It was drizzling when I set off. I visited the COOP next door and bought two peaches and a bottle of water and then was off – I didn’t understand the directions until I was en route. There was a short cut which basically meant walking along the main road for a mile or two, or there was a suicidal backloop almost to Wick which was the official trail – I wasn’t there to get anywhere quickly so I took the backloop. Immediately the trail went vertical and simultaneously the rain really started; thunder, and lightening and loads and loads of rain.
Despite that, I had a good time. I had on my hash shower-proof jacket, so after a while I had to stop to transfer my camera and wallet to the rucksack as it was really pouring. I listened to Mozart on the MP3 player and laughed at the weather. It was a shame about the gloominess and lack of visibility because I am sure my loop was lovely – it certainly was steep. When after a couple of hours of walking I got down to the main road the rain had almost finished, but the juggernauts ensured I my felling of being half drowned was maintained.
There was about 2km on road and then just as the rain really ended the trail cut across meadows to a river.
Once over that I was once again back in the forest and climbed and climbed
up to the castles that had been dominating the end of yesterday’s walk.
The first castle was quite small, but the second, “Chateau d’Ortenbourg” was huge.
I was amazed to discover the first castle I had seen had been built to lay siege to the second (wow that must have been a long siege) and that Chateau d’Ortenbourg was eventually destroyed by THE SWEDES in the 17C. It was incredibly large and well defended. I was surprised to see as I left the keep that I had walked in over a very flimsy bridge that replaced the drawbridge over a yawning gap which dropped about 10 metres.
By the time the trail got me back down to the vineyards it was warm and sunny and I slowly dried out. The views back to “Chateau d’Ortenbourg” were impressive.
The first village, Dieffenthal, was pretty but once again shut.
Fortunately. the second village, Dambach-la-Ville was only a short walk and was even prettier, and open, sort of.
The shops were shut but the restaurants weren’t, and that was important as I was starving! I chose one on the main square.
I obviously was a sight as I wasn’t allowed to sit outside and was ushered to an unmade bench table inside. No worries, I had had enough of the sun anyway. I had a beer, and then another one and then ordered Black Pudding! Yum Yum, oh and another beer.
I had a wonderful meal, but almost immediately afterwards I knew I shouldn’t have had 2.5 pints of beer. The first thing I did was to forget to switch my GPS on, the second was to drop half my maps in a puddle. They dried out on a wall and while they were drying I realised that the GPS was off. When the maps were dryish I pressed on and was getting my act together when I received a SMS on one of my two phones. I had to stop and get everything tangled only to discover that it was just a ‘Welcome to XYZ, please roam with us” message. Then it started to rain, so I had to stop, again, and put my damp shower jacket on. As soon as I had done that and got under way again the sun came out and I started to cook, so I had to stop again to take it off.
After about half an hour I was slowly beginning to refocus, and felt so good I decided to take a photo of myself as I was beginning to find a place for everything, my hat, my sweatband, my GPS, my MP3 player, the maps, my sunglasses etc etc.
Unfortunately it was a crap photo and I had put the camera down on a tree stump that was covered in sap so I then had to spend another 10 minutes getting that of my camera, hands, and various parts of the rucksack. This bad luck wasn’t just bad luck – I learned I couldn’t drink that much beer and expect to get away with it!
The walk just kept on rolling out in front of me. Woods, mud, puddles, more woods, more hills. It just rolled on and on.
I loved it and stopped listening to Mozart and just enjoyed the quiet of the trail.
Quite a few of the hamlets, villages, and lone houses had loose dogs that kept me on my toes, but nothing too awful. When the trail eventually returned to the vineyards I once again ‘scrumped’ on cherries, plums and pears.
I managed to get lost in Bernardville by using my sense of direction rather than the directions to lead me. As a result I headed off in the right direction for about half a kilometre before discovering I was nevertheless on the wrong trail.
It was a long walk without these diversions and then when I finally arrived in Andlau at 5:30pm
I managed to go wrong again and add another 3km to my route before eventually staggering into the hotel at 6pm.
I was really really disappointed to discover that my room was on the second floor and that there was no lift – my suitcase felt very very heavy.
I downloaded the maps and photos before having a much-needed soak in the bath. I was stunned to discover that according to my GPS I had covered 30km!
Here is the map from Google Earth of my trail
and if you want to see the trail on your own copy of Google Earth then click here.If you do that I recommend as well as viewing the image from above you look at it obliquely as the hills stand out really nicely.
When I went down for supper in the restaurant there were the same Dutch couple I had seen so many times on the trail. I tried striking up a conversation with them “A long walk today!” “Yes” was the monosyllabic reply from the man, and hen he struck up a conversation with another couple I sort of recognised on the other side of the room in Dutch. I was put in my place…
The food was good. An onion tart (quiche) followed by a stuffed veal cordon bleu washed down with a demi pichet of Pinot Noir (red paint stripper) and finished of with their version of a ‘Dame Blanche’. I didn’t stay for coffee. I went out for a coffee and an eau de vie in the town.
I was really tired, but once again I slept really badly. I couldn’t get off to sleep and listened to the church clock strike all the quarters until 2:15am, and then I finally drifted off.
Again to view the original photos (and loads of others) please visit my Fotki website and/or just click on the image (new feature!).
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