Calendrical life

Austrians are an orderly folk. Many things are done according to the calendar rather than the prevailing weather conditions:

Sunday, a gorgeous, crisp autumn morning, a cloudless blue sky, the sun transforming the larches into tongues of flame amid the darker pines, and backlighting the beeches into hoardes of golden coins.

Where were the cyclists? At home. Bikes go down into the cellar on the last Saturday of October (if not before) regardless of the weather. So the bike trail along the Salzach River and through the dramatic Pass Lueg, a busy two-wheel highway in summer, was mine and mine to enjoy alone. www.tauernradweg.com

At the same time, traffic jams were being reported because of skiers flocking to the glaciers for the first day of the official ski season. Skis come out of the cellars at the end of October even if it is more like bathing weather .

Other things are similarly regulated. Last week the long poles were installed along the steeply winding roadside to this mountain village, to show the snow plough the edge of the road. In gardens, bushes were tied up to save branches breaking under the winter snows. This weekend summer tyres were replaced with the heavy winter treads. Snow shovelling equipment is placed at the ready and water butts are emptied.

There is a good reason for these calendrical activities – but the weather forecasters are predicting temperatures of up to 20°C for the rest of this week, so, because of this orderliness,  it looks as if there will be opportunities for more solitary bike rides in early November.

Cycling culture

Probably the best bike trails in the world – to use an old beer advertising slogan for this little country which not only provides dedicated asphalted trails through spectacular scenery, but adds artworks to entertain you along the way.  

Today I rode through the Salzach valley – the mountain tops dusted with a light sugar coating, the sky a cloudless blue, with the glorious tintinnabulation of cowbells tinkling, clanging and klonking as the curious cattle raised their heads from chomping the remaining grass, to watch me pass.



naked man - but a bit of a cock up?



On a bend where once was a tree, stood a naked man doing a handstand. The wooden figure was hewn from the remaining tree trunk. Further back, where a new bridge had been built three metal relief figures stood in classic dance poses. Along this part of the trail is also a huge wooden hammock slung between trees and a wooden figure suspended on his back by wires – all part of the cultural as well as physical experience.

Elsewhere schools and artists have together created a trail of artworks together with great stories to explain what happened, for example, when the Chugger-Luggers landed their space ship on this bike trail instead of in Africa.

Could there be a link between the quality of these safe and attractive bike routes.the popularity of cycling for everyone from tiny children to people in their eighties, and the high standing of Austria in the Happy Planet Index, and the generally good health of the nation as a whole?   

The Chugga Luggers landed in the wrong place?

Moving Mountains

The rockface crashed across the road

Nowhere else have I seen so many baggers as here in Austria – a bagger is a small, wheeled or tracked excavator with a backhoe or bucket. Embach with about 500 residents produces enough activity to keep its own earthmoving business busy and Ernst Röck and his bagger are always active somewhere around.

It appears that if someone wants the mountains re-arranged, then Ernst and his bagger can do it.

The latest challenge has been the 40m long rock slide that has been blocking the road between Embach and sister village Lend for more than a month. (see September’s Bogensperger blog) It was decided that the job had to be tackled from the top, rather than just shift what has fallen down. Effectively a small mountain has to be shifted…but where?

Lend's Heimo Gruber's bagger removing the rockslide - starting from the top - the rockface fell to the road and railway below

A farmer, further up the hill, with a steeply sloping field seized the opportunity to have the mountain moved to where it will substantially level this part of his plot. So, daily, a convoy of trucks grind their way from the valley to half-way up the road to Embach, dump their loads and trundle down again while the local bagger men push the rubble about and once again re-arrange the landscape.


Rearranging the landscape - the mountain which fell down, is now relocated
300m higher than at its original  site



Blooming overwhelming!

The festoons of plants which hang from balconies and window boxes in so many of the houses in this part of Austria are past their best. During the late summer, opulent waves of gaudy colours pour downward from some homes, while others have lines of flowers in a single colour like a regiment of guards.



 

In the spring the garden centres are busy with shoppers seeking their favoured colours and plants and a sign that the frosty nights are past is the appearance of nascent growth, to be nurtured, tweaked and watered in a regular evening ritual.

Embach's Krämerwirt's display still looks good at the beginning og October

Some houses are so renowned for their overwhelming blooms that they attract coach loads of tourists to come, gasp, photograph and to move on.

Now the season is coming to an end and once again the compost heaps with be awash with the fading colours of summer. Houses will look bare, for just a few months before the ritual begins again and once more, Austria puts on its traditional summer face.