Stung on Saturday

On Saturday (28.09.2024), I woke up just after 5:00 from a noise I could not identify straigh away. After a minute or so, I realised it was the air vent in our bathroom rattling - high winds were blowing outside. I rushed out on the balcony where we‘d been airing our hiking clothes and brought everything inside. The storm went on for another hour or so, with a bit of rumbling thunder in the distance and a couple of lightnings. I had just about fallen asleep again when it was time to get up for breakfast.

Pre-breakfast view from our room

The day was calm and mostly sunny by then, warming up to a very mild 21C.

We took the bus into Schnalstal/Valle Senales/Schnals Valley; the journey was an adventure in itself! The winding roads are very narrow in places, with sheer drops to one side and rocky walls to the other, but offering great views. I would not want to be a bus driver there! All oncoming traffic had to revert to where the two vehicles could pass each other.

After about 45 minutes of this, we got off the bus in the tiny village of Vernagt where we embarked on a hike around the man-made lake, a reservoir. Dense woods on one side and more open land on the other side made for a lot of variety.

The lake was very calm, and most of the time, we were on our own during this hike.

Just before reaching one of the farms where we intended to stop for a shandy, I got stung by a horse-fly - twice, and through the fabric of my hiking trousers!! It hurt a LOT, and I didn‘t have a chance to defend myself - we‘d not seen it coming, and the fly landed on the back of my thigh.

O.K. made sure it was really gone, and I hurried to the farm where I went straight to the toilet and applied the insect stick I usually carry in my rucksack. The cooling effect helped a little, but for the next three days, I had a large red hard swelling on the back of my thigh and didn‘t dare using the sauna anymore for the rest of our stay.

Anyway, we had our shandy and then walked back to the bus stop, arriving at the hotel in time for coffee and cake on the sunlit terrace. I rested in our room, nursing my bites (actually, horse-flies do not bite, they sting) and leaving O.K. to go for a stint in the spa alone, before having a shower and change for dinner.

Sunset as seen from our room.

Hand-stitched cloth on the wall at the farm where we stopped.

Apart from the horse-fly incident - which I really could have done without - it had been a beautiful day and a good and varied hike.