What goes up must come down

We have now moved on into central Austria and the Hohe Tauern National Park.
We are at the small town of Heiligenblut just south of the Grossglockner
Pass. It really is a very pretty place to be staying. The campsite is very
nice and is set in the valley just below the town itself, and is surrounded
by tree-covered mountains and hills. We have a great view of the peak of
Grossglockner (the highest peak in Austria at 3798m) in the distance and it
is still covered in snow. We will drive over the pass when we leave here and
head to the northern parts of Austria.
The only problem here is that it is mountainous, i.e. the cycling is a bit
more difficult. I have done one of the marked MTB routes so far and climbed
up to 1700m at the highest point. The site is at about 1200m so it is not as
bad as it sounds, but it was still pretty hard going as I only covered about
5 miles zigzagging back and forth up the mountain roads and tracks to gain
the 500m or so. The views were quite breathtaking and I did at one point
wish I had taken the camera with me, but I knew it was not an essential
piece of equipment (i.e. weight). The downhill was another thing, on mostly
dirt tracks and then finally tarmac. That is the real reason for not having
the camera with me, as it would most likely get shaken to bits on the very
bumpy and rocky dirt track at +20mph. There are several harder rides to do
and I will attempt them over the next week or so. Sue has also been getting
in the miles on the bike. She did 13 miles the other day before we left
Hermagor and she is also keen to try some of the smaller climbs around and
about the campsite.
There is plenty of walking to do around here. A ski lift from the town goes
up the to one of the nearby peaks, Schareck 2552m, and we will go up that
one day and walk back down. I think the walk is about 31/2 hours.
One of the new big things here is the sport of Nordic Walking. It is a
similar thing to Nordic Skiing, same arm and leg action, but without the
skis. You still have poles and use those as you stride out. It is meant to
be a total body workout as well as a great cardiovascular workout. You never
know we might even give it a go sometime.
Other than that there is not much else to report at the moment. We are still
very much enjoying ourselves, especially the not working part.

Ich habe mich verlaufen.

M&S