Lakes and Waterfalls

There's been a real mix of weather here in Tirol, Austria over the last few days. During the nights, there have been some terrific thunderstorms, followed by clear mornings and sodden ground. This is the view from our pad.

Although it was a damp start to a day, things brightened up not only with the brief appearance of blue skies, but when our neighbour brought over some freshly cooked donuts and red currant sauce!

On Tuesday afternoon, we jogged up to Piburgersee (nearby lake). We had also tried on Monday, but storm damage and fallen trees had blocked the roads and so you couldn't access it. With a better route and running shoes on, we traversed in (past many more fallen trees), and made it up to the water.

The bonus was, that as it was so difficult to get there, we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

As it is billed as the warmest lake in Tirol, we naturally took our swimming kit. After a few spots of rain, the water turned to a mirror and a slight mist hung above the waters surface, giving a magical, silent swim surrounded by steep mountainsides.

On the far side of the lake (which was still closed to the public), we could see the devastation from the storm and the walkway that we'd walked across last week had been crushed by trees!

Down in the town of Otez, we stopped in at one of the crags on the way home as things started to brighten up, but the rock was still wet. 

On Wednesday morning, we woke up to find that fresh snow had fallen over night on the mountains above us!

It was a nippy but fresh start to the day, with temperatures right down to 6 degrees! Bad conditions for mountaineering, but beautiful for a walk to the bakery!

In the afternoon, we walked from the house to have a look at this nearby waterfall.

On the way we visited an small alpine museum, in a series of very old chalets.

There was a well used, but sturdy staircase in one.

And all was powered by a series of waterwheels, with water tapped off from the huge waterfall. All very ingenious. 

To get to the viewing platform, there was some steep steps - our legs were still tired from our recent big mountain day, but it was good to stretch them out a bit.

Worth it for the view up close of the main waterfall.