Wednesday 24th September 2008 – Zell am Ziller, Tyrol, Austria

The weather forecast was much better for today and it was correct. We woke to find one of those lovely Alpine days – blue skies, wisps of clouds around the mountains and clear views of the peaks. It was definitely a day for walking.
The very helpful lady in the tourist information office and recommended two walks to us, both of which started from the town. We chose the one that went east in the direction of Gerlos, the way that we had travelled to Zell. A few hundred metres of road walking from the campsite brought us to the start of the footpaths and we were soon passing the site of gold mines from the 17th century. We walked up the steep path past evidence of opencast mining (removal of rock directly from the mountainside) and the remains of exploratory shafts. The boards informed us that 300,000 tonnes of rock were removed and 1 tonne of gold extracted before the mines closed. This being Austria, it is all very neat now with no scar on the landscape visible from afar. We passed a pretty pilgrimage church on the way up to the village of Dorfl. The views of the Ziller Valley on the way up, when we were out of the woods, and from the village were excellent. In Dorfl we found another example of excellent Austrian organisation – an attractive, purpose built public building that housed the school, kindergarten, public offices and even, in garages under the building, the fire station.
Dorfl was the highest part of the walk and soon after we started our descent towards the hamlet of Bichl, we found a seat in the sun and sat down to eat our sandwiches. The route down took us past a mixture of pasture and woodland including an area that had recently been felled. Unsurprisingly, the journey down was much quicker than the walk up and we were soon back at the campsite. The clouds were beginning to form and there were ominously black clouds hanging over the mountains in the east. As evening arrived, so did the rain, gentle but persistent.
Photos: The wonderfully sunny and clear views down the valley from the campsite; This cow came to greet us at the beginning of the walk; A view of Zell from the walk – the campsite is situated in the bottom of the valley on this side of the town, just above the second house from the left, in the middle of the picture; The local farmer was cutting grass, raking it together and loading it into this backpack basket.