Day 2 - Friday
23 km
23 km
Since I had to walk only 13km today I set off as late as 10am leisurely strolling back to where I had left the trail yesterday. I had not really slept well with a headache setting in in the middle of the night so I was looking forward to a day of relaxed walking. Things didn't go quite so easy.
The first hour I walked all alone on a broad path through the woods with towering rocks on my left. Again in the silence and the morning mist it was quite magical and I had the urge to scale a few of those rocks. They looked so inviting! Sigh. Had my first break at noon when I discovered a very nice spot a few metres off the track with a great view over a valley covered with trees and some of the rocks sticking out of it. At the rim where I sat it was going down at least 300 metres straight. Cool.
Not long after I came across another very nice viewpoint called "Brand" with a restaurant and a terrace, but everything was wet from the rain of last night so I just kept on going.
Thought I was almost at today's destination Ostrau but infact I had not even accomplished half of it. Huh? Should I trust my GPS device or the track description from the internet? Nevertheless, I quickened my pace, went through countless woods and up and down endless stairs, getting drenched several times when I was ascending steep slopes panting.
Generally had a great time and loved the scents of wood and grass. But after yesterdays 27km I just wanted to be done with it at a certain point. I was finally closing in at 4pm when I spotted a sign pointing directly to the campsite, the sign for "Malerweg" pointing to another direction. A shortcut? After 20km today instead of 13 I pondered for a second there and then decided to pull this through. I'm not going to cheat here I'm going to walk this trail completely not missing any bit of it.
20 minutes later I stood at a dead end. The sign pointed right but there was a red-white do-not-cross line and honestly there WAS no trail beyond that line. It looked like a there had been a landslide lately. So what now? Went back a few minutes to the spot where the path had forked and tried my luck going the other direction only to arrive at another dead end. Alright. Got it. Should've taken the short cut earlier.
Went back all the way taking the "short cut" realizing that this had cost me a lot of time and energy. Finally arrived at the campsite at 5pm, checked in, pitched my tent and charged the batteries of my cellphone. I still had no accomodation for tomorrow night and I needed to phone some people if they had vacancies.
Last night's camping ground was very quiet and had only a few people with caravans. Tonight's campsite was a lot busier. Seemed to be a popular spot. I can't say I liked that. But they had a restaurant so I met up with my friends living nearby and had some food and drinks and a very nice chat.
The first hour I walked all alone on a broad path through the woods with towering rocks on my left. Again in the silence and the morning mist it was quite magical and I had the urge to scale a few of those rocks. They looked so inviting! Sigh. Had my first break at noon when I discovered a very nice spot a few metres off the track with a great view over a valley covered with trees and some of the rocks sticking out of it. At the rim where I sat it was going down at least 300 metres straight. Cool.
Not long after I came across another very nice viewpoint called "Brand" with a restaurant and a terrace, but everything was wet from the rain of last night so I just kept on going.
 |
| View from Brand |
Thought I was almost at today's destination Ostrau but infact I had not even accomplished half of it. Huh? Should I trust my GPS device or the track description from the internet? Nevertheless, I quickened my pace, went through countless woods and up and down endless stairs, getting drenched several times when I was ascending steep slopes panting.
 |
| Steps, steps, steps... not the last |
20 minutes later I stood at a dead end. The sign pointed right but there was a red-white do-not-cross line and honestly there WAS no trail beyond that line. It looked like a there had been a landslide lately. So what now? Went back a few minutes to the spot where the path had forked and tried my luck going the other direction only to arrive at another dead end. Alright. Got it. Should've taken the short cut earlier.
 |
| Dead end |
Last night's camping ground was very quiet and had only a few people with caravans. Tonight's campsite was a lot busier. Seemed to be a popular spot. I can't say I liked that. But they had a restaurant so I met up with my friends living nearby and had some food and drinks and a very nice chat.
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