As my hostel was on the route, and given the somewhat challenging and very time-consuming terrain, and the fact the first bus left at 9.20, I decided to give myself a bit of a break and hike only from where I stopped yesterday to the hostel.
It was a good decision. Most of today was actually somewhat less than fun. It rained continuously until almost 16.30. At first, the biggest problem was that I couldn't take down the hood of my jacket when I got hot. Then, the cold wind started and I had to walk right into it and the rain. Keeping my head down, to avoid rain in my face, I of course missed a marking (and the entire road that branched off); which I noticed quite quickly, after a break at a bus stop, one corner of which was far enough back to not catch rain. I ate a tiny rhubarb pie there, because it was pi day .
So, back, and then I walked for a long time with the wind and rain at my back, And my hands in my pockets, because it was cold (gloves, you say? Noooo, they got drenched a while ago). After a lot of tarmac, I did end up in a pretty forest. Although the rain did dampen the experience.
At some point, the rain started creeping in at the cuffs of my sleeves and my neck, and in the end, just... everything got wet. Or at least damp. And the rain made me hiss and growl. Like the fallen trees did yesterday.
I had hoped to sit indoors at Stolzembourg, but no, the café was closed. So I ended up sitting at another bus stop, having lunch and heating some soup to warm up. And on...
More beautiful forests, somewhere in which I did see a whole group of deer, around seven, sprinting up a slope! And then I got to what I had interpreted as a lake on the map, but turned out to be a reservoir, part of a power system.
Road into the valley, and then it finally stopped raining. I had to climb two more steep slopes, one short, one long, and that was definitely better without the rain. I even saw some blue sky and a little bit of sunshine.
And of course, because I had been very content with the lack of roadblocking trees today (the only one I met turned out not to be on, but beside the road - I missed a switchback path there), I had to run into the worst one so far, several pine trees completely blocking the uphill path on a rather steep slope. There was no climbing over these, I had to go around them. How I managed? ... don't ask. Let's just say that my rock-climbing experience came in useful.
I did get a very beautiful view once I got to the top of the last hill, and from there, I walked through the forest back to the hostel, where I am again sleeping tonight. Arrived shortly before 18.30. I left the bus stop at 9.48, picked up the trail at 9.57, then got back to the bus stop at 10.12, by the more scenic route the trail took, rather than the direct one I took yesterday. If I had known that the bus stop was on the route, and that I could have made it there before the bus left... Ah well.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad