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Journal: |
Anticipating another reasonably easy day, I didn't rush my
departure and made use of the wi-fi and time to set up some ABC
Radio podcasts so that I can more easily keep up with the news from
home while I walk along. I also have a subscription to The
Economist which includes an audio download of each week's entire
edition, so that has also been helping me stay in touch with the
wider world.
I eventually left at about 9:30am, probably the
last hiker to leave. Yet another beautiful cool sunny morning
for a walk in the woods and the trail was easy going. Although
there were some ups and downs, the trail pretty much stayed between
950m and 1150m for the whole day. Of early interest was a very
long boardwalk through a wetland ending at a small perfectly calm
lake, Blinder See, with some great reflections.
The trail
route alternated between picturesque farmland and small conifer
woodlands all days. Farmers were out harvesting, some fields
were a mass of wildflowers, the occasional cow herd tinkled away by
the side of the trail and piles of fresh cut pine logs scented the
shady forests. In the far distance, for the first time, I
could see some snow patches on the mountains. I slowly caught
some familiar fellow hikers and was passed by some touring mountain
bikers, complete with loaded panniers, on several occasions.
The kilometres passed quickly. I usually aim to walk for about
90 minutes between breaks and this usually yields about 7 kilometres
per stretch on reasonable trail. Thus for a 23km day like
today, I would break it into three legs, hoping that, since I didn't
have any food apart from some biscuits, I would find somewhere to
get lunch after two legs. It didn't quite work out that way
when the hotel where I thought lunch might be a possibility turned
out to have an expensive menu. I walked another couple of
kilometres and found a sign pointing to a restaurant 250m off the
trail and made the detour. On arrival, I found the same young
hiking couple who had breakfasted near me, waiting for their lunch.
I took a chance on the schnitzel and bread lunch option, which was
just OK. In some ways it's a pity the trail doesn't pass
through more villages, thus increasing the food and accommodation
options, though there's no rules and I could always include some
detours, I suppose.
Shortly after lunch I was crossing a busy
road when a car pulled up and the female driver asked me something
in German which I didn't understand. After telling her I only
spoke a small amount of German, she switched to fractured English
and asked me whether I had seen "a collie dog, like Lassie?".
I hadn't and she drove off. Four kilometres later, there was a
collie dog standing by the track looking lost, but there wasn't much
I could do about it. Hopefully owner and dog have been
reunited by now.
I reached Gasthaus Kalte Herberge soon after
3:30pm and they had a room for me (I had emailed them two days ago
requesting a room be held). Starting late and finishing so
early made it an easy day but, with no TV or wi-fi, it looks like I
will be doing a lot of reading, which is OK. After a shower
and washing out my stuff I went down to the beer garden for a Diet
Coke and found many of the groups of hikers I have come to recognize
in the past couple of days also in residence. There is a sign
by the Gasthaus saying that the ridge it sits on separates the
watersheds of the Rhine and Danube Rivers, Europe's largest, which
is quite significant. While drinking my Coke, the gathering
clouds began to rumble and a few spots of rain fell. But, by
8pm, the thunderstorms had cleared and it was another perfect
evening.
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