A walk on the wild side in the Austrian Alps

Rita de Brún took an Austrian Alps adventure trekking along the Hohesalve and Wilder Kaiser Nature Reserve.

"Go on. Go on. Go on. Keep pedalling. Faster! Pedal faster! Go!” Fifteen of us are on a hiking and cycling trip to Salzburg and St Johann in the Austrian Tirol. A combination of massive exertion-induced breathlessness and the sheerest, steepest incline I’d ever encountered on two wheels, has pulled me and the €3,500 rented E-bike on which I was precariously perched, asunder.

Remembering the wisdom of getting back on the horse after a fall, I’d done just that. But the torturous gravity-inducing ascent caused me to wobble unsteadily. This in turn prompted the Corkonian taskmaster who had been pedalling behind me to take a Michael Flatley-style leap off his bike, grab hold of the back carrier on mine and break into an uphill run designed to push me uphill.