The wonderfull world that is Arne & Eva

JULY 16th

Arne´s friend walked with us for 2 days towards Bozen (Bolzano) in South-Tirol, that is a kind of independant province of Italy where people (thank god) speak German. The Dolomites were awesome and pretty impressive. We did some bivouaks because we were to late to walk down to the hut or because the campsite that was indicated on the map just wasn´t there. It is so much nicer to sleep in your tent in the mountains, all alone, it´s very zen The Via Alpina was leading us to a long and boring trail through a valley next to the Stella Group, but Arne found us a great alternative south of the Marmolada wich was really beautiful. The weather kept on being wonderful and maybe a bit too hot. Probably the shock of going from snowy to 30°C was just to big. In Val di Fassa Arne and I went into a very cold river to cool down and Joel´s ego forced him in too , pure refreshment that even the C*ca C*la Company can´t put in a bottle. To walk out of the Dolomites we had to descend 1750 m (poor poor knees) and then we took the bus to Bozen. Joel was leaving us (for good, this time) to go climbing with some friends in Saas-Grund, we had a last beer, said goodbey and then he got on the train to Switzerland. The day afterwards Arne went to say Otzi the iceman (look it up) and in the afternoon we went to the Messner Mountain Museum wich was really impressive and cool!

It felt kind of strange walking without Joel the next days and the Meraner Höheweg is really not recommended, a bit boring after the Dolomite-craze. But our spirits were lifted again, walking to Similaunjoch, the highest point in our tour (3019 m) and a glacierwalk for the next day into the Otztal. (which we didn´t see because of the fog) The fog stayed through the whole day and we choose our bivouac-spot kind of blindly. Man oh man did we do good the next morning was sunny and we found ourselves on the edge of a little valley with glaciers behind us and glaciers on the other side in front of us. What a way to start the day!!! And the day could only get better because 2 friends were waiting for us in Sölden with Belgian beer (duvel of course, but also Corsendonck Agnus and blue Chimay), speculoospasta, a BBQ and lots of fun!!! We had a resting day and by 5 o´clock it was pooring down. thanks Bert and Ellen for a great day! The next day we walked up to the Hauerseehütte in the rain, but the hut was great fun. It was a selbsversorgungshütte, which means that you have to bring your own food, but they have a stove, tea and sleepingspace. We were the first of this year to walk over the pass to the Frischmannhütte, that sounds way cool. The rain was less the next day but there was a lot of mist and there was still some slushy snow before we could reach the steep part to the pass. Luckily the mist cleared for a while, just enough for us to look for a safe route up and we got to the pass in time for lunch. on the way down it started haling (is that how you write that? anyway, I mean the little ice-ball-f*ckers that hurt your face) in the valley the weather was better. We got back on the Via Alpina wich we left a few days ago because it was just going through a valley next to the road. In Zams the VA follows a piece of the E5 (European long distance path) which is hugely popular appearantly, especially with the middle aged tourist-walker. On the way up to our bivouacplace of choice we met some on sandals and even one on Cr*cs ö_0!!! Still, the trail was pretty rocky and wet. We camped among the cows and because of the crowds we also walked past the next hut to find a quiet place for our tent. (the cows managed to find us though) I made a fire with my magnesiumstick for the first time and almost in one go, once i figured out to use pine-juice.

We walked into the Lechtal. we had heard of it before but it turns out it is world famous in Belgium. A LOT of belgian cars passed us on our way to Holzgau and we heared a lot of Flamish Dutch once we got there. Quite a big chock, but there was a big upside, THE BARS HAD DUVEL

We were gonna walk in Germany for 2 days, just to say we were there. It started pooring down 2 hours before we crossed the border and it rained and rained untill we crossed it again. BOE!!! In 3 days about as much rain fell out of the sky as 3 weeks when we walked in Slovenia, so we didn´t bivouac and went for B&B´s with drying rooms and showers (we are such woosies)

We are back in Austria now having a restingday in a nice little town called Feldkirch, no bars with Duvel here, but chinese restaurants with all-you-can-eat buffets :S Tomorrow we´re in Liechtenstein and walking through this country will take about 5 hours of walking After that we are in the real big mountains again in Switzerland. The past 2 weeks were nice, but we kind of missed the challenge of being alone in the mountains. There was to much walking in big valleys, we tried to avoid it as much as we could, but at least now we wont have to go over the maps trying to find some cool mountains.
TSCHUSS!!!
JUNE 19th

We walked on in slovenia, also through the wonderfull Sleme-valley, that still had a lot of snow. When we entered Austria we followed the whole Karnische Hoheweg, were the snow was plenty and the open moutainhuts few. After a horrible walking day of 12,5 hours we arrived in an open hut and found Joel there waiting for us! We were very happy to see each other again and decided to walk te rest of the way together untill Cortina d’Ampezzo. We had some crazy snow adventures (backpacks do make good sleds), but otherwise the bad weather really brought down the spirits. It was a good thing we were able to do this with three. I also made a crazy birthdaycrown for Arne’s 25th birthday (check out the pictures on Flickr) and we had some mini-jagermeisters
We also found out that hitchhiking with 3 people and 3 backpacks is actualy not so hard, we even fit in a tiny Fiat Punto Here in Cortina we met up with a friend from Arne’s who had his trunk filled by Arne’s mum, with Duvel, chocolate, Jupiler, champagne, cheese, girly magazines and also enough climbing-gear for the boys to do some climbs in Cinque Torre. (not far from here) I, however, do not climb. I had a full body massage, that my muscles appreciated very much and I work on my tan. And on the internet ofcourse, but Italians are thieves: 5€ an hour ??? Va F*nculo!!! That is also a reason why this update is so short, I have realy had it with this crappy connection. The foto’s will also have to wait untill we are in a e-friendly country again, where internet is for free, as it should be. CIAO

MAY 29th

We had some very nice encounters with people from all over the world, who have asked for our blog-adress. Here is a little summary for them, so they have something to read. Don`t fret about the typ-o`s, this is my second language after all. (and not an azerty-keyboard!)

Day 16 and we are in Bovec. The weather is great here, all warm and sunny. we totally earned it, because since day 2 it has rained almost every day. When we started this trip we were thinking that we would never meet anyone who was doing the whole Via Alpina. But then, after only half an hour of walking on the first day we looked back and there was Joel. A supersweet Swedisch guy, also doing the walk. He asked if he could walk with us for a while and we were happy that he did. It is very exceptionnal to find someone with whom you can travel easily and someone that is an instant asset to “the team”. Luckily for us, Joel was just that.

Everybody kept telling us about oodles and oodles of snow, high up in the mountains, but we didn`t want to believe them. With all the bad weather, moral was low enough. Then came the day that we would actually get up in the real mountains and we were really looking forward to it, because even the wonderful Slovene forests can get boring. We were supposed to get up a ridge to Črna Prst, but when we got there the path seamed to lead to a very steap and snow/ice filled gorge-type of slope. we don`t have any crampons and it would not be safe at all to do it with our boots. (pardon my French) crap, double crap!!! There wasn`t even that much snow, just the wrong kind on the wrong place. We headed to the valley again, to sunny lake Bohinj. there we found out that we could not cross the mountainrange at Domna Komni. We were really in a sad mood when we took the train and bus around the range to Bovec.

We were in luck as we had already planned to stay here and do some watersports and paragliding. Joel, on the other hand, was getting very frustrated getting stuck like this. He decided to walk on after a day of rest. The goodbyes were kind of emotional, as we had become friends in this short time. We hope to see him again somewhere in the alps and our wintertrekking in Sweden is now planned

Bovec is really the best place for white-watersports and stuf. Yesterdaymorning I went paragliding and Arne had gone the previous day, it was mega-beautiful and soooo relaxed. Arne wanted to go canyonning while i was in the air, but not me. He asked a girl who was camping on her own, if she would go with him. Lou (short for Louise) is an enthousiastic Australian girl, traveling across Europe and she wanted to go. They had a great time! In the afternoon Arne and I went rafting with the company Aktivni Planet (bunch of young guys) and had a really fun and very sexy guide called Fabian. It was so much fun that I rafted again today (different company though, less fun) and took Louise With me. She is in a bus heading for Ljublijana right now, we wish her well!!!

Tomorrow we walk again and of course the weatherforecast is very bad, I don`t care I want to keep going!!!