Camping is still cool!

Lovely lakes

Happy hikers

Super scenery

After friends of ours had raved, on separate occasions, to Mike and me about the campsite in Kitzbühel next to the Schwarzsee (black lake), I persuaded Mike that we should visit it and stay a few nights. So we left on the Thursday evening, and despite it being high season, the campsite people found us a really nice space. We ended up having a great weekend there. The weather couldn't have been better (well, a tad less humid in the afternoons perhaps).

We didn't hike much on the first day, me feeling rather unfit. We just took the cable car up the Hahnenkamm, the location of incredibly fast ski races in the winter, and walked along some of the paths at the top. On the second day, however, I asked Mike to take me on a Steph-friendly hike, so we went up the Rauher Kopf (the rough hilltop). I had to make quite an effort, but it was worth it! I renamed it Blueberry Mountain, because at the top and all around the ground was covered in blueberry bushes. The berries were small but sweet and stained our fingers purple.

There was plenty of time to sunbathe and nap at the campsite in the afternoon, before taking a short walk to the lake for swimming and stand-up paddling.

On the Sunday morning, Mike and Belka left the tent shortly after 6 and scampered up the Kitzbüheler Horn, a mountain just shy of 2,000m in height. At 9:15, they arrived back at the campsite and we had breakfast together, them happy because they got some great exercise and views, and me because I was able to get a lie-in!

Since then the temperatures have dropped and, would you believe it, the first snow has fallen in the local mountains. That didn't stop Mike from going hiking with his camera (minus Belka because she came to dog training with me), and it didn't bother the chamois either. They just stood and stared.