A gorgeous day

 Day 6: Kleindorf to Obervellach

Hours walked: 8:45 - 3:00

Kilometres walked: 14

Quote of the day: “When Papa’s back gets better, then I’ll walk with him ‘cause he’ll be faster than you.” - Zadie

Jesuses seen: 8

We diverged from the Alpe Adria Trail again today; another planned diversion. Our plan was to walk to Obervellach along the river and on small roads, in such a way that we would get to also visit two popular gorges. I was a little disappointed that the forecast for our walking day with sightseeing was rain all day. But then again, not every day can be sunshine. 

Jakob spent the first couple of hours of the day on the phone with the Australian government, and probably amused a few locals as he hiked along blabbing into his white earbuds. For some reason, Australia now thinks we live in Queensland, which is far from the reality. We walked along kayaking courses that were fun to imagine doing, and small farms until we arrived at the start of our first gorge, Raggaschlucht. 

Gratefully leaving our packs at the entrance, we headed uphill into a narrow canyon along a slatted wooden walkway. The river soon turned into a huge, foaming cataract. It was impressive enough that Zadie and Tova were both scared, tightly gripping the handrails of our narrow walkway bolted onto the rock face 20 feet above the boiling rapids. The churning noise made conversation impossible, so we steadily climbed past waterfalls and whirlpools until we finally emerged at the top close to an hour later. We headed back down a forest path, Zadie skinning her knee, and continued on, discussing how in the world that walkway could possibly have been created without breaking some necks.  

The second gorge, Groppensteinschlucht, was very different in character. The first half of its 1.5km felt like a riverside trail with very impressive views of waterfalls and rapids. The second half involved a wood walkway attached high up on the cliffside overlooking more waterfalls; this gorge was more open, rather than a slot canyon. By this point in the day, we were all pretty wet from the off-and-on rain, but thankful that it seemed to shut off for the afternoon. 

We walked into the town of Obervellach, with its simultaneously charming and sinister Main Street. There was nothing sinister about the hot chocolates and strudel we had at the visitor centre cafe, which occupies the old mayor’s picturesque house and covered, white-columned courtyard. Then on to our accommodation for the night, which is a charming guesthouse run by some Belgians, their children and their entourage of farm animals (eg Speck and Schnitzel, the obese pigs). Tova and Zadie were so happy to play with other kids, jump on a trampoline and pet animals, frolicking until it got dark and we sent them to bed. Tamar taught Aurora and Sophia how to play Spit, leading to equal parts laughter and sobs.