Day 1-3:
17-19.7.2015
I decided to do day 1-3 together because they were mostly just the journey to our mountain rainge.
Day 1
Fr, 17.7.
We started on my cousin’s and my last day of school. I came home after 3 hours of school with my report card and packed my last things into my backpack.
For hiking you have to pack light and it was hard to figure out what to take and what not. Therefore I will assemble a packing list later on for you.
At 1 pm my dad drove me over to my aunt and uncle’s house. We arrived just in time to see that no one was ready, including me. After realising that we would have twice a 12 hour car ride I panicked and my dad and I drove back home to get me another book to read (I needed it!).
With just a 1 1/2 hour delay we were ready to start. Imagine a huge trunk full with backpacks, hiking sticks, water bottles and hiking shoes and a car full of people, food and mobile chargers.
I waved my dad good bye and off we went.
We made a stop on a roadhouse to eat Bavarian food. I am not a big fan of traditional German food, at least not the one including offals. Well the meal (liver dumplings) proved me right. It was my first and last time!
Day 2
Sa, 18.7.
Our first hotel (we did a stop in Bavaria) smelled like wet dogs. My cousin and I were really happy to be back on the road early the next morning.
And it was early. We left the hotel I think at 8:30 am on Saturday. On Saturdays I normally stay in bed till 11 am!
But that was late considering the next days.
Then the first mountains came and grew. Each higher than the one before we made our way through 2 hours traffic jam to Lappach. On the way we heard an audio play. All I can say is that we were glad (except my uncle) that the download of the second part didn’t work. But all together it was nicer to listen to someone reading than reading 8 hours yourself.
Lappach is tiny and far away from everything. We staid there at the Café Scheider. It was lovely. Downstairs completely different than upstairs. There everything is new, clean and cure decorated. You can see the mountains and the village, a scene from Heidi.
Only downer: The church rang its bells at 5 am. Who goes to church at 5 am?!
Day 3
Su, 19.7.
Our first day hiking: We ate a yummy breakfast at 7 am, way too early for me, and left for the mountains.
My uncle drove us up to a turn of the street where our hiking trail began and the car could be parked. (Back then the plan was to appear just a few hundred meters below out of the wilderness again; back than!)
We applyed suncream, laced our boots and left civilisation for 6
days.
We made it an hour without incident.
Then my cousin first noticed blisters on her heels. We stopped and patched her up. (For the record; her shoes were hurting the year before too; but the socks were blamed instead!) There I made this nice picture of 2 butterflies:
The next difficulty appeared after another hour. It was huge and full of grass → a meadow on a hill.
Well, more a big hill or… mountain. And the problem was, there were no real trail. It was a steep medow disguised as trail:
The way was designed to take us about 20 minutes. We needed double: Always!
My cousin warned me that I would constantly ask myself why I would do this. I considerd asking myself this question on top of this „hill“ the first time. But I didn’t!
So from there it took us 2 hours to get to our lodge. The Chemnitzhütte was small, cozy and relatively empty.
It was my first time in such a hut so I was astonished by the amount of food I got and ate (Authentic German food is best found on mountain lodges). Also I didn’t have to share my room with snoring strangers like promised but we had one to ourselves.
My uncle preferred to sleep outside in a tent, due to heavy snoring. Unfortunatly a havy thunderstrom kept us all awake that night. Still he stayed outside to everybody’s marvel.
The only other reportable thing to tell from this evening up there was a middle aged man (won’t mention his name) who announced that I looked exactly like a buddy from him (male!!) because of my Nordic smile. If s.o. knows what a Nordic smile is and how to characterise it, please comment!!
Anyway he told us about a bunch of shops we HAD to visit on our way back home (without us asking). We all were glad not to have him in our room. Otherwise he would have talked us through the night.
Just one last sentence:
When we saw him again the next afternoon, he hadn’t done his crazy goal to climb the „backyard mountain“ his knee had to relax.
Good luck to every hiker out there: May your knees stay strong!
Sehr gelacht, toll geschrieben.