So much for one post a day.
25th July to Tuesday 1st of August.
So much for one post a day. I’m barely managing one a week!
Normally I would blame too much time in the mountains, but on this occasion that is just not true. The weather has been somewhat unsettled…
Does a wet day of driving beat a day in the office?
…which has really not helped. We need a few days of settled weather before it is sensible to head up onto the glaciers and we have just not had that.
So, part of the reason I haven’t posted is because I don’t feel I have had much to post about.
But we haven’t been entirely idle. So I shall fill you in on a week of activities by way of some photos and - BREAKING NEWS - videos. Yes, I can now include video clips in my posts. I hope you enjoy them.
So pull up a chair dear reader and come with me on a 7 day journey that has been nothing if not eventful.
We start by wishing Mrs P a happy birthday (last week). I got into trouble from her uncle for not mentioning it in the last blog.
Birthday girl at the Karlsbadder Hütte 2,260m (That’s the altitude not her age.)
Next commiserate with poor Gandalf who has, as my dear departed nan would say, been in the wars…
Gandalf at the minor injuries unit in Lienz
Someone, (me) no names no pack drill (still me), forgot that Gandalf was up on a ramp and drove off the wrong end of it.
We use ramps to level up Gandalf’s interior. This is not just for aesthetic purposes. A boiling pan of water slowly sliding off the hob is not a good thing. Anyway, these ramps are necessarily tough, the ground was soft and as I drove off the high end, the low (and very sharp bit) pivoted up and tore a hole in the Gandalf’s underside.
After a number of swear words we pottered off to the very local VW garage and within 45 minutes it was all fixed. The huge piece of plastic you can see on the floor in the photo is the bit that got replaced. In the UK I’m sure the man behind the counter would have sucked his teeth, shook his head and said, “I couldn’t possibly fit you in until next January and it’s gonna cost a pretty penny. If we can get the parts that is.”
Here, in Austria, the nice man said, “We have the part in stock and my colleague can fit it immediately.” He even apologised that it would cost €100. I had to check that he hadn’t missed a zero off.
Upshot is that Gandalf is all better and I shan’t be driving away without checking the ramps in the future.
What’s next? Oh yes, we had a couple of decent days in a row, though both ended with huge thunderstorms that rumbled in all night, so got to do some low level stuff
We went climbing…
Me looking like I know what I am doing
Some jolly climbing japes never get old. Like lowering Mrs P almost to the ground then leaving her to spin gently round and round. Such fun.
We even managed a hike up to a hut. Descending just in time as yet another storm came in.
En route to the Karlsbadder Hütte
Very happy because coffee is on its way
Not satisfied with one birthday, we had been invited to celebrate Mrs P’s mother’s cousin-in-law’s 90th birthday, back in the Tirol (Achensee), which we had left a few days earlier. So, we drove in the rain 100 miles back to the Archensee.
Once again we were royally looked after at no less than 2 family events.
Birthday girl number two.
By the time this schnapps-fuelled photo was taken, the birthday girl had very sensibly gone to bed
During the four days we were there we only had one day of really good weather, so we grabbed the opportunity to hike up a local mountain called the Seebergspitze 2,085m.
Nearly there
And that dear reader about brings us up to date.
I promise to be better with my blog posts. It should be a bit easier specially since the bad weather is set to continue. I mean, what else do I have to do?
