Yet another nice day, so we had an "in" morning with a relaxed start & caught up with some jobs. We cycled into Lofer via the river path and stocked up with food from the supermarket, then after lunch we decided to go up the Loferer Alm (mountain) by cable car and rode into town. 

 
 As I was feeling intrepid, we decided to take our bikes up and ride down if we could; during a sign language discussion with the lift operator, we discovered that not only was it OK, but we could take our bikes up at no extra cost (only €5 anyway) so we loaded them in and up we went. It was a lovely ride with views over the town and surrounding mountains.


 When we alighted at the top, to our great surprise we found that there was free wifi – something we certainly didn't expect. Not that it made any difference really! I was delighted to find a tarmac road leading back down to Lofer, but Hubby decided we should ride down the tracks through the forest, so we set off.


 My intrepidity (is that a real word?) got less and less as we descended – first through a field of bullocks who eyed me very suspiciously, then the forest path got more and more narrow with bigger and bigger cow-pats/tree roots/big stones and then steps! We got off and walked for a while until the path was better and finally reconnected with the road – what a relief. It was still quite steep so our brakes got a good workout but it was exhilarating to go along with no effort whatsoever; in fact I was quite disappointed when we eventually reached street level.


 Lofer was almost deserted (at 4pm in the afternoon) as we bowled along past shops, guesthouses and homes, some beautifully decorated and painted. Using just our sense of direction, we found various paths that we hoped would take us back to the site, and by sheer chance we emerged right opposite the entrance!

 
 




 A good while was spent cleaning up our bikes as the mud (and cow pats...) had stuck fairly well, but they dried off in the sun while we had a well-earned drink. A very enjoyable afternoon.