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Krimmler Ache
The mountain river Krimmler Ache is a place of special and magnificent beauty. It runs through the Krimmler Valley from the glacier Birnlück. The valley, the river and the glacier are all worth a visit. The access is on foot only, as the valley is closed for public cars. Small busses can take you into the valley and pick you up again. Their base is the large parking lot in the bottom of the valley. Local guides also have permission to drive in the valley, so hiring a guide will also give you a ride in here.
Krimmler Ache meanders with untouched arcs and great variation through the valley, and you can easily spend a whole day, driving, walking and fishing this gem. There are restaurants in the valley and if you want to stay for the night, Bräurup has a small cabin in the valley. This can serve as your home for a night or two provided you bring a sleeping bag.
You will not find tranquility and loneliness in Krimmler Valley. The place is well visited and the path is troth by thousands of tourists during a good day. But most come for the walk and the view and will have the glacier as their final goal. The river runs away from the road in most places, and hours of fishing can be done in absolute solitude with no other people in sight. The river is easy to fish with few trees to disturb your back cast. You can fish from the bank with a good overview or wade as you please.

Andy casting

Close to the Krimmler Ache

Krimmler Ache

Cheese in two ways
While in the Krimmler Valley Andy took me to two places, which both left sweet memories of cheese in my mind. The first one was a small inn called Jausenstation Sölnamm. Here Andy ordered a meal of eggs, cheese, pork and onion cooked and served in a pan. We shared the pan and it was indeed good food for a tired wayfarer. We could hardly eat our way through it. It did not only leave me with my stomach full to the limit, but also leaft a sweet memory of a very special dish, eaten in some pristine surroundings - shadow from the inn, valley and glacier in the background, stream running just a few hundred meters away. Beyond comparison!

My second chance to eat cheese in Krimmler valley was in a small Käserei - a cheese making dairy - situated more beautiful than any dairy I have ever seen. It was built higher up in the vally, a few kilometers from the foot of the glacier. The backdrop was even more breathtaking than anything I had seen earlier, and after a small tour of the house to see the large copper pot where the milk is boiled and the stamps, which press the cheese before storage. The most impressive sight - apart from the outsite view - was the small storage room packed with large, round cheeses resting and maturing. Here they lie in natural coolness and humidity, just waiting for the day where the cheese maker takes out his cutter and serves or sell them right there in the valley.

Jausenstation Sölnamm	Cheeses
Schnaps	Cheers

The cheese maker broke a bottle of home made schnaps and we joined a party who enjoyed cheese, bread and milk - and schaps - outside the house in another astounding setting.

Packet solution
Gasthoff Bräurup has a complete fly fisher's solution for the area. You get a room, half pension, full access to all waters for about 6,000 Austrian Schilling. Licenses are 350 Schilling a day, but are only available to hotel guests. Non-guests can fish only a couple of the lakes. All waters except for a few stocked lakes are C&R. the hotel chef is happy to prepare a meal from your catch if you decide to bring home fish.
A guide is 1,000 Shilling per day, and that gives you the grand tour with pleasant and knowledgeable company and four wheel drive to the water's edge - even in Krimmler Valley. Andy told me that he will cater for two for the same price, but considers three to be one too many.

A seibling	Thunder on the way
A nice flyrod	Andy fighting

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