A day on the road …

It was a beautiful drive through the Austrian Alps from Lunz am See to South Tyrol with some adventures on the way.

Driving up and down different passes is always a challenge with our weight of 5.3 tonnes and we wish we would have a retarder for downhill braking, but driving with 4×4 and low gear also works for us.

The day before the road was closed

When reaching the road up to Obertauern in the evening, there was a mysterious sign telling us that the road is closed at a specific time. As it wasn’t completely clear to us, we drove in the direction of the pass anyway, and we were not the only ones. We reached a temporary traffic light where other cars already waited. The strange thing was, that in front of the red light, the street was blocked. When the light turned green, the first car seemed unsure what to do, but then drove on and took a small route next to the main road. Everybody else followed him.

Driving through the woods which seemed to be the detour

Dead end – U-turn

But this road led to a power plant and ended there!! Now we all had to turn around and try to get back with more cars still coming up the narrow road which also had followed the convoy. Such a joke!!
At the end we went to a camper parking at a farm in Altenmarkt and spent the night there. Tackling the road over the pass the next day.

The next morning the road was open

The castle of Mauterndorf at the other side of the pass

Another pass was on our way

Avoiding the toll on the highway, we always use free roads

At Gmünd in Carinthia, we had our lunch break

Beautiful main square of Gmünd

The last Wiener Schnitzel before we reached Italy

After stopping in Lienz in East Tyrol, where we never had been before, we crossed the boarder to South Tyrol (which belongs to Italy). The next day we wanted to hike up to the famous 3 Zinnen, but it was impossible to park there for the night. Every parking had a sign saying overnight parking forbidden. The camping at the Toblach lake was fully booked, so at the end we drove back half an hour and stayed at a camper parking at the boarder to Austria.