Ari and I went for an adventure to the Bregenzer Ach(e). It’s the river that flows into Lake Constance and Google says this about it “The Bregenzer Ach is a pristine 67-kilometer-long river in Vorarlberg, Austria, that flows from the Bregenz Forest (Bregenzerwald) into Lake Constance.” Fancy. In my head, the Bregenzer Ach was the section of the river in the narrow valley which the river runs out of. Strangely I’d never been along this part of the river before despite living so close for so long.
We set off to explore the river and I’d planned a loop up the valley and back via the hills. I rode my (actually Amber’s) trusty Kona touring bike that hasn’t had a lot of use in recent times. Ari rented an E-mountain bike. We cruised out to Bregenz and then to the river. The path was a bit lumpy but ok to begin with. It quickly became very narrow and then the obstacles began. It became quite an adventure as we heaved the heavy E-bike over rocks and and up and down steep sections. At the most adventurous sections we would ride a few metres and then get off and then push or carry the bikes. We stopped for lunch at the river and then continued with the pushing and hauling. Finally we reached a wider unpaved road after passing through a last tunnel. The going was much quicker. We stopped again at a small tributary running into the river and I swam briefly sharing the river with noisy children.
We continued along the track towards Egg before heading up to the main road before the township and riding slowly up in the heat to Alberschwende. There I discovered I had three jandals after somehow collecting one that had been lying on the track by the river. What a find! We continued down to Buch and then to Wolfort where we rewarded ourselves with ice cream. Then it was back to Lindau via a dip in the lake. A nice day out!
