Difficulty:medium
Length:11.3 kmDuration:6:00 hElevation uphill:650 m
The trail starts in Sillian in Alta Pusteria and leads straight into adventure. Amongst other things, a storyteller is on hand with myths, legends and anecdotes on this stage.
This first stage through the Tyrolean Gail and Lesachtal valleys is 1.7 kilometers long and takes around three hours. It leads through the beautiful hamlet of Hollbruck and the picturesque mountain village of St. Oswald to the village center of Kartitsch. Anna Kollreider can tell exciting stories about this village and its surroundings. Or you can find out about sustainable mountain farming at the Joasa farm.
The tour starts at Sillian train station, right by the bridge over the Drau. We turn right before the bridge and follow the right bank path until we reach a crossroads where we turn right and cross the railroad line immediately afterwards. We then keep left on a gravel farm track, which crosses the meadows in a wide arc and then runs along the edge of the forest. We cross the "Sägebach" stream on a wooden bridge and reach the Rabland district. We stay south of the railroad line and cross the settlement for approx. 200 m further out of the valley, then keep right and slightly uphill on an asphalt farm access road. We follow the road and after approx. 400 m we come to a chapel on the left, where we turn right uphill onto a gravel path. We now cross the first almost flat meadows and reach the first farms of the Tyrolean Gail and Lesach valleys, Zenzer and Bleier. We keep to the asphalt main path through Hollbruck and turn slightly right about 100 m after the church onto a gravel road that leads us directly between the barn with an imposing ash tree and the Schneiderhof farmhouse. After the farm, we keep left, the path crosses the pastureland and leads into the forest. Shortly afterwards, we pass above the Schneider sawmill on a forest path, then keep left and cross the Hollbrucker Tal stream on a small wooden bridge.
The path now leads out of the valley again, you follow the forest road to the Hollbrucker Landesstraße, then turn right along the road to the Walcher Höfe farms. Then continue left along the field path to Walcher Mühle. There you cross the bridge over the Gail and follow the path to the right along the Gail to the Wieserhöfe. Before you reach the large stable building, turn right past the stable and up onto the main road. We turn left, walk along the main road for approx. 90 m and at the junction to St. Oswald (after the bus stop) we keep right and take the asphalted municipal road slightly uphill to St. Oswald. Directly before the Dorfberg inn, we take a sharp right back through a lane between the Toniger and Oberniggler farms, the former "Seilergasse". This takes us directly to the Mesnerhof in St. Oswald, before which we turn left uphill, then keep right. After approx. 50 m, we leave the gravel farm track again and turn right onto the Kartitscher Wiesenweg ("Doaswolda Schteigile" - the "Oswalder Steig"). This meadow path is now known as the "Oswald Kollreider artists' path", as several paintings by the late academic painter adorn this sunny path.
We follow the meadow path - first across the "Mesner Feld", then through the forest and finally across the meadows of the Kartitscher Sonnseite, a small-scale and particularly attractive cultural landscape. We pass the Wieser Schupfe farm. After the second farm, we keep left and continue slightly uphill on a meadow path, passing harps such as the Micheler Harpfe. Directly after the Obertroyer Hof, we turn right along a narrow meadow path directly down to the village center of Kartitsch.
