Llama Trekking in the Tyrol?

Tim Moore takes the scenic route with his llama chum in the Tyrol

Why stroll through Austria’s Tyrol region alone or with a friend when you can hire a llama for company? Sounds silly, but it’s a tourist micro-industry there now. You can hire a llama for around 400 EU for three days.

Tim Moore gives us a bit of insight into his Tyrol trek with a llama.

The Eagle Way is a 1,480km trail through some of Europe’s most heart-stoppingly glorious scenery: distant clutches of chalets and spires engulfed by manicured, velvety meadows, verdant hillsides veined with tumbling glacial brooks and iridescent bursts of midsummer Alpine flora. And above it all a rearing backdrop of jagged, piebald peaks, among them Austria’s highest, the mighty Grossglockner. The sky was huge and blue, the air as crisp as apple strudel; it could not have been more Sound of Music. High on the hill with a lonely Guy-herd.

Up beyond the treeline we trekked into a suddenly desolate realm of scree and lichen, the rarefied air making every uphill step seem a little steeper. After three hours we spied our goal, at 2,642m, the mountain-pass hostel at Glorer. We toasted our arrival with a slug of schnapps, tethered the llamas, and enjoyed our first brush with the strange celebrity status bestowed upon those who accompany large animals in public. Two French families ran out of the hut in a state of gleeful enchantment, petted the llamas, quizzed their drovers, and manically photographed both species together and separately.

Read the rest at the link.