We can look back on a few exciting hours in Kaprun... Yesterday Bene and I set off on a hike to the high mountain reservoirs in Kaprun. We wanted to pitch our tent there for a night of wild camping. Unlike in Norway, however, wild camping is not allowed everywhere in Austria. That's why we checked with the tourist information office beforehand. They told us that we could pitch our tent at a refuge or in front of the Heinrich-Schwaiger-Haus. So we set off...
The hike was beautiful, but it took longer than expected. We set off at around 4:30 pm (from then on there are no more tourist buses going up) and arrived at the first reservoir (Wasserfallboden) at around 6:30 pm. From there, the way to the second reservoir (the Mooserboden) didn't look sooo long... and yet it still took ages. Admittedly, we often stopped for photos and were a little slower than usual due to all the camping equipment. But the road really dragged on. As it slowly started to get dark, we decided to pitch our tent at a shelter - which was unfortunately closed.
We had discovered the hut on the way and had a wonderful view of the first reservoir from there. It was a great place to watch the sunset. But just as we had set everything up, we suddenly saw a flash in the distance. Oh no, that can't be true! A thunderstorm? In the mountains - right by the water??? We both got scared... That's exactly WHY you're not allowed to camp wild here! The weather is unpredictable. We were constantly monitoring the weather on our phones. As the storm approached, we took our valuables and sleeping bags and made our way into a tunnel to seek shelter for the next hour.
The tunnel is actually intended for car traffic to the reservoirs. However, it is so narrow that only one car can pass through at a time. Traffic is regulated by traffic lights and probably also by people. Because there was a chair in a small corridor in the tunnel. We snuggled up on the chair with our sleeping bags and waited out the thunderstorm. Fortunately, it passed quickly. Afterwards, we had a clear sky. So we were able to sleep for a few hours with peace of mind...
After a few hours, however, we had to get out of our sleeping bags again! After all, we wanted to experience the sunrise at the Mooserboden reservoir and we still had a short distance to cover... Once we reached the top, we were rewarded with an incredibly beautiful view.
xx Chiara