dressed quite warmly in long hiking trousers and had warm tops and rain jackets. We left home after breakfast which was eaten on our terrace, which has views over the entire village. We could not pass the cafe in the village without stopping for a quick flat white before taking the gondola up the mountain to Gotschnaboden, the middle station, and then walking across the mountain and down to Wolfgang. 

When we got up the mountain it was not cold and it seemed clear. Looking across the valley it looked like rain was coming in, as can be seen in my photo here, yet we had no rain. It was pleasantly warm and we enjoyed our hike down to Wolfgang where we had lunch on the terrace of the Kulm Hotel. 

Nowadays, mountain resorts promote summer activities as much as winter skiing, so there are so many mountain bikers on the walking trails. We passed a handful of walkers today but many, many cyclists. Mountain biking on the narrow trails is rather hair raising, they are quite slippery with loose stones and steep drops on one or both sides of the trail, so I much prefer to walk them.

We had a great hike today, it was dry and we got hot, and can you believe it, only as we reached the apartment after our hike there were a few drops of rain - it rained more heavily later but it has already cleared and the sun is out once again.

Xena loves the mountain hikes here, but today she ran into an electric fence and the poor girl screamed and howled in pain and fright. She has done the same thing in previous years but clearly had forgotten about it. She won't be making that same mistake this holiday. To be fair, the electric fence is a thin tape on supporting iron pegs, and they are not usually switched on unless there are sheep or cows in the area - there were neither in that area today, but the farmer must have forgotten to switch it off.