Austria 2008 - Hiking through the Tscheppa Canyon

On a gorgeous day (May 3, 2008) my brother, sister-in-law and I got a very early start and drove for about 2 hours from the Austrian province of Styria to the neighbouring province of Carinthia. We drove south of the provincial capital of Klagenfurt past the town of Ferlach to the border area between Austria and Slovenia, on the road that leads to the Loibl Mountain Pass, also a border crossing between these two neighbourhing countries. Shortly before the border we parked our car and started our hike to the Tscheppaschlucht (Tscheppa Canyon), a stunning alpine canyon that features beautiful lookouts, ladders and wooden pathways that are patched against the steep rock faces. From the Tscheppa Gorge we continued our hike to the Boden Tal (Boden Valley) which opens up into a fertile pasture with an imposing backdrop of limestone mountains that hug the border between Austria and Slovenia. We stopped at one of the rustic Austrian inns and had a hearty meal on the sunny terrace. We then caught the bus back to our parking lot and embarked on a scenic drive through the Southern Carinthian mountains back to my home province of Styria.

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