Day 16 - Stadl an der Marau to Altenmarkt - ride total 1,192 k, 10,100 m

"Slept in barns, left again about 7:00, scenery getting finer, village delightful. Slept in Einach, most beautiful of villages. Glorious sleep"

The above was Austen's diary entry for 28th April 1945 while mine below is not much different for today.

"Slept in Gasthof, left Stadl am der Marau about 8:00, scenery remaining great. Rode 3km to Einach, a most beautiful of villages and took pictures. Crap sleep!"

Thanks Austen for providing most of "MY" opening paragraph. The Aussies weren't keen on replicating the sleeping in barns bit (see Pic) so I was forced to spend the night in the hotel as well... 

It is quite special being able to follow along and through the villages Austen marched through - he had to walk in the cold and through snow, we rode bikes on road carpet ashphalt on a pleasant day temperature wise albeit we encountered the odd shower of rain. We arrived at the hotel at Altenmarkt about 4:00 to a comfortable bed and hot shower - again two things we tend to take for granted yet it was not so for Austen - he was pleased there was straw avaiable to bed down on - "where fair billets, plenty of straw" (from his diary for this area).

I took plenty of pics, mostly of buildings and fetures that would have  been there when Austen passed through.

There is a 1,700 metre mountain pass to cross and it is a steady 500 metre climb all the way to the top. It was a case of put the raincoat on to take it off to put it on again, several times on the climb.

Austen's diary for this part of his march reads:

"1 May, 1945. Started in foul snow, had a fair day to Tweng, just below the pass. Cold nigght in strapless barn.After long walk, got good trade. Tomorrow the pass. Shits all night neaarly, bah in tub. Well & 1/2 Bread, spek, cheese etc."

"2 May 1945. Started cold and snowy but soon cleared reasonably & cold & sharp. Began pass reasonably soon after Tweng, snow soon deep but easy climbing. Knee got sore coming down, don't know what's the trouble. Came down to Untertauren, no trade (food), all SS & military."

"3 May 1945. Still snowy day, down across valley through to Radstadt to Reitadorf"

Wow, Austen did a three solid days of hard slog through snow! All I did was a simple 80 km bike ride with a couple of mates - nothing when compared to Austen's effort.

We have enjoyed the last couple of days that much that we have decided to go back and do it all again! So tomorrow we are having another "Touristy" day and catching the bus back over the pass to Tamsweg and then a unique narrow gauge train that runs 76 km back down the Vally towards Pols, where we will hop on the train going back the other way.

Another thorughly enjoyable day.  















Comments

  1. Adrienne C4 July 2024 at 17:02

    Loving your blog Chris. And what a journey Austen had. As is yours, although far more pleasure

    ReplyDelete

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