Across Austria - From Bodensee (Lake Constance) to the Hungarian Border

If  nothing goes wrong I should be in Bregenz, on the eastern shore of Lake Constance, by mid-July and ready for the "Austrian" leg of the E4.

As in Andalusia, at the beginning of the walk, there are two options - the Alpine or sub-Alpine routes.  Originally I was keen to do the Alpine route but to be honest I'm now having second thoughts.  Although the test run in July demonstrated that it is "doable",  bits of it are definitely at the end of my comfort zone - bits of it are scary.  It will also take a long time and the only itinerary I have found (Wikipedia) suggest 54 days and includes some incredibly tough days.

Information on the routes is hard to come by.  Information is produced by the Austrian and German Alpine Associations who have a joint cartographic function and they have kept a tight lid on it.  You don't get the freely available KML files for display in Google Earth which I have found so useful for planning my itinerary for France and Switzerland.

In terms of time I think the 54 day Wikipedia option will prove the worst case scenario and instead of 2 options (the Alpine and sub-Alpine) I think there are 4.

Firstly there are two variants to the Alpine route.  You can knock off (and still be on the E4) some of the most time-consuming and scariest bits of the Alpine route - the less tough Alpine option reduces the time by between 6 and 8 days.

Secondly you could do the whole of the sub-Alpine route which runs parallel and to the north of the Alpine route.

Thirdly you could adopt a new John Hayes variant taking you along the sub-Alpine route to the east of Salzburg and then, after a small detour, join the Alpine route all the way through the Hungarian border.

On the face of there are a number of attractions to the John Hayes variant.

Firstly it is definitely less scary (although you might achieve as much by avoiding the really high alpine bits of the Alpine route);

Secondly you get to walk through southern Bavaria along the Maximiliansweg and then, east of Salzburg, through the beautiful Austrian lakes; 

Thirdly, by going along the second half of the Alpine route, you go almost directly to the kick-off point to the E4 in Hungary whereas the second half of the sub-Alpine route appears to take you on a detour close to Vienna.

The downside of the unofficial John Hayes variant is that although you always walking on the E4 you have joined the bits up in an "unapproved" way. 

What I'm waiting for now is a couple of publications (in German unfortunately) which I'm hoping will give me enough information to decide what to do.  I guess the key thing I need to know is which variant will give me the best chance of getting to the Hungarian  border in time to complete the last leg of the journey. 

I packed my bag and in I put ....(5)

When I started planning this walk I had no idea about complicated all the stuff on gear is. There is a whole universe of innovators out there creating things to meet needs I didn’t even know I had and I think I’m just skimming the surface. One thing I did know was that carrying loads of stuff is not good news and on the treks I’ve done already I learnt how to travel light. What I didn’t know was that cutting things down is almost a “movement”, generates a huge amount of discussion and drives innovation and design for products most walkers and hikers, relying on shops in the high street, will not be aware of.  There are lots of really interesting things to get my teeth into, not just the footwear, but for every item there are light weight choices to be made. Good fun.

The thing which is giving me most grief is all the electronics stuff. I’m going on a long walk, I want to plan it, find my way, record it and ideally communicate as much of it as possible as I do it. I’ve got a number of problems. Firstly some of this stuff is expensive and I don’t like spending money. Secondly it’s complicated particularly the GPS stuff, not just the products but the maps (particularly as I’m planning to travel across six countries). Thirdly I haven’t used some of this stuff before, particularly GPS, and so don’t really know what I’m talking about. Fourthly it could end being heavy particularly if I can’t come up with some solution to keep all this stuff powered up. The electronics stuff is not such good fun.

There is a debate going on out there as to whether the smart phone is the whizzo bang device I talked about in my second bag packing blog – well it could be but it all depends on how precious you are about particular requirements and how willing you are to make do. At the moment, and I’m still working this out (requirements pushing me – meanness holding me back) but it looks like I need lots of devices – acknowledging this is progress of a kind and it looks like I might even have an answer to the recharging dilemma multiple devices present.


Device 1 - GPS

The thing I’m struggling with is the paper maps. Asked the question of Lighthiker and he rightly points out that walking the E4 is not bush whacking – most of it is along high profile and well marked national trails. If I had paper maps than I could use these in conjunction with the GPS on an IPhone for any navigation.

On the other hand if I had a high spec GPS wouldn’t this allow me to do all the route planning in advance and generate the paper maps. Starting with paper maps rather than digital maps you don’t get the same route planning functionality and if you could plot your route and print it via the GPS route planning software aren’t you getting the best of both worlds?

I’m looking at the different GPS devices and the SatMap Active 10 Active 10 looks particularly good. Although it’s the heaviest of all completing devices its new European service is impressive especially what looks like a partnership with the  German and Austrian Alpine Associations (Austrian mapping is proving a nightmare – more of that in my next blog). I’m also trying to understand the offer from Compe-GPS which also appears to have a European mapping service and supports both a standalone product and an Iphone product.

Device 2 - Netbook

The debate on this is whether I go for an iPad or not. Against it is expense, the lack of a keyboard and the fact that the OS system at the moment is not multi-tasking. In favour is its weight and exploding functionality. Had a go with my sister’s iPad and was very impressed and I think the on-screen key board will be fine and by the time I’m ready go it might have the same multi-tasking software Apple use on the latest iPhone.


Device 3 - Camera

I want to take half decent camera. At the moment I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 which is getting a bit old and bashed but is still far better than any phone based camera I have come across - it has a zoom lens for one thing. I might treat myself to the latest version, the Panasonic Lumix TZ10  ;which use GPS to geotag photographs – very handy.

Device 4 - Phone

I’m ashamed to say but I have never bought a phone - I have always had one through work. I now need to get one and it’s a bit of an intellectual challenge (seems to be a bit of a theme developing). The key consideration is what am I going to use it for in particular the extent to which I use it for GPS. If I go with a an iPad, than the iPhone probably makes sense in which case I wouldn’t need to take an iPod for music.

Device 5 - GPS Locator

I am interested something like the Spot personal tracker. It could be interesting for people to see if I’m still moving, tracking progress, and indeed has some safety benefits.

So I’m definitely in the nightmare world of lots of different devices all with different power stores and different recharging requirements. Thanks to Chris and Matt Aloise, who left a comment on the blog, I now have a better understanding of both the issues and opportunities associated with the world of power generation, storage and recharging (particularly the fact that some products have an internal recharging capability and some don’t). They also introduced me to a range of products from Me2Solar which I think could provide the solutions.

I think I have two key requirements - firstly to get rid of as many of the specialist recharging devices as possible and secondly to provide some power resiliance for the critical devices. In reality I only have one critical device and that’s the GPS - it’s also - compared to the others - energy hungry. What the Me2Solar range of products does is provide an intermediary store for energy - a larger battery - which can then be used to charge all the other devices (the Arigo); a universal power charger where devices don’t have an internal recharging capability (Pixo C2 plus); and a means of generating power through a light portable solar panel (the Aurora Pro 25).

So progress of a kind although the decision of the key piece of electronic kit, the GPS, is still to be made. What I think I will do is get myself a iPhone and start to understand how far that will take me and, at the same time, get a better understanding of what I can achieve through the Satmap and Comp-GPS mapping services.

Stage 13 - Switzerland

You could blame Switzerland for my E4 adventure.  The first time I did place to place unassisted walking was about 10 years ago, with Christine, when we went from Grindelwald to Gstaad and my enthusiasm for this style of walking has grown ever since.  Of course we were completely spoilt by the scenery, particularly the awesome views of the Eiger and the Jungfrau, but it was the excitement of a new walk everyday and the sense of achievement from looking back over ground covered that really got me hooked.

Switzerland really is a different country.  Intensely associated with the Alps (almost interchangeable) it has lots things going for it.  Famous for its long history of independence and neutrality it somehow combines an intensely decentralised form of government (all the way down to referendum) with really strong national institutions (a  conscript army based on national service).  Famous of course for its financial services (infamous to some (particularly Harold Wilson)) it actually has a broadly based economy with the highest per capita level of manufacturing in Europe (interesting counter factual - it also has the lowest proportion of graduates in its workforce).  Switzerland is a successful country and all this makes for easy hassle free visiting.

As it happens the E4 route through Switzerland does not take you through classic Alpine scenary (that comes in buckets in Austria) but through the less well known Jura Mountains and then along the southern shore of Lake Constance.

Through the Jura the route follows the Jura Crest Way (also known as the Jura Ridgeway or the Jura Hoehenwege in German).  The Crest Way is one of the oldest national trails in the world with original development starting in 1905.  It starts at Nyon, just north of Geneva, and finishes at Dielsdorf, just north of Zurich, joining up Switzerland's two largest cities.  As the name suggests the route follows an east west ridge overlooking the central plateau with its huge lakes with the Alps forming the horizon to the south.  The views should be amazing.

The walk along the southern edge Lake Constance (Bodansee in German) will be the first sustained bit of flat walking since the Costa Dorada and I should be arriving there at the perfect time for some lake swimming.

There are two really good sources for developing the itinerary.  The Swiss Hiking Federation website provides both an itinerary and a description of the stages and a site called Activity Workshop provides a KMZ file for the route which you can display in Google Earth (for the Jura Crest Way).  The KMZ file, by the way, seems to confirm the Google Earth effect and shortens the route.  The Jura Crest Way is said everywhere to be 310 kms long but it comes out in Google Earth at 270 - will need to keep that in mind when looking again at my proposed itinerary in France which was very Google Earth dependant.

Both itineraries are different and both go from west to east rather than east to west.  They are also designed to let travellers get to the start of each day on a bus and are less concerned about accommodation.  Consequently I've done my own which is both faster (worryingly) and assumes that I want to stay as near the trail as possible.  The net effect is that I plan to cross Switzerland in 16 days (see attached itinerary).

I've done my own estimates for how long each day's walking will take based on Naismith's rule with Tranters corrections and a neat calculator from Wotz Wot.  I've included the optional assumption that walking downhill (gently) covers more distance than on the flat and that by the time I get to Switzerland I will be somewhere between fit and very fit.  Both assumptions could be optimistic but it stays light for a long time in July!

There are no really large towns along the route until you get to Konstance, which looks like a good place for a stop-over (the other towns/villages don't look that inspiring).  My itinerary does have a couple of long days,  probably too long (Day 6 and 10), but both are driven by accommodation constraints and the desire to stay as close to the trail rather than just masochism.  You could easily break up the other long day, Day 10.

Rather than a day by day description I have grabbed some images (mainly from the Activity Workshop site) which give a taste as to what I can expect - looks great

Down to Geneva from Mont Dole

Highest Point Mont Tendre

The Alps from Vue des Alps

Limestone Cliffs at Creux de Van

The E4 through France

This is a rewrite of the blog I did a couple of months ago and benefits from the work I have now done on the French part of the E4 itinerary and the more detailed planning I have completed for each stage.

The route is more complex than the E4 in Spain which largely followed the route of the Spanish GR 7.  In France the route joins up sections of 9 different GR routes. When it comes to developing the itinerary some things are easier and some more difficult compared to Spain. In England, French maps are much easier to get hold of, particularly if you live in London, and indeed I found I already had a number of them from previous trips. The Federation Francaise de la Randonnee Pedestre, the national walking association, have been particularly helpful. Not only did they provide me (free of charge) with a map of Europe with all the E routes marked, they also constructed a table for me listing all the maps I would need to get. Brilliant, formidable or what!

What I haven't been able to find (yet) are the itineraries you get on the Spanish regional walking associations websites which give you a stage breakdown with estimates of how long it will take you to complete each stage. What I have found, as a substitute, is a site called GR-info which not only lists all the GR routes but allows you to display them on Google Earth. Using Google Earth you can then work out where the accommodation is and produce distance and amount of climb - almost all you need to plan an itinerary.

According to the GR-info/Google Earth method the E4 in France is 1186 kms long. This is 86 kms longer than the figure on ERA website.  Not sure which, if either, number is right and to be honest I think the GR-info/Google Earth method straightens a lot of bendy lines and could itself understate the real extent of the route.

My itinerary suggests I could complete the route in 46 days - which translates into 26 kms or 15.5 miles a day. This looks OK but could be a bit more of a stretch when you start to take account of the ups and down. Roughly speaking it’s 49km up and not surprisingly and about the same amount down.

The route is very varied from virtually every perspective. It’s varied in terms of the walking itself, going from quite gentle, once your out of the Pyrenees and heading towards and beyond Carcassone, to really very tough, as you get into the Vercors and the foothills of the Alps. It’s varied in terms of the history and the mark history has made on the architecture of the towns (I’m particularly looking forward to those Cathar castles in the south-east). It’s also varied in terms of the geography, geology and to an extent climate as to travel from Alpine to Mediterranean and back to Alpine again. This is top walking country and French have celebrated this with a necklace of national and regional parks which almost join the entire route together.

Accommodation by and large looks plentiful and I shouldn’t need a tent or even a bivi bag.  A number of the stopovers however involve a "Gite d'Etape" . The definition of what you get in a “Gite d’Etape” is not entirely clear, not to me anyway, and while some definitely come with half board others don’t which will mean carrying  food for more than one day.

There are options for breaking up the route and at the moment I’m thinking of stopping for a day a Carcassonne, Villefort, Malaucene and Grenoble, 4 days rest, 46 days walking, which might not be enough. Anyway if I leave it time being that France will take  50 days, start France on the 14th May I should be ready for the Swiss section by the 2nd of July. Onwards and upwards!

Stage 12 - Grenoble to the Swiss Border

Getting to the Swiss border, where the E4 turns firmly east, involves a journey of some 245 kms, 10,500 metres of climb and 9110 of descent.  The planned schedule involves 9 days of walking.  Coming up with a plan for the route has proved more difficult than the other French stages as accommodation seems to be more limited.   At the moment there are a couple of days which, because of the lack of accommodation, look too long.

North of Grenoble from La Bastille

You can break the walk down into three parts - a really dramatic, and tough, first three days through the Chartreuse Natural Park; a gentler central stage which eventually takes across the Rhone (for the second time, with the Rhone now flowing east to west and out of Lake Geneva); and finally an upland section the last couple of days of which are in the Haut Jura Natural Park.

The Chartreuse Natural Park is built around the Chartreuse Massif which is the mirror image of the Vercors and shares the same dramatic limestone scenery.  Grenoble sits strategically in the gap between the two.

The walk takes you through the Rhone Alps region and (I think) the departments of Isere, Savoie and Ain.  After Grenoble you don't visit any significant towns which partly explains the sparse accommodation.

Grenoble, the start point, is the second largest city on the E4 route (I'm saying that Budapest is on the route) and I guess I will spend at least a day there (recovering from the tough last three days of the Vercours route).  There is lots to see.  One of the main sites is La Bastille, a huge fortification which sits above the town.  The E4 route takes you close and then above La Bastille on the first day.

After a rest the day one walk will be a sharp wake up call involving an all day climb up into the Chartreuse from Grenoble.  The views should be great.  In addition to the climb, the challenge is to find some accommodation on the route which makes it possible to avoid an extra climb the next day.  It probably makes sense to stop at Sappey-en-Chartreuse after a 13 km walk from Grenoble and a climb of 1250 metres and a descent of 600 metres.

Day 2 over Dome de Bellafont

Day 2 at the moment is a bit of a problem.  The first accommodation I have been able to find on the route is 27 kilometres from Sappey-en-Chartreuse (at La Plagne) and because that looks very limited it probably makes sense to go a bit further onto Entremont Le Vieux.  Climbing 1700 metres and walking 30 kms is getting close to a 13/14 hour walk - not good - but at the moment it is the only option I have come up with.

At least day 3 is more straightforward.  The target is Les Eschelles, a 20 km walk involving 600 metres of descent and a village at the end of it with accommodation.

Although the E4 has now dropped out of the high Chartreuse accommodation on the route is still scarce.  As a consequence the day 4 plan, like day 2, looks too long.  The target is Gite d'Etape near St Maurice de Rotherens (doesn't look like it does food), a walk of 29 kms with 1300 metres of climb and 900 metres of descent.  Looks a nice walk, particularly the ridge walk towards the end which promises views across the plain to Lyons.

Next day, day 5, your into the valley proper descending 800 metres down to the banks of Rhone, tracking and then eventually crossing it just before you get to the day's destination Culoz.  Culoz is a small market town with a population of 2,600 people (plenty of accommodation).  Culoz's most famous feature is the Grand Columbier, a mountain which towers above it and which has to be climbed the next day.  Grand Columbier is a famous Tour de France hill climb.

Grand Columbier

As well as having to climb Grand Columbier, day 6 is also challenging terms of accommodation.  There are two options so far: the first is a Gite d'Etape near Brenaz (after 18 kms and a climb of 1500 metres); and the second is a Gite d'Etape near Les Bergonnes (29 kms and a climb of 1770 metres - almost certainly too far).  I don't think there is food at either stop-over.

Depending on which option I end up with (the first almost certainly) - next day's walk is the small village of Saint-Germain de Joux (where there is definitely accommodation).  The walk will either be 33 km (600 metres climb and 1300 descent) or a 20 km walk (270 metres climb and 960 drop) - both feasible.

Pressing on with with the mad rush to the Swiss border (thoughts of Steve McQueen on a motor bike in the Great Escape) the plan for day 8 is a 30 km walk up out of the valley of Saint German-de-Roux, through a series of small settlements (Marnod, Giron) and fairly densely wooded countryside, before dropping down to the small village of Lelex.  If 30 kms and 1200 metres of climb is too far I could call it a day after 20 kms at Le Berbois.

There are options for day 9.  I could either do a short  8 km walk to the Col de la Faucille, (with 1000 metres of climb) or put in a big shift and carry on for another 25 kms to Saint-Cergue at the start of the Swiss section of walk.  Both places have accommodation but although Saint-Cergue has more (not a lot more).  At the moment I'm planning to go all the way into Switzerland but either way it would great to find somewhere nice to stop, recuperate and reflect on what will have been an epic journey through France.