By Bike

Day 10 (13^th August) – Sarstein to Bad Gastein.

Following last night’s downpour, we set off on wet roads and in fog.

Today was a day for the puncheurs, rolling terrain with short steep climbs, the kind that for racing ‘puncheurs’ invites a powerful and sustained burst of speed for a km or so. For us it was more of a sustained amble.

After our first ‘punch’, the fog lifted revealing a beautiful lake and the densely packed town of Hallstatt set against limestone cliffs.

A UNESCO World Heritage region it is home to the world’s oldest salt mines and industrial landscape dating back over 7,000 years.

The salt mines have preserved a rich archeological collection that provides valuable information about the diet, lifestyle, mining organisation and resource management of the people during the early Iron Age. This includes items traded from the British Isles, imported Greek pottery, bronze items from Italy and other luxurious goods, reflecting extensive trade networks with the Mediterranean, textiles, wood, leather objects, grass, ropes, shoes, cloth, backpacks and a well-preserved body of a prehistoric miner known as the “Man in Salt” discovered in the 18th century.

The Hallstatt Culture that developed between 1200 and 500 BCE was instrumental in spreading innovations such as advanced metallurgy and salt curing techniques across a wide area of Western Europe. It is considered one of the earliest manifestations of Celtic culture in Europe and through trade and migration, influenced the development of Celtic art, language, and social structures across Western Europe.

Along our ride we notice that many of the streams are swollen and heavy with sediment from the previous evenings storm. In one valley the streams take on a chocolate colour and we speculated on what be its cause.

Suddenly the road was closed. An overnight landslide had taken out a sizeable chunk of road making it impassable.

Damn. We had only 4km to go to get to the next town. It was now mid-afternoon, super-hot and with the prospect of a 41km detour and nightfall, we decided to call on Liz and Sue (who had just set up camp and settled in) to meet us part-way back to take us to our destination at Bad Gastein.

According to Garmin