Summer 2015 - 6th Post (Austria)

21st June 2015

Split to Sinj (Croatia)
Section 173 miles
Total 3452 miles

Picked up the motorway again for most of the drive; hit the coast again just south of Sinj. Had intended to go to a site a few kilometres up the coast; but, Sinj looked an interesting town and I found Auto-Kamp Skver - right on the Adriatic and only £7 a night - there to spend the night.

 

Footpaths all over a headland lead up to a castle and views across the Adriatic and the town. Not a scrap of litter anywhere - in the UK the place would be strewn with Snickers wrappers, used chewing gum, coke cans and goodness knows what else - Croatia, Italy, Austria and Switzerland are litter free zones.

 

Approaching Sinj - Offshore Islands and the Adriatic

Sinj - The Castle
Not a scrap of litter in sight!

Sinj  - From the castle headland

22nd to 24th June 2015

Sinj to Oberdrauberg (Austria)
Section  220 miles
Total 3672 miles

North through Slovenia into NE Italy. The weather wasn't brilliant, so I carried on to the west of the Julian Alps to cross into Austria via the Passo di Monte Crace Carnico. Only1360m high, but seemed to go up a vertical face for the last 300m or so with a series of short straights, hair-pin bend tunnels and virtually single track in places. I forgot to say what Croatian is for 'hair-pin bend' - it's 'serpentina' which I think looks pretty cool on the signs. It was about the only Croatian road sign that I could understand!

 

Stayed over at a campsite in Oberdrauberg in the Drau valley for a couple of nights. The weather was grim; but, cleared in the afternoon of the second day and I just walked down the valley for a few hours.



 

24th June 2015

Oberdrauberg (Austria) to Monte Piana (Italy)
Section  64 miles
Total 3736 miles

Looking at the map I realised that I was close to the Dolomites, never having been I decided to pay a visit. Well they certainly are amazing - awesome even - not the highest peaks in the alps typically 2000m to 3000m but jagged masses and spires of limestone. Pulled in at a parking area for the night and climbed up Monte Piana to looks at the remains of the Italian trenches on top of the mountain from WWI - what a contrast to Flanders and its flat water-logged fields, which I passed through a couple of months ago. The Austro-Italian front (1915-1918) was literally on the tops of mountains at over 2000m in places. It was cold when the sun was going down at the end of June - goodness knows what it was like for the troops stationed there in January and February.

Oh yes, I forgot to say, that I found one of the summer houses where Gustav Mahler (probably my favourite classical symphonist) composed during the summer months at the beginning of the last century. He was the Director of the Vienna Opera - but spent his summers holidaying and composing in the mountains.

Dobaccio - Formerly Austria before 1919 Treaty of St Germain
Plaque on the Gustav Mahler House



Dobaccio - Gustav Mahler House
Now a restaurant!

Dolomites - Lunch time walk around a lake

Dolomites - from top of Monte Piana

Dolomites - Monte Piana
One of the memorials to the Austro-Italian conflict above 2000m here in 1915-197

Dolomites - Monte Piana
Italian frontline trenches from 1915-1917 hewn into the limestone in the foreground

25th June 2015

Monte Piana (Italy) to Sulsana (Switzerland)
Section  227 miles !!
Total 3963 miles

I seemed to get a bit carried away with the driving today! But I do like just pottering along in the van - 'better to go than arrive' sort of syndrome.

Passed over three high passes, at about 2200m, in the Dolomites then down to Bozeno. Everywhere seemed really busy, especially with bikers. Hordes of the buggers. Probably due to the fact that it was a four day holiday weekend in Italy for some saint or other.

Then up a long valley to cross into Switzerland at the Passo dello Stelvi, 2758m, into the Engadine - the extreme eastern canton - just mountains, pine forest and the occasional village. Spent the night at a campsite near Sulsana - Switzerland is not very campervan friendly. Virtually no aires at all. And the campsites seemed to be like the UK - just wet looking green fields - at the two places I stopped they were swarming with flies (big bastards!). I have only had issue with flies once before on this trip. That and the expense put me off (fuel is more expensive than the UK and I couldn't believe the cost of food in the supermarket). In Austria the fuel is typically less than France - about 1.18 euro a litre.

Dolomites - A glorious start to the day the Tre Cimes
From the lakeside near the camper stop at about 8am

Dolomites - One of the many passes crossed today

Dolomites - There are two gondolas in this picture
The higher one appears microscopic just below the summit station ad gives some idea of scale

Sulsana (Switzerland) - Just by the campsite

26th June 2015

Sulsana (Switzerland) to Prutz (Austria)
Section  51 miles
Total 4014 miles

To avoid the flies and save money, I headed north down the Inn valley into 'tourist friendly' Austria in the morning. Stopped once en route in Switzerland, only to end up with a van full of huge flies or wasps. The fly spray from last Autumn in Spain had to come out.

Stopped at a campsite near Landeck in the western part of the Tirol (Tyrol). Well, if campsites were like this in the UK one would consider taking all one's holidays there. The restaurant, reception, showers, communal areas etc are in a huge building that is a much better standard than some hotels I have stayed in. Then, as you book in they give you a 'tourist card' that gives free use of the local buses, swimming pools and a few other places - as well as reduction on cable cars and other attractions.  For two people just 14 euros a night and kids go free!

Austria like France and Germany has kilometres of clearly numbered and way-marked footpaths. Here, there is even high up along the side of the valley for push chairs! Also, Austria seems to be well into cycle ways - both hard surfaced and off-road VTT tracks. In the Villertal area I read there are 800km of VTT routes in one valley system! I just cycled back up the valley for 20km or so in the afternoon. Storms  promised for the next couple of days.

Engadine Switzerland - A more agricultural part on the way to Austria
Do not stop here your vehicle will be swamped by flies or worse!

Prutz - View from the van at the campsite
There's a glacier some where up there.
Shame about the fence in front of the River Inn
and the German van in the way