Tuesday 10th October 2023

Hinterzaten to Kirschzaten

Greeted by a slightly cooler day and a little less challenging walk than yesterday, all augered well for a beaut day.

Breakfast was wholesome and we were told to make up our lunch and wrap it in the 3 metres of glad wrap they provided.

Day started poorly for Welsh mate Hwyll ( Hal to us) when he covered the floor with milk after his eyesight problem let him down when filling the milk jug.

Not too pleased staff member cleaned it up , mumbled something in German and then stomped back into the kitchen.

A little later start than usual, leaving at 930, but with 17 Kms to go a 3 pm finish looked achievable.

Within 30 metres of leaving we were admonished by a local driver for walking on wrong side of road – I wished her peace with a silent hand signal.

Unlike yesterday we headed upward out of town and were soon in meadows. Came across a group of ponies in a paddock and a friendly pat turned into a mini defibrillator shock from the electric fence as I leant over. We ran across several more horses in the next kilometre or so with a young girl herding a group on a push bike and another lady walking an old Iceland mate. She had left her tiny Shetland pony hanging out with mum.

We quickly gained height on pretty good minor country roads and were joined by Hal and Caroline.

The animal theme continued as we headed up the hill running into some alpacas and goats.

The higher we got the better the view with scenery a camera could not do justice to. Autumn is starting to show with trees starting to get the lovely orange tinge. We found an out of scale relaxation bench to take in the view.

After an hour and a half we had done about 4kms of undulating walk with the ups well and truly outnumbering the downs and found a lively guest house for a coffee break.

Aside from the very friendly Labrador dog, who obviously sniffed out our lunches, mine host was great with good English and knowing exactly what our tour was all about.

The cappucino was not bad and either was the panoramic view including more ski fields and distant wind farms.

We continued uphill, including 600 metre walk similar to the chairlift walk we missed the other day and ended up at a rustic war memorial honouring lost German souls from both wars. At 1300 metres it was our highest point of the day and decided to take a rest and enjoy the view.

As the band said in the sing Spinning Wheel ‘ what goes up must come down’ we spent the next couple of hours doing so. It was on a mix of grassy hills, rocky rooty forest paths and tracks only a foot width wide along meadows which tumbled down into the valley.

I didn’t complain because I realised most of the cows had to traverse the fields on a daily basis. On one of the forest paths we found a rock big enough to be our sitting spot for lunch.

The forest took a distinct change in appearance as we got lower, due to the majority of native plants being destroyed by bark bug and only recently being replanted with conifers.

There was little respite with the downhill until the 13 kilometre mark when we finally walked out of the forest into flatter meadows and into farming land. One barn had an enormous solar panel installation .

We could see our destination in the distance but with 4kms to go we got the pit pony syndrome with heads down and feet dragging.

We came across a very old farmer wandering up past his wood piles to check on the herd. Just around the corner was two 9 year old trying to sell us catapaults for 2 Euros.

The track meandered along very flat ground beside the river before reaching a mansion with huge grounds full of chestnut trees. Despite signs to the contrary lots of locals were enjoying their fill.

We made the outskirts of town just before 4pm and passed the home ground of the local football club who was sponsored by the Italian pizza restaurant.

Closer to town we crossed the river a couple of times near and old mill before falling upon our pretty smart looking hotel in Kirschzaten.

Got a 2nd floor room with balcony overlooking the main road – surprisingly accessed by an elevator.

Sat on the balcony and watched a parachutist land about 50 metres away. I swore blind he was heading our way.

We cured the dehydration with a couple of local pilsner’s before a pre dinner rest and then catching a great sunset.

Dinner was on par with the excellent meal we had on first two nights, consisting mainly of locally sourced products and in just the right sized proportions. Mixed it with a nice Kaiser Stuhl Pinot Noir.

Service and rapport with staff was first rate.
We have 3 nights here and are still tossing up the order in which to do the walks over next 2 days.