11/08/17: Brandberg to Mayrhofen, Austria

At 13:30, we took the 1400 bus from Mayrhofen train station to Brandberg. (We had tried to catch an earlier bus, at 09:40, but it never arrived.) It only took about 15 minutes, first travelling through a long, straight tunnel under the mountains and then taking the hair-pin bends up the side. The driver dropped us at Brandberg (at 1,032 metres) and planned to walk our way back, assured by the Thomson rep and the man at the Brandberg hotel that it was a one-hour walk back. We were literally up in the clouds, with no visibility. Walking along the road was daunting. (1) There was no pavement and we would have been hard to see for the drivers. 

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Eventually, a tiny path broke off and led up above the road. We took it and followed it as it slowly descended the valley. It was wet and narrow underfoot. One wrong step to the left and we would have plummeted. We moved slowly and carefully, very conscious of the danger. As the mist gave way to rain, we became progressively wetter. There were huge, exotic fungi everywhere we looked. (2) I spotted what looked like a thin, black squirrel running up a tree.
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We passed many religious shrines – a reminder, as if it were needed, that life here is precarious and not to be taken for granted. (3) 
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Another interesting find was part of a beehive that had fallen from a tree. (4)
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It was a relief to make it to the small chapel that had been pointed out to us, high on the hillside, from the Mayrhofen town tour – a sign that we were at least on the right path. (5–6)
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From the chapel, the trail zig-zagged down through the forestry to the bottom, with views of Mayrhofen and its cable cars. (7) What a relief not to stand next to a precipice! The woods offered a new path back to the town and we trudged back into Mayrhofen, exhausted but happy to be alive.
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Note: none of these pictures show how dangerous the walk was, because at the truly lethal spots I was more concerned with staying alive than with taking photographs.

Miles walked: no idea
Cats spotted: none