Ups And Downs

Day 3  - Saturday
38km

Wow. What a day! Left the campsite at 8:30 since today I had the longest stage of the trail ahead of me. 32km! It's not soooo much more than the last two days but the 30km mark is still something notable when walking. Especially when walking with a real backpack and let's say a demanding track. When checking out the woman at the counter asked me twice if I was really going to Schöna since that would be twice as much as yesterday's tour. Hm. Had I miscalculated again? 40+ km of walking up and down would really be hard.
Anyway, the path rose through a dense wood at first and immediately I was sweating and panting again. Great. Passed more rocks and quite a few signs for climbing spots. Going slightly up and down I made good speed and my body felt very much okay today.
Today's adventure really started when I reached the "Schrammstein Tor"  where you climb on steep steps, ladders and rock up beteen two of those pillars. It's very impressive and feels a little bit like via ferrata with handrails and such. Only it's easy enough so you don't need a harness. With a heavy backpack it still makes for some adventure... and great fun!!! Fantastic view from the top.

steep

The path leads over that rock there. Seriously!

Down and up and down I went with my heavy load. Walked through a seemingly popular part of the national reserve on a broad gravel road reaching one of a handfull of old mills at noon. I was really aching for a break then cause I was on my feet for almost 4 hours trying to walk as fast as I could. There were a lot of people out on a Saturday stroll with such a fine weather today. I came across a resturant just when I wanted to occupy the next bench. Perfect! Only I fled inside pretty soon after gulfing down my Soljanka. The beergarden was infested with wasps and I wanted to finish my alc-free beer without fishing one of those critters out of  the glass time and again.

Another steep climb later I arrived at the top of another rock which attracted more tourists because of the interesting natural dome of rock called "Kuhstall" (cowshed) and another nice view. Didn't linger long and because I didn't really fancy all those people.

For hours I dragged myself up and down and up again. Sweat was running down my back and face time and again when I had to climb up again, at some point I just didn't care anymore.
Apart from one couple with no backpacks who walked up from behind no one was overtaking me. On the contrary. While people where huffing and puffing I literally raced past them and was gone around the next bend before long.

The view was worth the labour.

My GPS counted 25+ km so far and there was still a long way ahead when I came upon another restaurant in the middle of the woods some time after 4pm. Decided to have my second longer break here and ordered a cappucino and a bowl of ice ceam. 20 minutes later I was back on the trail again with another very steep ascend to master that took me half an hour. Reached the 30km mark soon afterwards and somehow some kind of determination - exhilaration even - set in and I decided to walk until I drop. After reaching the top of the "Grosser Winterberg" I knew I had only to go down now to Schmilka.
My knees were complaining like grown ups throwning all kinds of swearwords at me because the way down was almost completely done on steps. ARG! I was so sick of steps by then.
Reached Schmilka at 6pm. 38km on the GPS, wow! But my destination Schöna was still some 5km away. I decided to call the B&B I wanted to stay at in Schöna and if they had vacancies I would've walked another hour to get there. Turned out they didn't so I decided to stay here and went on hunting for a bed. I was knackered and my legs couldn't go much further anyway. Found a nice one after several owners had turned me down and settled in before I went out again to find some food.

Settled on a bench already occupied by three nice guys at a tuck shop who invited me to sit with them and spent the better part of two hours drinking beer and chatting until it was really getting cold in the dark.

Hobbled back to my B&B with stiff legs and knees and just slumped on the bed watching some tv before I fell asleep.