By Bike

Day 17 (20^th August) – Lahn to Innsbruck.

Up early and over Gerlospass (1,626m) connecting the provinces of Salzburg and Tirol.

Not quite as demanding as the big climbs we’ve tackled so far, we were able to see Krimmler Wasserfälle in the distance as we zig-zagged our way up the slope under thick cloud.

Down the other side, the clouds slowly parted revealing a classic Alps scene of a lake set amongst forest at the foot of snow-capped mountains (I’m finding hard to come up with words other than beautiful, breath-taking, awe-inspiring… help me if you can).

Once down the mountain, it was back onto farm lanes or bike paths along the banks of wide swollen Ziller river, then the same again up the Inn river that took us all the way to Innsbruck.

Bright sunshine was back, though after all this rain, it seemed finally to have lost its sting – a perfect day for cycling.

Innsbruck is the first milestone in our Alps Odyssey or Traverser les Grandes Alpes à vélo. Since we left Trieste some 17 days ago, we’ve ridden +1150km. This after our 360km Tour of Istria.

We’re now treating ourselves to a few nights in an Airbnb and some R&R before heading off on our next leg across the Alps.

According to Garmin

Some reflections so far…

Cycling nirvana. One of most inspiring stories for me has been the number of cyclists we’ve seen. Every day in every region. Every type of bike, all ages, from all over Europe and beyond.

The cycling infrastructure is equally impressive. We’ve ridden hundreds of kilometres of dedicated paths, lanes, farm roads in the valleys and rolling hills. On the passes, traffic usually starts to build about mid-morning and vehicles wait until it’s clear then give a wide berth.

And on the down-hill… well travelling between 60-80km per hour, it’s better to take the middle of the road.

Few fences! It’s a joy to ride along roads and paths with no fences beside you. It feels like a luxury to ride a wide bitumen path free of traffic sweeping through a meadow filled with flowers or tall shady forest beside a turquoise mountain stream. The sense of connection with the landscape, the openness and freedom is intoxicating.

Most electricity lines are underground or under roads. When we do come across a fence they are mostly temporary and electrified.

Forests everywhere. Nearly half of Austria is forested while in Slovenia it’s over 60%. The forests of Austria are reported to be expanding. I’ve mentioned the way forests are mostly selectively logged (https://bybike.au/2024/08/17/carinthian-woodland-and-historic-towns/). What has been most interesting is how important the forest industry is and the diversity and large number of businesses involved – from what looks like small farm niche operators to large scale processing plants for laminates and other products.

Dramatic impact of climate change. Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average since the 1980’s and currently the fastest-warming continent in the world.

Whilst on top of Große Speikkogel (https://bybike.au/2024/08/16/cruising-through-carinthia/), I spoke with two locals who had just walked up from the valley below about the changing climate. Whereas once the winter snow would cover both mountains and valleys, now it was wildly variable from year to year and it’s predicted that the winter snow line will be above 2000m within a few years.

Even though it is high summer, once you would expect to see snow on the tops of many of the peaks. We’ve seen mostly rock. I wrote earlier about riding over the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (https://bybike.au/2024/08/21/grosglockner-hochalpenstrase/).

Here’s two photos that show the dramatic decrease in snow and ice. The photo on the left was taken recently. The one on the right taken when the road was open in 1935.

We’ve also experienced a number of bouts of heavy rainfall (thankfully at night). One of the predictions with increases in temperatures is also an increase of more intense rainfall events. This poses huge challenges for flood control and water quality.