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Italy - Day 13 : Along the lakes

In the morning I woke to the view of a bunch of snails in my tent. They had also crawled into Bram's bivy bag. For breakfast we ate half a pack of chocolate cookies and a banana. We walked up through the wet grass and descended to Innsbruck.

We got food at the first supermarket we passed. There was a homeless man near the bench where we wanted to eat. Bram said he wanted to give him his change. We collected all our coins and handed them over. The guy seemed happy. I said 'now he is probably going to buy beer with it'. We started eating our chocolate buns and milk. An old lady sat down next to us and said 'don't worry I don't bite'. Apparently we looked shocked, in Italy this would have never happened. A while later saw the homeless man walking by, he was drinking a can that looked suspiciously like beer.

 

Today we were only 100 km away from Raubling where our bus would leave. We had planned a route that would circle around it over a few climbs. We should easily be able to reach the bus in time. In Innsbruck it was hard to find the right road. After some roundabouts we finally found it. Later we drove through a wide valley. There were many mountains around us, but we didn't need to climb any.

 

At a supermarket we got some more ice creams and donut peaches. I called the bus driver to confirm our ride. He said 'oh so you are also bringing your bikes' and 'my bus is still in the garage so I am not sure what time I will arrive'. We hoped everything would work out well, in our experience those bus drivers weren't the most helpful or clever people. He would pick us up around 4 tomorrow afternoon.

From the valley we climbed up a bit. There was supposed to be a mountain pass, but suddenly we reached another plateau.

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View of Wiesing
 

We passed another large lake, the Achensee. It had clear blue water. Along the lake where a few campsites, many beaches, and lots of people.

Achensee

At the Achensee
 

We got some more ice creams and a wurstsalat to eat in a nearby park. We both felt pretty tired after all the days of cycling, however, we also felt we were getting back into our old ritm. It wouldn't be too hard to keep this up for another week.

Achensee
achensee

The Achensee
 

It took a few more kilometers of climbing to reach the first pass of the day, the Achen pass.

Achen pass
Achen pass

The Achenpass, 941 meters
 

After the col came a long, not too steep, descent that let us to the Tegernsee.

Tegernsee

The Tegernsee
 

From there onwards we followed a small road through the forests. It involved one very steep climb over a gravel road. Here in the Alps it was less hot than in Italy, around 32 degrees. After the forests we went to do groceries. Bram really wanted to eat in meadows, but I didn't because all the grass would stick in my butt. We passed another col that hardly involved any climbing and wasn't on our map.

Masererpass

Masererpass, 793 meter
 

There would be another climb before the descent to Raubling. I check my GPS and noticed we were already nearly on the same height. We cycled along the Schliersee. Everywhere were bicycle paths but every few kilometers they would switch to the other side of the road. It was around 19:30 when we started climbing the last pass of our trip. It was the easiest we had ever done. In four kilometer we only went up 50 meters. Unfortunately there was no sign at the top.

 

After a long descent we made it back to the Inn river. We crossed it and cycled towards the Walchsee. Tomorrow we plan to cycle a 70 km loop. One village followed the next and it got increasingly late. There weren't any places to camp. Around 20:30 we just drove up a side road. It appeared to end at a house but still continued. A meadow we passed had a large vacation home without a fence. It seemed to be empty. It was built on a small hill so we drove as far to the rear as possible, that way we would be invisible from the main road. We were out of water and I only had a banana and apple left. Before we went to sleep we ate the last scraps of bread and chips. I slept well this night. Although we hadn't need to cycle far today, we still reached the highest daily distance of this vacation.

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Route of day 13

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Height profile of day 13, the big climb in the morning is clearly visible.

Distance cycled : 182 km 

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