It’s been almost a month since I’ve had gas...no, not that kind...camping gas - for cooking in Betty and also running the fridge when I’m stationary and have no electricity. If you’ve been reading my blog (which I’d be impressed if you have as I do go on at times...I’d just be looking at the nice pictures), you’ll know that it was a fateful day in Montenegro I believe (see, I don’t even read it!), where I mentioned to Garth and Holly how long my one take of butane gas had been lasting me, for a month and a half, since I left England...and then the next day or so, it ran out! All through the Balkans we searched in vain for the same type of tank, or even someone who would refill mine and eventually we gave up. Even in Slovenia, the only part of former Yugoslavia to be a member of the European Union, their propane industry was still faithful to the old Communist ways. Well today, that was going to change. I asked the campground guy where I might go and he said to Lienz, a city about a half an hour away with a place specifically called “Camping Gaz”. How could I go wrong? Well I didn’t. Lienz is a beautiful city in a valley (like pretty much all of the cities in Austria I think) but it seems as they only have one road going through town as it did take the better part of 15 minutes to go about 3 kms. I pulled into the Camping Gaz place and thought I`d gamble with stopping Betty. I turned the key, pulled it out, and she kept purring (as best as she can purr). Okay Betty, you don`t start when I want you to start, and sometimes you won`t stop when I want you to stop...I just can`t win! I locked her up and just let her idle, sans key. I showed the guy the blue tank that I was trying to replace and lo and behold, he had one! Super! I`ve been almost a month without butane and finally...I`ve got gas!
I crawled back through Lienz, although in this direction the traffic was a bit faster. I stopped for some supplies at a grocery store to fill up my hopefully now functioning fridge and headed back towards the town of Sillian where I was camping. I had a local map of hiking trails of the area and hoped to go for a walkabout but the clouds were looking a bit menacing and in fact I drove through some rain on the way back. I decided to head towards a town called Obertilliach where I saw some marking for paragliding launches. I didn`t expect to fly but thought I`d check it out. The turnoff was right by my campsite and it began with a few switchbacks climbing out of the valley. As I plateaued, I couldn`t help but think “Wow, a lot of Austria looks the same...with mountains on both sides, a grassy sloping plains lined with small huts, the odd little town with a small church steeple and stereotypical mountain lodge houses with their colourful baskets of flowers hanging off of their upper balconies.” This place looked a lot like the drive I took on my way to Kosovo to meet up with Garth and Holly where there were people cross country skiing on wheels up the ascending road. Wow, real déjà vu here...well, turns out it WAS the same road that I had driven on my way to the Balkans! I was using a different map from that time a month ago and just hadn’t clued in that I was in the same area!
The city of Lienz:
I arrived in the cute town of Obertilliach and eventually found the parking lot for the chairlift. I paid my 8 Euros to head up and only had a little more than an hour to go up, hike around and catch the lift back down before they closed for the day. Half way up the chairlift, I saw a few paragliders fly by, in a slight bit of rain. I briefly kicked myself for not bringing my wing up but then reassured myself that I didn’t want a wet wing with nowhere to dry it.
Up top, it was above the tree line with some fantastic views. I hiked towards one of the paragliding launches as another wing flew over me. The rain had subsided so now I was kicking myself for not bringing my paraglider with me...oh well. I high tailed it up to a summit, soaked in the views for a couple of minutes before having to descend to catch the chairlift, with about five minutes to spare. The ride down was nice, aided by the cold beer I had brought up with me.
Looking down from the chairlift:
Gorgeous mountainside:
Envious of a PGer:
Looking down from the peak:
Clouds in the valley:
I crush Betty (you "Kids in the Hall" viewers will know what I'm talking about):
Back down, I wandered around the town for a bit. I was surprised by the number of houses that had an upper level, covered walkway that traversed to another building, equal in size to their lodging that was in fact their barn...right in town. Urban farming I guess.
The urban farm - an overhead walkway from the house to the barn:
The local church in Obertilliach:
A beautiful Austrian house:
I returned to the campsite and a nice VW California campervan pulled up in the spot next to me (yes, I had van envy). The driver was a Swiss woman, Ines, who was a paraglider pilot too. I spoke to her briefly about the conditions and the local sites. She also hadn’t flown today...but hopefully the weather will change for tomorrow...
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