Into the hills

Day 2: Heiligenblut to Dollach

Hours walked: 9:30 - 2:30

Kilometres: 13

Quote of the day: “I think you’ll make it to Italy if you take a lot of buses” - woman at the campsite 

Jesuses seen: 17

Livestock fed: 4

We spent the day walking in the low hills over the Möll Valley. Our trail alternated between dirt roads and single-track paths through pastures and forests. The children started off the day asking how many kilometres were left about every minute; the answer was always disappointing. Sophia suggested later in the day that I not say how many kilometres we have at all. Tova had cut out a dozen animals from an Austrian magazine, and brandished them to display her mood: wolf means energetic, frog means happy, fish means angry.  

We passed a little church and we passed a town that had a series of waterwheels that, though no longer working, are beautiful to walk along. They were used for gold mining and farming until the 50’s. The views throughout the day were outstanding: we could see the impressive Jungfernsprung waterfall across the valley for much of our walk, named after a woman who, pursued by the Devil in goat form, threw herself off the top of the waterfall, but landed, aided by angels, unharmed at the bottom. 

The girls liked the frequent religious icons and monuments, as well as the tidy farms we passed - Tova mooed and baaed back at all the animals we saw. Not many cars passed, but every driver that did waved to us. Bathroom breaks take an unusually long time because the girls don’t know how to pee without taking their pants completely off. Turns out this is a very hard thing to teach! 

We could see Dollach in the distance long before we arrived: a picturesque town by the river spreading into the slopes with a prominent church on the hill. The view of the town made little feet walk faster. Dollach is wonderful; we spent the late afternoon in the town park, which includes the coolest zip line in existence - it must be close to 200m - along with a playground, climbing wall, bike path, and a cafe that served us a giant ice cream with nuts, whipped cream and peaches. 

Although we’d looked at the grocery store’s hours multiple times, somehow we failed to realise it was Saturday! At 4:50, Tamar’s blood ran cold as she realised the one shop closed at 5, and was shut tomorrow. She blazed one and a half kilometres and made it at 4:59, whereupon she shopped “like I was on that game show” and now we have food and bribes for the next 36 hours in the mountains. 

We tried an iconic Kartner dish for dinner: giant pierogies stuffed with potato and cheese, with brown butter and chives, yum yum. We’re staying in a beautiful trekking hut in the town campsite; this hut puts every single holiday park cabin we’ve stayed at to shame. Somebody literally hand carved our bed, and it smells like we’re sleeping in a pine forest.