walkhighlands

Valley of the vultures without vultures

Date walked: 28/05/2017

Time taken: 5 hours

Distance: 14km

Ascent: 800m

After my trip to Scotland, I had to work for two long weeks :D , before going on another vacation, this time to Austria,
in special the Raurisertal one valley east of the Grossglockner area.

On our first day we went to have a little walk in the "valley of the vultures" . Bearded vultures have been reestablished here as one of many projects in the National Park "Hohe Tauern". Sadly we have not seen any of them, or to be exact, I saw several quite large birds far off, circling. If they were Bearded vultures? I don't know:)

Here is our route as a up and back again path.
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After ascending 200m the first views along the valley open up.
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A first waterfall, here you can see why this is good country for birds of prey, there is a rocky ledge all along the valley edge.
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One view up and down the valley.
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Having a break after the first few hundred metres in height. Showing Lena, our younger dog where she should look, doesn't work that well, obviously.
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Sparky, our now 15 year old male, still going strong( but always happy about a break)
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Lena admiring the view.
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Fueling up the dogs at the next available stream
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Directly below the waterfall. IN May and start of June, there is still a lot of snow above, so the streams are well filled.
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Having a break at the Bräualm, a few hundred metres above the level of Ben Nevis, and still so much mountain left, all around us.
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The View from where I was sitting.
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We met a local farmer here, who told us about one of his horses which dropped down that corrie during a thunderstorm. He had to scramble up there, to break open the carcass, to make it easier for the vultures and other predators, They needed about a week to get rid of the carcass( about 60 vultures live here)
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Our own predators running around
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quite fast
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Lena, for some reason loves doing somersaults, afterwards rubbing her back on any meadow she finds.
In this case...
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....she was doing it in the middle of some cow muck, shown by the nice green-brownish colour on her back:)
She got a thorough wash in the nearby glacier stream afterwards.
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Further on, the views open up verynicely, the weather being lovely.
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The view ahead into the mountains. Still snowy up there.
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Some lovely Iris around.
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Close up of the valley end, we just went a little higher, being at around 1800-1900m at that point. The mountains around are up to 3000 m high.
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View BAck along the valley.
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The reward after walking back to the start of the valley:)
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Comments: 6



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apollo0815


User avatar
Location: Germany
Occupation: Hard Working self employed
Interests: nearly everything:)
Activity: Mountaineer
Pub: Stein Inn, Skye
Mountain: Suilven
Place: Sutherland or Assynt
Gear: My dogs :)
Member: None
Camera: Sony A58
Ideal day out: ridge walk

Munros: 4
Corbetts: 5
Fionas: 4
Donalds: 4



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Statistics

2017

Trips: 6
Distance: 76 km
Ascent: 2350m
Corbetts: 1
Fionas: 1


Joined: Oct 19, 2016
Last visited: Mar 14, 2024
Total posts: 273 | Search posts