Hellingblut and the Hohe Tauern National Park

 Wednesday 26th June, Krumpendorf to Helligenblut (Hohe Tauern National Park).

We were up early as otherwise we would have to pay for car parking again after 8am. We used the adjacent public toilets to empty our loo and fill with water. Our destination today was the Hohe National Park via the Glossglockner National Park. We left Krumpendorf and followed the lake to the end. We took the 100 road, green route of course, and then dropped down to the 111 via a lovely mountain road. This time the mountains to the south were following the border between Italy and Austria. 

Mountains separating Austria from Italy

The route was so picturesque. We stopped for coffee near Hermagor and while Mike made the coffee Jacqui went to the field below which was a 'pick your own' strawberry field. Jacqui picked a small 500gm punnet - no facilities for Jacqui to make jam here. 

Strawberry fields

We then continued our journey driving north through the Iselsberg pass to Winklern were we stopped to pick up some maps from the tourist information centre. We were now on the 107 'The Grossglockner High Alpine Road'. It was stunning. We stopped for lunch where we saw a sign for a waterfall, the Jungfernsprung Falls. After our rolls we walked up to view the waterfall which was lovely. It is very hard to capture the power of the water as it cascades down the mountain.

Jungfernsprung falls

 This car park had a 'no motorhomes' sign for overnight parking so we decided to stop on a campsite in Heiligenblut.

Picturesque Helliganblut

 This was another picturesque mountain village with snow appeal mountains above. From here there was a 2 hour walk to the Gossnitzfalls. It was an easy trail through lovely alpine pastures and pleasant woods. The waterfall was very impressive, thundering noise and lots of spray.

Helliganblut Church

 We also passed Kachlmoor which is a swampy area formed due to an avalanche after the the receding of the late ice age, plasterze glacier (12,000 years ago). All along the trail were little notices forming 'Natura Mystica' they were all interesting notices about how important it is to accept biodiversity and protect nature. That evening we went out for a drink into the village but found everywhere deserted, spooky!

Our peaceful campsite in Helliganblut

Thursday 27th June, Hohe National Park.

Hohe Tauern National Park

It was a beautiful clear morning and looked good for a day in the mountains. We packed our lunch and paid the campsite fees and set off. We left  Helligenblut and set off for the Kaiser Franz Josefs Hohe visitors centre in the Hohe Tauern National Park.

Kaiser Franz Josef

 It was a beautiful drive up the mountains although we were a bit surprised to have to pay 33 euros for the toll road in the park. Our plan was to walk the Gamsgrube Trail which takes you along the route of the largest glacier in the Austria and the Eastern Alps, the Pasterze.

Pasterze Glacier

 It also gives wonderful views of the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria at 3798m. There are also other peaks well over 3,000m. 

Mountain peaks in the National Park

Unfortunately the path was only open for a couple of kilometres which consisted of 5 tunnels through the mountain. We took the path and then retraced our steps back to the visitors centre and then decided to head down to the glacier itself for a closer look.

Pasterze Glacier close up

 The walk was marked difficult, for professionals only but Mike forged ahead and Jacqui followed. The trail was very steep and contained a lot of loose shale - down did not seemed to bad but Jacqui was a bit worried on how she would cope with the accent. The scenery was very desolate, large expanses of dirt, silt and stones littered the landscape where the glacier had been in the past. It was very interesting to see how much it had receded since 1980 with markers showing you previous levels at 5 yearly intervals. 

Walking on the Glacier

At the bottom, next to the glacier, you could occasionally here the glacier creek as it slowly moved down the mountain. 

Walking on the Glacier

The other highlights of the day were the beautiful flowers including 'spring gentians' the marmots which hibernate 6-7 months each year but were out enjoying the sunshine and seeing the Ibex briefly on top of one of the closer mountain tops. 

Waiting for Jacqui to catch up

Spring gentians

Cheeky marmot

We walked for 5-6 hours and were pleased to get back to the van at about 4.30pm. We continued on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and were surprised to see a lot more snow on the other north facing side. We followed the road down through deep areas of snow to Zell de See which Jacqui had last visited skiing 25 years ago and we found a suitable overnight camping spot near a sports centre where we could stay the night. We then drove round the lake and visited a few camp sites for ready for tomorrow's night stop over.