As a fine sunny day dawned we suffered a little indecision, I am quite keen to drive the Grossglockner High Alpine Road but after a long driving day yesterday had planned an easy day just wandering locally, however the weather forecast for the next few days is not good with snow likely on the higher ground which will inevitably mean that the Grossglocken road will be closed – so let’s go for it….

We drove the 20 or so miles from Lienz up to Heiligenblut and paid our entrance fee to drive the High Alpine Road to Grossglockner – starting with amazing views down the lush green valley before heading above the snow line…

The driving was challenging with multiple switchbacks constantly either climbing or dipping back down into the valleys but the road itself was good and plenty wide enough for two way traffic so not too daunting and fortunately plenty of lay-bys to pull off and really enjoy the views…

As we crept up higher and higher – reaching 2500m above sea level on several occasions – that is 2 and a half times the height of Snowdon! And still the 3000m + peaks soared above us. It certainly got colder, hovering around 1 or 2 degrees and the views more stunning as the snow deepened, with glimpses of frozen lakes….

At the top of Kaiser Franz Josefs Hohe (2369m) with views across to Grossglockner Peak only just visible – Austria’s highest mountain at 3798m and down onto the mostly frozen Sandersee.

Here we also spotted, well to be fair Tilly sniffed our their presence though she couldn’t see them, a couple of Marmots going about their business – I last saw these in the wild up in the mountains in Canada…

This section of the road ends here and we made our way back down to the main roadway and then continued our trip heading further north and higher still….

To be continued tomorrow….