For our last walk of the week, we joined forces with hut group-A, and Pascal brought his team down to our end of the mountains before driving up the valley and parking at what turned out to be a fairly busy car park. We set off up the valley, hoping most of the people would stay near the flashy hotel, cafe and ice-cream, and postcard stalls. We skirted the long Vorderer Gosausee lake, watching the steep rocky mountain faces on either side rise hugely and vertically around us. After a couple of kilometers we left the lakeside and joined the main valley trail where most people had turned back, so we stripped off here as soon as was practical and continued the rest of the day naked. The path wound it’s way steadily along the valley bottom, past a lake where we stopped for a pleasant splash and to enjoy the seriously impressive scenery.
We continued up the long valley, following the gently winding trail through the trees at the base of huge vertical crags to either side of us. The valley opened out as we reached the upper lake, and we began to meet people returning from the hut at the end of the lake. We sat down for a while to soak up the scenery some more, and paddled about in the clear water. Horst watching on as small fish nibbled his toes. Then we headed to the head of the lake, where the Gasthof proprietor had declined the offer of a naked hut visit, but waved to the grass fields all around and said there was no problem with being naked between the hut and the lake, so we made ourselves comfortable.
After a bite and some swimming, and gazing in awe at the huge valley spread out before us, we headed back down the trail once more, and returned to our various transports and respective huts. This was the end of the week, and our last day naked hiking in Austria. It had been a sterling experience, not least as we had three naked hiking groups underway for most of the time, and had experienced positive feedback from the vast majority of the people we’d encountered. We’d had interesting people, fascinating landscapes, and great weather too!
An outstanding week of hiking in the alps!