Our last day on the route, we will cross the Karavan Mountains back into Austria followed by a 30 km long relatively straight section back to Arnoldstein.
We wake up at 4 in the morning, our hostel’s cafeteria is fortunately open non-stop, also with a coffee machine, so we have a quick coffee and leave the hostel at 4:42 in the morning. We have breakfast on the way through Krajnska gora, enjoying the morning chill. Today is supposed to be hot, the forecast says 33 degrees, so we just hope that the second half of the route through Austria will not be sunny, because we will boil ourselves alive.
We leave the Krajnska gora behind and for the first few kilometers we run along the foot of the mountain along the river. At the 5th kilometer we start to climb and climb steeply to the ridge. However, at the top we leave the Alpe Adria trail for a moment and go less than a kilometer to the Techantinger Mittagskogel with an altitude of 1823 meters above sea level. It offers beautiful views not only of the Karavanke Mountains, but also of the lowlands in Austria and also of Faaker See.
It follows a 6km run on beautiful ridge with breathtaking views, we would have liked to run much further along it. However, Alpe Adria leads us in a different direction.
We start to descend and the route becomes flatter and flatter. We run through a few villages to Faaker See, where, almost out of water, we stop at a buffet on the shore of Faaker See. Radler is a classic, we refill our bottles and wash our sweaty faces, the temperature rises, it feels like it’s over 30.
Next for us is one of the most difficult parts, through the Finkenstein moor, a marsh with tall reeds, through which a long straight dirt road leads, in the midday sun, without a single bit of shade. Fortunately, a forest followed it and a few kilometers further we came across the Gail River, we couldn’t resist and went to it to cool down. It’s a shame that in that heat we were dry again in just a few minutes.
We arrive in the spa town of Warmbad, and since we can smell how many kilometers we have behind us, we prefer to stay on the terrace of a local restaurant, even though the interior is air-conditioned. The Radler in us quickly disappears and we have no choice but to continue riding 🙂 The spa park is truly beautiful with carpets of meadow flowers.
We continue along the old Roman road, which is still visible today thanks to the deep ruts left in the rock by the wheels of the carts. There should also be a waterfall and a spring here, but it is too dry and we only find a dry riverbed. We are saved by a stream a few kilometres before Oberschutt, where we at least cool down, and then a spring in the square in Oberschutt, where we fill our completely empty bottles. I almost jump from joy when we saw it there, I was already overheated and really thirsty.
The last 10 kilometers await us, mostly on a cycle path that is fortunately mostly covered with trees. After an hour and a half we reach Arnoldstein and our destination is not out accommodation, but a local shop, because we have been looking forward to a flavored orange mineral water for at least an hour 😀
It was a great experience full of emotions, views, steep climbs and equally steep descents, adrenaline and sweat, which I will remember for a long time.
