Mountain experience the wild rapids

Hiking holiday in the Salzburger Land

Are you like the wild rapids, which run down the mountain, like the wild rapids which take me on a journey, …

I’m lying in bed and I’ve got a song in my head, when I think about the planned hike today. Full of motivation and zest I jump out of bed and I can hardly wait to join in the coming guided hike named “wild rapids”!

At 08.45 I meet Herbert, our hiking guide, as well as Constanze, who’s working as a guide for the whole summer in the Sport & Active Centre. Most of the guests have already arrived and some are renting out hiking boots for the tour today.

Let’s begin the mountain experience!

We put on our rucksacks and off we go!

At 9 o’clock we head off from the B&B Hotel “DIE BERGQUELLE” with the Sportwelt bus towards Obertauern. With the Flachau summer card our guests only pay € 1,– and this makes the bus a very cheap option to get to the starting point of our hike just before the village, Obertauern. The bus driver kindly lets us off just a bit before the official bus stop at the fork to the Johannes waterfall.

Here the last ones put their sun lotion on and Herbert, our hiking guide, gives us a brief overview what we can expect on the hike today.

Johannes Waterfall – a spectacle of nature

The first and certainly very impressive experience today will be the Johannes waterfall. I’m already really looking forward to seeing this spectacle of nature close up once again! Approximately 10 minutes after leaving the starting point we reach the waterfall. Carefully we walk down the damp wooden steps and soon we can see the Johannes waterfall in its true element. We admire and stare in awe at the thundering water and how it drops down 60 m. Lots of us pull out our smartphone or camera to capture the impressive masses of water in a photo. Also a lot of us find it really cool to walk behind the waterfall, where we can enjoy the cool drops of water on our skin, as it should be pretty hot today.

From Alpacas and cows on the Hirschwand path

Pretty soon we carry on as we’ve got quite a way to go today. We’re off to the Felser hut. On the way we meet some unusual animals, Alpacas, which are pretty unusual for our latitude. They normally live in the South American Andes, but both these creatures seem pretty at home here. The children in our really mixed group are delighted by these good-natured creatures, but the adults are also quite impressed by them too.

Our route now takes us along the so-called Hirschwand (stag rock face) path through the middle of wonderful Alpine pastures. The Hirschwandsteig gets its name from the rock face (Hirschwand) which this path leads past. However, this time unfortunately we didn’t get to see a deer.

Happy and content we leave the Alpine pastures and hut and start walking back down the valley towards Flachauwinkl. With the Sportwelt bus we get a lift back to the starting point in Flachau and enjoy the rest of the day in the B&B Hotel “DIE BERGQUELLE”. We’ll all remember this beautiful day out for a long time and I’m certainly going to do this hike more often.

  • Tour description:
    For those of you who would like to do this hike on their own, here’s the route.

  • Useful information and equipment:
    Take enough to drink with you.
    Even if you can’t see the sun at first, as it’s hidden behind the clouds, you should remember to take your sun lotion with you and something to cover your head. We also recommend taking a waterproof with you on long hikes.