Day 62 Innsbruck to Matrei am Brenner - 24 km. Total km 1003:

Today was a tough day. It was long, had constant elevation changes, and was hot. Of the three, it was the heat - midday onwards - that got to us. But our day also had it's wow moments. 

Overall we walked 24 km, but the walk would have been longer if not for two rides - 2 km by car and 3 km by bus.

While our walk into Innsbruck took us along rail lines, around the airport, and along busy roads, today's exit took us through industrial areas and over and under rail lines and busy highways. 

Finally, we were out of the city environs and we started to climb. Today's elevation levels went from 574 m at Innsbruck up to 1100 m. It wasn't just one steady climb though, once past Patsch at 1001 m, the elevation fluctuated from between 800 & 1100 m. .

We had a mix of forest tracks and road walking today and for most of the day we were surrounded by mountains. 

We were in forests once we were fully out of the city.

Early on we were were able to look back at Innsbruck. 

Then we walked around the edge of the village of Vill and on to Igls, not stopping at either.

Looking down on Vill.

Children were arriving at school when we walked into Igls.

The Rathaus & the Apotheke, pharmacy, in Vill.

The walk out of Igls - several people were out walking on this section. 

There was a steady flow of traffic on the Europabrücke on.the right in this photo. 

Walking into Patsch. 

We stopped for a break in Patsch and surprised that there were public toilets. 

Patsch was the last village we walked through but there were several small communities or settlements. 

We stopped at Ellbögen, one of the small settlements for lunch. By then all the morning coolness had gone, in fact it was extremely hot. 

This was at our lunch spot. A beautifully shaded area. 

We then had a long section road walking, some of it quite dangerous as after this the footpath ran out leaving virtually nowhere to step off the road for traffic. 

It was just after this that a car pulled up and the chap got out to speak to us - only he spoke very fast German. We realised after a while he was horrified that we were walking in such dangerous area, also that we were walking in the heat. 

We understood in the end that he wanted to give us a ride to a safer area and point out where to go from there. 

He took us 2 kilometres along the road before stopping. We could understand why he was horrified about where we were walking as it was a steep narrow section of the road, winding up hill. It would have been dangerous ...and it was the official Via Romea Germanica route! 

Once he knew that we understood where to go from there he was happy to leave us. This is the first time we've ever got into a stranger's car.

Our route angel. 

The chap driving away from our drop-off point. 

For a while we walked down a steep tracks with tree shade.

But then we were out in the heat again and saw that from there the official path wound up and around valley for several more kilometres. 

While we were wondering what to do another hiker came along, a Dutch man who was on a hiking holiday. We chatted with him for a while and he told us that he was finished for the day and was going down to Gedeir, a small settlement on the main highway, to catch a bus.

We said goodbye to him and carried on but quickly realised that the heat had exhausted us and we made the decision to walk down to Gedeir too and finish our day by bus. It was just a 3 kilometre ride, down a very steep section of road, to Matrei am Brenner where we're staying tonight. 

A few photos of the main street of Matrei am Brenner:

Matrei am Brenner is a small municipality in the southern part of the District Innsbruck-Land and is located approximately 17 km south of Innsbruck. Matrei has always been an important station for commerce. On 1 January 2022 the municipalities of Pfons and Mühlbachl were merged into Matrei. The village has 3,500 inhabitants, at 992 m. above sea level and the Sill river flows through it.

Source: Wikipedia