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| A good example of an Austrian house, on the way up to the waterfall |
From the falls we meandered through the farmers fields and descended down to Oberaruach (847m) where we stopped at Heller Alm for coffee before picking up the path along the river to eventually reach the Copper Mine (Schaubergwerk Kupferplatte).
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| Inside the copper mine |
We took on the tour of the mine which included a small railway tour 150m into the mine to see some of the tunnels and hear about the history of the mine - originally there was 16km of working galleries in the mine with 1 mile mining shafts and we learned that the men who worked these mines at the very start were only paid if they produced copper. In the early days ‘payment’ was food or other consumables like fuel but a law was passed to ensure the men were paid a wage. After various resurgences in copper mining, the mine finally closed in 1926.
It was a cool 9 degrees inside the mine and outside it was upwards of 30 degrees. We enjoyed the temporary coolness and reflected that that was often the temperature in our house! Tour over, we started the walk back; this time a more direct route following the river. 13 miles walked today.
