Kaprun and a bit of a run

Saturday 22nd July.

Today we decided to visit the High Altitude Reservoirs at Kaprun. To get there we had to catch the 660 bus from Zell am See to Kaprun Kesselfall. We then caught the Kesselfall Alpenbus to the inclined elevator. We rode up on the inclined elevator before taking another bus up the twisting road and tunnels to the upper reservoir, the Mooserboden at an altitude of 2036 metres above sea level.

As we got off the bus the views were amazing, but what caught my eye was the wild flowers. I soon had my camera out.

I was pleased to see some Monk’s Hood framed against the mountains. Deadly poisonous and known as Herbal Arsenic. The ingestion of just 1 – 2 g would prove fatal, but it is very beautiful.

The water in the Mooserboden comes mainly from the Pasterze Glacier on the Grossglockner and the two dams collect about 85 million cubic metres of water each year.

The Moosersperre Dam is 107 metres high and 500 metres long and as we walked along it I could see runners approaching. What was going on?. We continued along the dam wall admiring the view.

Below us we could see the lower reservoir, the Stausee Wasserfallboden.

We continued along the wall to the huge rock, the Hotenburg (2108m ) and then walked along the second dam, the Drossen-sperre.

I could see the glacier reaching down. I would so love to walk up to it. At the far end a gushing waterfall was adding more water to the reservoir.

I decided I had time to walk down to the waters edge to take some photos.

I could still see runners coming towards me so I walked a little way up to a rocky knoll and asked one of the Marshalls what was going on? How far are they running? i asked. I thought I had misheard when she replied –110 km, that’s 68 miles. But it was correct. This was the Grossglockner Ultra Run. 110 km and 6500 metres of ascent. The race passes through 3 provinces,7 valleys and 6 towns. Two runners came in together in an incredible time of 15 hours 03 minutes. Amazing.

On my way back I stopped to look at yet more wild flowers growing in the crevices of the rocks on the Hohenburg.

Time to stroll back along the dam wall then retrace our journey back to Zell am See. The clouds were moving in.

It had been an incredible day and the whole journey had cost us just one euro each way thanks to our resort summer card.

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