Day 52: Admont to Altenmarkt: Almost through the Gesause!

June 20, 2014

Admont is the gateway to the Gesause National Park, and maybe that is why, as we cycled out of town, the cycle path was so beautifully smooth and lovely. However the heart of the Gesause Park is that the Enns there flows between high mountains that are close on both sides. It is not exactly a gorge, but in spots the river has rapids and is very narrow. Putting the car road through must have been tough enough, so no spare space to cater to cyclists. The Enns Radweg sign just calmly notes for you that it's share the road, with all kinds of traffic. After that, the Radweg kind of hides - no signs - I mean, what can they say?

So the order of the day was riding the white line, with often a steel rail or stone wall on the side. Grampies, of course, are good at that. So today added in drenching rain, serious long hills, and no services. Ok, all that taken together is something we would notice!

On the other hand, it is not quite something we remember, based on having been through here two years ago. So, at mid day, having just pushed up a hill so long and steep that it just had to be the end of it, we sought refuge in a bus shelter. We fired up the tablet and had a look at what we had written two years ago.

In part, we said " Our day deteriorated rapidly, though, from that point. Not only had the Ennstalradweg signs mostly disappeared, but the traffic free way also was non existent. Instead, it was a fairly high speed highway, with no shoulder. What’s more, hills were now common. If you are cranking slowly up a hill its hard to keep a very straight line. With cars and large trucks whizzing by, this is not so cool.

Finally, (while I am grousing), the stunning scenery of the open valley with distant mountains and the alpine meadows and houses had been replaced by very close forested walls. We like forest, but it lacks that certain wow factor.

After lots of hours of fighting the cars and the hills, Dodie especially had had it. Still, the nearest camping was quite distant. We began to eat what cookies and fruits we had, to avoid bonking before reaching the nearest camping. The planners of the bike route obviously thought we would enjoy some extra exercise, so they sent us up something called the Erbsattel road. This is a pass from which other, even nuttier people launch hikes higher into the mountains. We more or less pushed the bikes straight up 10 or 15 km. Grrrph. up A little later the signage directed us onto a hill so steep that I barely could push my bike up. I left it at the top and went back for Dodie, who had made it about ¼ of the way. At this point she balked, maintaining that this road could not possibly be the right one, and that we were being shot off the wrong way, even higher into the mountains. This was not actually the real Dodie, but exhaustion talking. It got basically fixed by two plums and two macaroons."

"Oh, oh", I said to Dodie "It says we need plums and macaroons to do this!". Well we actually had macaroons, but no plums! So we came up with another way around it. We got onto highway 115 and went around the Pass. I guess we were saying we would rather die down on the road than up in the Pass. The road itself was not exactly flat, but it was manageable. We used our flashers, and these seemed to repel the traffic sufficiently.

Lots of clouds in the mountains, as we head for Gesause National Park

Outside of Admont, the Enns Radweg looks really excellent. That falls apart very quickly!

Entering the National Park. This is a real national park as we understand it - with educational programs, conservation initiatives, and nature interpretation. It is also stuffed with bloody impassable mountains!

The radweg gave way to narrow car road with no shoulder

There were three tunnels along the way, this one 1 km long. Bicycles are not allowed in the first two tunnels.

Admont is at the bottom of this illustration. It looks from this that after you get half way into the mountains, conditions ease off. That is not actually the case!

Cycles are supposed to go left around this tunnel. Then the path skirts high on the side of the mountain. We said, no way.

We got to Altenmarkt at mid afternoon. This is where the Erbsattel way rejoins the highway. In principle we could have carried on, and maybe even hit the camping at Grossraming. On the other hand, it was pouring rain. So we jumped into a Guesthouse - this one built in 1578. It turns out this place appeared in the photo of Altenmarkt that we put in the blog two years ago. The room is very large by European standards, and the ceilings are vaulted. 27 euros per person, including breakfast. When the value of breakfast is factored in, it's not all that crazy compared to what they are charging for camping here. (To be fair, though, our 2012 blog says we were able to evade paying for camping at Grossraming).

Right now, it continues to pour. But the forecast for tomorrow is for clearing. So we should be able to continue our march back to the Danube in good order!

Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,677 km (1,662 miles)

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