Piberger See | Hiking In The Alps

Morning, morning, morning. Actually, afternoon. It's been an advent morning and now it's the afternoon. We, that is me and Anna, we're in Oertz in Austria. So here in the Alps. It has been raining all morning, but finally it's clearing up. The sun is coming through. We've been staying at Haus Gertraud. Pronounced right? Half. And I just had to show you these roses because even though you can't smell them, I can and I'm telling you, they smell so good. So that's been a highlight of the day so far. Anyway, today we are going to here, pronounced Piburgassee. Exactly. Thank you very much. I knew we'd have a used today. Greet. But anyway, this place is amazing. We've actually just come back up from Southern Italy. I spent a few days here in September, 2020. What a year, 2020. But this place is really, it's cool because peach trees grow here. And it's very bizarre. The peaches are over now, but we did find some doughnut peaches when we were here before. But we're going to go and find the river. Also pop into Sparta, buy some food because we have no food. Except I have a waffle and you have? I have a cereal bar of some kind. Yeah. Great. And then we'll walk. So that's the plan. Let's go. We have food. We have a map. We'll have bread soon. Oh, it's starting to rain. We have an Anna who has, what is this? Camera. A camera. Buttermilk. Yeah. Which is? Buttermilk. Obviously. So, we now need- You spoke to him. Of course I do. We now need to go and find the river, which is just a little bit further up and then we'll cut down and then we walk along and loop around up to the top where the lake is. So, let's do this. So, it's late September here in Ötztal at the moment and you can see all the fallen leaves. I mean, it really is starting to feel quite autumnal. Much, much fresher in the air than it has been and it's just very atmospheric with the clouds swirling around. It wasn't long before we hit the Ötztal River, 41 miles in length, which flows through the entire length of the valley. It's roar echoed through the forest as we followed the path alongside. Okay, what have we got here? Some kind of memorial. In thankfulness to my beloved wife, Josephine Welker. This is quite faded, isn't it? 22nd of June, 1958. Okay, thank you. Good translator. Up here, proof that we're going the right way. Always nice. And then we've got some billboards. Love a good billboard. Let's have a look at this one. Maybe I can point to you or point out to you where we actually are. So, give you some context. Ötztal. So, this is the Ötztal Valley. So, going up the valley, obviously the settlements get higher above sea level and then this is the lake we're going to. So, walking along the river here and then we're gonna cut up and then doobie-doobie-doo. May or may not join this trail or this trail and then basically loop back round. Super easy. Super cool. Geil. Super geil. Oh, man. Wow, look at that, man. Clearly after some rains, that water is coming crashing down. So good. Man, I'm loving this place already. Hey, can you see here? It says about kayaking the world championship. Oh, man. And that's what it looked like. There you go. Just 35 minutes to the lake and then we get to go across the bridge. Pretty exciting. Woo. Metal ladder. Happy days. How good is this wood? Alrighty, 900 meters above sea level just as the rain begins to fall, we have reached the lake. And it's nice because actually under normal summer conditions, this place is usually heaving because you can actually come in and swim. You can hire a boat. It's really rather beautiful here in this AONB. But today, it is ours. Yours and mine alone. Ours. Four hours. The lake and surrounding forest is one of Tyrol's oldest nature reserves, having been declared a national monument as early as 1929. It also happens to be the only natural swimming lake in Ötetal. Although this time, we didn't brave a dip. Instead, we stood and watched the fish swim around, totally enchanted by the beauty of the place. So we want to go up this way? Yeah. Or do we want to go there today? Hmm. 50 minutes to get up there. I reckon we can do it quicker than that. We are a little bit stumped because the signs blocked off, as you saw with the time of the, how long it takes to get to the viewpoint. But we can't actually find the path. So, well, if we can, we need to go along the lake, which is fine. But on here, the path isn't supposed to be along the lake. So we backtracked, and now we're going back again to the lake. Because there was no, we didn't miss anything, did we? No. Going up? No. Okay, back at the lake path. Is that behind the bench? Surely it'll be signed. Is anything a path? Let's go and have a look. But why would the bench be on the path? Or is that a path? What, where's the path? I mean, I'm sure we can make a path. I think it's just pine needles. Investigation continues. Three quarters of 45 minutes. We have managed to find it. Okay, nevermind. We're leaving the lake. Let's go. We managed to find the path. About three quarters of an hour up to the viewpoint. So let's go. 45 minutes, and we will be there looking down on the lake. Just endless mushrooms here. All different types, colours, shapes, sizes. Amazing. And there's the lake, wow. Oh man. That is cool. Can you see? And the amazing mountain panoramas all around. Absolutely stunning. We're on the move again. Had so much food, so many breads and so much hummus that I can hardly move now. And we've actually decided to leave the main path and follow this thing. Which may or may not take us back to the lake. We don't mind if it does. It seems like it probably is going to, because we're going down. The main path sort of continues contouring, jumps to the car park, and then it heads down. Doesn't actually necessarily go back to the lake. So just thought we'd have a little bit of an adventure. So good. Just luckied it with the piles, because there's one here, and one here, and one there. Hannah's filming a mushroom. And let's have a look anyway. Actually, this one looks like a bit of a viewpoint. Not sure where this is going, but it's going somewhere. So I'm pretending like I'm confident about it. Wood, all ready for winter. Actually, from Friday, it's due to snow very heavily here. So just two days left of non-snowiness. And then the road is just down there through the trees. Dropping out of the woods, we found ourselves passing an old flour mill, which had actually been restored in 2011. Although the original structure dated back to the early 1900s. Since 2014, the mill has served as a popular meeting place for locals who come together to bake bread and offer tours about the history of the area. Wow, look at this water wheel. 1915? Is that? Yeah. Wow. Can you see inside? Just about. What are you doing? Oh, such long ears. So we went up and down, as opposed to just along and around. So now we're on the other side of the lake. This was the iconic view that so many travel to the area to see. The mountains, forests, clouds, all reflected on the glassy surface of the lake. There you go, a collection of signs. I just love these yellow alpine signs. But anyway, we can go to Udds that way, which is back along the lake and down the way we came, or go to Udds this way, which is a cumulatively half an hour's walk. Easy peasy. Here we go. Tarmac generally tends to mean windless civilization. All right, so we are just dropping down along the road now back to Udds. So we'll pick up the river and then follow that into the village. So that is a bike. Service. Over the bridge, back at the river. And Udds is just there behind the trees. So the village of Udds is just around the corner. We're nearly done with our walk. The roaring river is behind us. It's quite loud actually. How did you find the walk? I really enjoyed it, yeah. It was good, good and on point. On point? On point. Oh, that's rather niche. No, the trees are awesome, the alpine forest, the nature reserve, the lake was lovely. We stayed dry, which given this morning was pretty decent. Just generally a really nice walk actually. Not too long, not too strenuous, just good to be in the mountains. So guys, thank you so much for watching and enjoy your adventures wherever they may be. Until next time, stay wild. Bye. I always have to do the hand, it's like pow, pow, stay wild, pow, pow, pow. Wildness, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. I thought you were against weapons. I am. It's a finger shooter. Bye. I have a secret to tell you, I can't jump. It's all a lie. My leg. I just slimed on my face. All right, back to business.