Figjam's Epic Adventure 'The Second Coming': Deer

23/9/12

1543 (localtime)

Osaka/Kyoto/Nara

Written on a train from Hiroshima to Osaka, feeling very ill after Karaoke.

Howdy all, I’ve been in Hiroshima for the past 3 days absolutely loving it, but right now I don’t feel all that well… We had a bit of a party last night and we ended up gong to a Japanese style Karaoke place where you pay 1500Yen ($18.50AUD) and you get all your can drink for 2 hours including your Karaoke session!

So obviously if you ever come across the ‘all-you-can-drink’ rule you always try to make the most of it, and last night not just myself but I think everyone pushed it to the limits, so as I sit on this train that is rattling down the tracks I’m feeling not all that great! But never mind let us continue!

Ok, so I arrived to Osaka from Tokyo via a very boring, long and uncomfortable bus ride but either way I arrived at 7.30am on the 16^th of September feeling pretty groggy from not much sleep on the bus. Unfortunately the bus driver dropped me off at the wrong place but I managed to find my way back to the city with little dramas.

I pretty much had 4 hours to kill until it was 12pm so I could meet my new American Couch Surfer called Jack!

So I wandered into the local Arcade and wandered around for a while. Whilst I was there I met a couple of Australian guys who were in Japan for a couple of weeks to see a gaming festival that was happen in a few days. So I hung out with these Aussie guys for the majority of the time, just having a bit of fun on the games.

11am arrived quite quickly and I saw myself on the train heading to Jack’s place where he met me.

I dumped my bags and Myself, Jack and his other Dutch couch surfer headed off into the city as I had planned to meet up with some of the guys that I travelled with in Syria back in 2009!

We made it too the station where I met up with Jon and his friend Emily, these guys were great they showed me around the city of Osaka and even treated me to a couple of beers and some great Japanese food.

That night we planned to meet up for a drink with a French guy who I also travelled with in Syria (2009), it was so great just to reminisce about all the fun times we had!

The night ended at a reasonable hour, but we had missed all the busses and trains back to Jack’s house so we just crashed at some random French girls house who then treated us to breakfast in the morning! Perfect!

As you can imagine it was a slow start to the morning, but I was going to convince the Jack and the Dutch girl that we should go to Nara to try and see some temples and check out the 1,200 deer that roam the parks in Nara.

By the time we made it to Nara it was 4.30pm and the temples close at 5, so we were unable to go inside, it didn’t phase me to much as I was planning on staying the night in Nara so I could explore Nara Dreamland which is an abandoned amusement park! But ill get to that a bit later.

It was great fun walking around, but it started to get late so we grabbed some local cheap food and I said goodbye to the guys who were heading back to Osaka!

The main street of Nara!

Jack and Elitette

A lovely temple!

TURTLE! Potentially a teenage mutant one...

One of the thousands of deer!

You can buy Deer Cookies!

A Japanese dude getting attacked by a deer!

Koi!

Deer!

Temple!

15/7/12

1230 (local time)

Lech/Zurs – Austria

Written on a Train from St Anton to Salzburg.

I think I am in love with Austria! I have been sitting on a train for just over an hour re-living the amazing time I had in Zurs/Lech.

I worked a winter season in Zurs/Lech in 2010 – 2011 for Powder Byrne, where I met so many people and fortunately met the lovely Eggler family.

The Eggler’s own the beautiful Arlberghaus in Zurs, so when I sent Stephanie Eggler an email to see if I could crash at her hotel between the dates of the 10^th till the 15^th, the family was more than happy to have me.

I tell you what, it was amazing to finally have a really comfy bed, super quick internet and too look outside your window to see the most amazing view of the alps. A bit of a change from the dirty and insect ridden hostels I’ve been staying in. I was doing this in style.

So, Stef met me at Saint Anton at 11pm at night and gave me a lift to Zurs, where I dumped my bags and then passed out.

I awoke at 9am, which is apparently late, where Stef took me into Lech, which is a village just 10 minutes downhill from Zurs, where I was able to get a Lift pass, that is free and allows me to catch the chairlifts that are open, and catch the bus from Zurs to Lech for free!

Unfortunately Stef couldn’t join me on my hikes, as she had to go away for 10 days to complete her Ski Instructors course that allows her to take guests off-piste.

So we said our good-byes and I bought some Lunch and took the Rufikoph chairlift so I could complete the Green Ring (instead of the White Ring in Winter) from Lech to Zurs on foot.

As the cable car ascended into the clouds, visibility was reduced to about 30 - 40 metres. You couldn’t see anything! But it made it kind of creepy and really intimidating! Because every now and then you would see the silhouette of a mountain, and they were just huge!

I stumbled my way down the mountain into Zurs, where I grabbed some water and attempted to climb up the Trittkopf which is 2581 metres high. When I started my hike the sky was blue but I could see some clouds off in the distance, young naïve Steve didn’t realise how quickly the weather can change in the mountains. So by the time I got just over at least the three quarters point of my hike. Visability was reduced to 10 metres! I could just make out my path back down. So as I sat and waited for wondering if the clouds were ever going to break up, I started to get cold. I called it a day and trekked back down the mountain.

So that was a bit of a fail, but on the plus side, I did see some deer? Or some type of animal. Check out the photos!

Day 2, involved me getting up a lot earlier. As I offered to help out clean up and paint the Village of Zurs. It was David Eggler’s idea to do this, all the people that live in and around the village group together for a big clean up. David is the eldest of the brothers and he is very much involved in the Village, if he is helping out the fire fighters or installing a wireless network in the Village.

So my job was to help out with a litter pick, do a bit of Whipper Snipping (or strimming for the poms) and paint and fix one of the little huts as you enter into town. It was great helping out the community, I really felt a part of it.

Day 3, Rolled in and today I was going to go mountain biking! As I woke up, the weather was horrible. There was no visibility and it was raining! But that wasn’t going to stop me. I caught the bus into Lech, walked into SportAlp shop and spoke to the guys there about hiring a fully fledged duel suspension mountain bike. I spoke to a guy called Patrick who showed me some trails that I had to do, and I was sent on my way.

I eventually made it to the top of the Balmalp and hopped off the mountain to the left! What a mistake that was! I was meant to go right! What it meant, was that I was heading down near vertical, wet slippery grass with pot holes and rocks everywhere! I got my arse kicked! I eventually made it down, with only a few grazes!

I again spoke to Patrick at the SportAlp shop, he laughed at me and told me to go to the right, so back up I went to start again.

As I dropped into this new track, I quickly realised that Patrick had very much overestimated my biking skills. I was heading down the most technical single lined track I’ve ever seen. Infact, its not even a track for bikes. It’s made for super fit hikers. Single lined tracks, with vertical drops on one side, and to make matters worse it was super slippery with rocks and tree roots growing across the tracks!

I don’t know how many times I crashed, but I definitely blew my face apart on some rocks! Not great fun! You have to see the photos of what I was trying to tackle. I didn’t give up, and again made it down. Once I hit the bottom I headed back up and do a different track.

This time I was heading from Oberlech to Burstegg, which was a pretty decent ride, with some fast downhill sections and some brutal up hills that sent lactic acid through my legs!

I eventually made it to Burstegg, and found another super technical trail that Patrick told me about that gets me back onto the main rode.

I packed my camera away, had some Gummy Bears and sessioned it! This time I had gotten a lot more confident on the bike, I was slowly getting used to the front break being on the left side, instead of the right side like it is in Australia.

I went down it like a pro! Once I got to the bottom I was so proud of myself to have tackled this track I gave a cheeky fist pump, and got my photo taken by a German guy and then headed back into Zurs with a massive smile on my face!

Once I got home I had a lovely Dinner with David and then passed out!

Day 4 came along, and I planning on getting up early to do another bike ride, but I was in agony! My arse hurt from riding so much, and my legs felt so heavy!

The weather outside was terrible, and the visibility wasn’t so great either, but I forced myself outside and David showed me a place where I could go hiking which wasn’t so high, which means I kept out of the clouds.

The start of the hike kinda sucked, as I was just getting rained on for a good hour. Fortunately for me my Mountain Designs jacket and my Salomon hiking shoes kept a majority of the water out, which made the hike relatively pleasant. The plan was to walk from Oberlech to Schroken and then up through Korbersee to Hochtannbergpass. But I took a wrong turn, and instead it took me into the village of Schrocken, when instead I was meant to bypass it.

No problems, I ate a lovely piece of cake from one of the mountain café’s and then took the bus from Schrocken back to Lech where I completed the Green Ring from Lech to Zurs again… But this time there was a lot better Visibility.

The whole day was amazing, although it rained most of the days, the times when the rain stopped and blue sky prevailed it was absolutely stunning!

I really did love my time in Zurs/Lech, at the moment it’s definitely one of my favourite places I have ever visited! This is travelling! Getting off that beaten track, getting dirty get muddy but seeing things that the average person will never see! I feel so lucky to do what I’m doing!

Before I finish, I must thank the lovely Eggler family for doing a fantastic job of looking after me! Thank you so much, please let’s keep in touch.

Please admire the photos and let me know what you think.

Thanks again, next up! Salzburg!

FIGJAM!