Mittersill

Today was the day we'd planned to do another High Alpine Pass. As we drew closer to tall mountains gleaming bright white in the sun mountains our excitement rose. We had specifically got all year round mud and snow tyres with the van so we would be allowed to travel in countries like Austria where they were mandatory in winter. We were therefore understandably deflated when we got to the toll booth and were told we needed specialist winter tyres. The toll booth employee had been on the phone and seemed quite stressed. We think there may have been fresh snow fall and that he didn't feel very comfortable letting people through. Never mind, we are glad we tried and are glad that we were turned back before we encoubtered any danger we weren't equipped for.

After recalculating our route, we drove on. Soon we passed an incident that police and fire services were attending. Two cars were off the road, one had rolled 360°. We've found that drivers take more risks overtaking here than in Germany and are quicker to use their horns. The deaths caused by road accidents are higher per head of population in Austria than back home. We hope nobody was injured too seriously.

We'd planned to stay at a campsite but stopped for lunch at a layby we liked so much we stayed. The road was a lot quieter than last night's stop and there was a clear river running alongside down a steep bank. The trees around were radiantly yellow in the sunshine and their leaves fell frequently, providing a strong autumn aroma as we stepped outside.

At about 3:45pm the sun went down behind the mountain and we set off for a walk up the hill. We spied the sun over the mountain as we climbed but it soon escaped our less than brisk pace.Read more