Stage 12 - The Maximilianweg, the E4 through Bavaria

At Bregenz, at the eastern end of Lake Constance and a day into Austria, the E4 splits.  There are two options, the Nordalpenweg 01 and the Nordalpenweg 04.  Both head east and both finish in Vienna.    I was keen to save time so decided to get through Austria by combining the routes, travelling firstly along the 04 and then, in eastern Austria, crossing over to the 01.  This approached saved me about 10 days.

Part of the saving results from the fact that the 04 is an easier walk than the 01.  It's still Alpine but involves less climbing and you cover more distance each day.  After a couple of days in Austria it crosses into Bavaria and, until you get to Salzburg, involves walking along a route called the Maximiliansweg following a journey undertaken in 1858 by King Maximilian II the then king of Bavaria.  The 04 is an Austrian long distance footpath which, for much its route, takes you into Germany.

Linderhof

When Maximilian undertook the trip he was visiting some of the most beautiful locations in the Bavarian Alps. Starting at Lindau (not on the E4), the route visits Bregenz, Fussen (where his son Ludwig II built the Neuschwanstein Castle), Linderhof (site of another amazing palace built by his son) and Bertesgaden. For much of the time you're walking along or close to the very northern edge of the alps with long views down into Germany.

Friday 29th of July Ruhpolding to Bad Reichenhall

After yesterday's huge walk I had managed to convince myself that today's would be easier. It was shorter (slighty) and there was a lot less climb. The only hint of misplaced optimism were the timings in the guide which pointed to yet another ten hour marathon.

Stayed at a nice Gasthof in Ruhpolding, cheap, clean and a substantial amount of typical Bavarian food - food that is wholesome but not that exciting. The landlady was really nice, very motherly, and actually invited us to make sandwiches at breakfast.

Had our first heavy shower of the day in Ruhpolding town centre. Ruhpolding, as we discovered, had loads of accommodation and was not a place where you would need to worry about advance booking.

The first 10 kilometres of walking to Inzell was a bit dull, easy, and perhaps put us in a slightly over-confident state of mind for the day. At Inzell we had the first indication that the Man with the Maps, the Colonel, was not on top navigational form and that a five day operation might be a day too many.

Gentle walking to Inzell

The real climbing started just after Inzell (after a small disagreement with a local as to the right route) with a path ascending steeply up 900 metres up to Kohleralm. Got there at about 2.30 and stopped to eat the sandwiches we made at the Gasthof.

St Nikolaus

Kohleralm

The weather was now threatening and although the signs were clear enough the information on timings was very confusing. We then started a contour path heading east which in the end took nearly four hours to complete. Not complaining and on a better day the views would have been amazing but the going was tough and progress slow.

Approaching Reichenhaller Haus 

At about four o'clock we got to the Reichenhaller Haus and within a space of 200 metres saw signs that suggested that Bad Riechenhall could be reached in 2, 3 and 4 hours. Just past the Haus we had to take a decision as to whether to continue with the high route or drop down. I said stay high but soon started to doubt my judgement as the rain started to pour down, the path went from high to higher, and the route became increasingly exposed. The last thing Chris wanted to do after 8 hours walking was climb but he stuck with it without complaining despite the fact that the path was getting just a bit dangerous. At last things became less treacherous and we started the mega and often slippery descent down to Bad Riechenhall.

Just before the descent

Bad Reichenhall is quite a big place and although we had a Gasthof booking we had no real idea where it was. After a beer in a bar and instructions we were walking along the street to the Bahnhof with Chris thinking were we travelling in one direction and me the other. The misunderstanding was not resolved by a large street map leaving Chris believing we should turn left and me believing we should turn right. Two local men joined in the debate and although they backed my argument they took so long to reach a conclusion that little confidence was generated.

We headed of in the direction suggested but still couldn't find the street. Eventually we asked a couple of well dressed Germans the way and they suggested that the Colonel had been right all along and sent us the 500 metres or so back to the Bahnhof. Despite the fact that it was now well past eight Chris was jubilant and his victory dance was a bit embarrassing in front of our new cosmopolitan friends.

Back at the Bahnhof, and confronted with the barrier of the railway lines, the confidence of Colonel Chris started to ebb forcing him to seek fresh instructions in a nearby liquor store. Just then the two well dressed Germans reappeared having come all the way to the station to find us, apologise for giving us the wrong directions, and to then escort us all the way back to the Gasthof in the direction originally suggested by yours truly. Chris took the disappointment of being wrong very well perhaps helped by the fact that I only reminded him of his mistake a dozen times.

Anyway alls well that ends well. The Gasthof was excellent, very old fashioned and chaotic, but great fun. Dinner and two huge beers in a local bar finished an interesting and enjoyable day.

Thursday 28th July Marquartstein to Ruhpolding

After yesterday's high wire acts and general fireworks today's walk was more heavy duty, more of a slog. The walk was much longer, involved two big climbs, and the weather had once again turned against us. Given the length of the walk, 34 kilometres, and the 1800 metre climb, it was absolutely essential that we didn't loose any time by missing the track.

We had an extra kilometre or so to walk before we found the track but after that it was a solid, steady uphill climb through trees until we were completely surrounded by a cold clinging mist.

Coffee at the Hochgernhaus Hutte was the first bit of relief and meeting the spitting image of Rodney from Only Fools and Horses the second. Given recent encounters with savage bovines Rodney's first hand knowledge of bulls was of interest, he kept bulls for beef down in the village. Less welcome was his view that we wouldn't make Ruhpolding before 8 in the evening and that the cliffs above us were very dangerous particularly when you couldn't see where your going. Rodney declined the invitation to give us a lift up the mountain on his tractor.

Top map man / Hochgern

Returning to the trail and the mist we got to the top of Hochgern about 30 minutes after leaving the hut. Chris studied the map carefully and concluded that we should take the direction opposite to my instincts at least and he was dead right. It was absolutely critical that we found the right path down and his navigation was on the nail.

Loosing 600 metres of altitude was a bit of a pain but at least we got out of the cloud and for a time the weather seemed to be improving. We actually had our sandwiches in the sunshine.

The second climb was not so high as the first but it was later in the day and energy had already been sapped. The route gave us the choice of climbing all the way to the top of Hochfelln or heading down from the pass just beneath. Presented with the invitation we declined it and shot of down the mountain.

Climbing up Hochfelln

After walking for five months it's easy for me to forget how big these walks are for new joiners. Huge descents at the end of a long day can be treacherous when your knackered and sure enough Chris missed the path and crumbled down like some large animal victim of a hunter's rifle. Fortunately the fall was not as bad as it looked and he was soon on his feet again non the worse.

As usual the final bit of the walk was on hard surfaces and arriving in Ruhpolding in the rain after six we dived into the first Gashof we could see. Big big walk but in the end nailed without too much drama.

Tuesday 26th July Nusdorf am Inn to Hohenaschau

Guest blog: John Tatam

Today showed what Bavaria can offer - sunny weather, varied terrain, big climbs and descents, green green vistas, wonderful mountain huts, beer, very bad food ... and all completely German- we have not seen any other English people in 4 days.

Having carried out some delicate blister surgery (John on Chris) - well-at least that is what they claimed to be doing when I went into their room - we all set off renewed and reinvigorated after a long tough previous day (though shocked and saddened by the news about Roger's metatarsal (2nd)).

According to John's guide we had a straight forward, if long, climb up and then a descent. As ever it turned out a little differently with two sub peaks before our summit - Hochries, at 1568 m. As with yesterday there were lots of people at the top who had arrived by cable car though the compensation was the availability of beer and noodle soup.

Looking back to Wendelstein

We then had a long walk down to c, a charming village dominated by a schloss in the middle.

Hohenaschau

Conversation had begun promisingly with critiques of Thatcherism, an analysis of the impact of the failure of German unification in 1848, the calibre of recruits to the British army, the difference between the focus of men's and women's gaze when first entering a room of strangers and why Chris had been engaged four times (all of which John had learned about from his podcasts - except the last one obviously) but increasingly John and Chris became fixated by farming and, in particular, in breeding in rural Lincolnshire - topics on which, in fairness, they spoke with considerably more authority than the earlier ones (except the one about Chris, obviously). This did at least mean that I felt freed from the constraint of trudging along at their pace.

We have been told that from tomorrow the weather will begin to deteriorate again with rain returning on Thursday Friday and Saturday. I return to sunny London.

John's facility with languages has, if anything, been overplayed. I wish him luck in Hungary.

Monday 25th of July Staffelalm to Nusdorf am Inn

After yesterday's disappointment it felt really important to get the walk back on track and I had agreed with John that irrespective of the weather we were going to try and walk to Nusdorf am Inn. The stage however was a particularly challenging one, long and with a lot of climb, and we had a new team member, Chris Dickinson, who would have to walk 11 hours on his first day.

Things started really well. It wasn't raining and we were walking before 8 o'clock. It was soon clear that Chris with his army background and navigation skills was going to help us through the maze of routes and really bad German footpath signing. By 10.45 we had climbed over Kegelspitz and were in Fischbachau.

To be honest we didn't really need to go to the top of Wendelstein to stick to the E4. The Maximiliansweg goes to the top but not the E4 and this diversion added another 350 metres. Wendelstein is over 1800 metres and the climb up from Fischbachau well over 1000 metres but given the dry weather it seemed a shame to miss the summit. I enjoyed the climb and after the mess of the last few days it was a good confidence booster. Saw lots of deer on the way up.

Wendelstein

Wendelstein has a train and a cable car going up to it so after a quiet walk up the top was all hustle, bustle and crowded viewing platforms. Although the weather was far from perfect the views were still impressive.

Just a bit cloudy

The descent was a real 1400 metre knee cruncher but actually went surprisingly well. Had not had much contact with Chris for the past 30 years or so and the three of us had lots of experiences to share and the conversation was the perfect distraction from the discomfort of the climb down.

Dropping down from Wendelstein

Inevitably the worst bit of the walk came when we hit the hard surfaces at the bottom of the mountain and the final 5 kilometres into Nusdorf. Fearing blisters we stopped for a beer and didn't complete the walk until just before 7. Including stops we had been on our feet for 11 hours, covered 35 kilometres and climbed over 1800 metres. Definitely the toughest day so far in Germany but it confirmed that with half decent weather and good navigation the demanding schedule I've set myself is feasible.

Sunday 24th July Tutzinger to Schliersee

Bad bad day. The first day I feel I have really failed to complete a section of the walk.

Because we only got to Tutzinger we needed a following wind to make Schliersee - it was a head wind instead. Roger and Sue were only scheduled to do the first part of today's walk and decided last night to make a leisurely descent. John and I were walking by 7.30 but the weather was absolutely terrible.

Arrived at Brauneck by 9.30 but we were cold and our foot ware was wet through. Walking to Schliersee on a good day from Brauneck would be a challenge, attempting it today felt dangerous.

Decided to stop at the hutte and work out our options and within minutes had been adopted by a friendly German couple. They were walking the Maximillianweg in the other direction but had decided to that was not safe to go on. Worked out with them the best way to get to Schliersee and in the end they came down on the lift with us to Lenggries, took us to the station and helped us buy tickets.

I was really cold and it wasn't until I got on the train and felt some warmth coming back into me that I realised how cold I had got.

Checking my emails on the train I suddenly realised that today was the day that another cousin, Chris Dickinson, was joining me. My sense of time is completely shot and for some reason I thought he was joining me on Wednesday the day John finished. Changing trains to Schliersee we then bumped into Chris and made the final part of the journey together. What an amazing piece of timing, I only wish I had planned it.

So a nice bit of good fortune in an otherwise miserable day. I'm very disappointed about missing a twenty kilometre stretch of the E4 but bashing on in the rain was risking injury and illness. There wasn't really a sensible choice.

Postscript: John Tatam

When I arrived on Friday it was clear that John had not been around people for some time. While I could cope with communication limited to the odd grunt and occasional squeak I found the personal habits and hygiene rather more disturbing - I had unwisely decided to share a room with him on the first night.

I am not quite sure where we have been over the last two days as it has been raining constantly and visibility has rarely been more than 4 or 5 metres. This morning I put on wet socks wet shoes and wet waterproofs and headed out into the pouring rain and mist trudging up the mountain.

However there are many reasons to be cheerful:

- on two occasions the clouds cleared and suddenly we realised we were not in a Gormerly mist room (was it Gormerly?) but in the middle of spectacular mountains
- the six day forecast - while Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are predicting rain, Tuesday may only have drizzle and some sunny intervals!2
- I have more or less kept up with John despite considerable age and infirmity ( no doubt he will claim he slowed down)
- friendly Germans ( oh yes!)
- good company - Sue, Roger and Chris
- kaiserschmarrn (twice)
- and 5 straight contracts at nomination whist...

Saturday 23rd of July Walchensee to Tutzinger Hutte

Despite a narrow bull run escape Roger and Sue decided to give walking the E4 another chance. Maybe encouraged by the arrival of another pair of legs, my cousin John Tatam, or maybe because they felt that things couldn't be as bad again, they once again loaded up their rucksacks and returned to the trail.

Within minutes of setting off it started to rain heavily, setting the pattern for the day. John revealed, on the 600 metre climb up Jocheralm, that he is a superfast walker but his ability to walk in the right direction had still to be tested. The first test came at Kotalm, about 20 minutes later, when the two Johns marched down a path in the wrong direction a mistake which cost us about 30 minutes. The man with the maps, Map Man Roger, didn't spot the mistake proving that no one is infallible.

For a time it looked like the weather might improve but within minutes of the waterproofs coming off it started to rain again and by the time we got to Staffelalm it was raining really heavily. The little hut was open and we all piled in, bought some tea and ate our sandwiches. This turned out to be the first and only piece of good luck we had all day.

Not raining

The young woman in the hut told us that we could to Tutzinger Hutte in a couple of hours, it was then 2 o'clock, so the target for the day, Brauneck, was still feasible. We made great progress despite really poor visibility and a very slippery path. After about 90 minutes, and a short steep climb, we started what we thought was the descent down to Tutzinger. After about 45 minutes, and after the path had turned into a forest road, we started to worry that we loosing too much height. Sure, according to the app on my IPhone we were now well below Tutzinger, and in the rain and the mist it was impossible, even with the maps to work out where we were.

Normal service resumed

All we could do was retrace our steps back up the hill and after another 50 minutes or so had got back to the point where we started to descend. Looking around we found another path heading up hill to the left and behind a tree a sign pointing us up to Tutzinger. After a steep slippery climb, when it actually stopped raining, we finally started the descent to hutte. Got there at six and decided it was best and safest to call it a day. The hut was pretty full but they managed to squeeze us in. Good food and a really pleasant evening.

Approaching Tutzinger

Bad weather is really spoiling this stretch of the walk and slowing me down. Have made navigational mistakes when the sun is shining but it's much more difficult in the rain. Maps of course help but unless you constantly track your position, take bearings - which feels unnecessary on a signed route - they only help so much. Only getting to Tutzinger makes tomorrow's walk a really big challenge.

Friday 22nd July Hornlehutte to Walchensee.

On my own today as my bovine challenged friends came a different way to Walchensee. After yesterday's marathon today's walk was much easier and although it was 27 kilometres long involved very little climb. Left Hornlehutte at 8 and was at Walchensee by 3.

Hornlehutte was perhaps a little more primitive than Kensenhutte where I stayed the night before. Just a dormitory, no family rooms and no showers. Good food though and as I was the only person there was able to spread out and get cleaned up.

The first part of today's walk involved a walk along the top with great views down to Unterammergua and the mountains beyond, which at the beginning of the day you could see. The ground however was very wet and the cattle have really churning it up.

Hochschergen

The next part was a very steep 1,000 metre descent through trees down to Grafenaschau. Was grateful for the trees as they provided some cover from the rain but it was treacherous and I did manage to fall over a couple of time.

The most boring part of the walk was from Grafenaschau to Eschenlohe. A flat 7 kilometres on roads across what must have been the bottom of an old lake. Two cars stopped to ask me the way and both were disappointed with the response. It's amazing how often people in cars stop to ask a man plodding across the countryside with a large bag on his back local directions.

The last stage of the walk, along a valley from Eschenlohe to Walchensee was the nicest. There are E4 options here, one which takes you over a hill and one which sticks to the valley. The valley for the most part has a river running along the bottom and at some points this cuts a really steep gorge. The location of the accommodation meant taking the valley bottom route.

Eschenlaine

Walchensee of course is another large lake, going to see lots or large lakes over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully I'll get to see one when the suns out and it's not cold and drizzly. The rumour is that the weather will get better in a couple of days.

Walchensee

Have been joined by my cousin John Tatam today so there should be four of us tackling tomorrow's walk. After yesterday's failure as an E4 guide I have a chance to redeem myself or fail on an even bigger scale. Seeing Roger and Sue later on this evening and will get an update on the what happened with the great cattle ambush.

Thursday 21st July Kenzenhutte to Hornlehutte

I have failed miserably as an E4 guide. After only two days I have managed to loose Roger and Sue. A percentage loss might be tolerable but a 100 per cent failure rate probably destroys any chance of developing an alternative career as a long distance walking guide.

My approach to navigation had already failed to impress Roger. We are at the opposite ends of the navigation spectrum. Roger is a detailed map man, comes armed with routes marked on maps, understands all the potential perils and the options for avoiding them. I'm more irresponsible and map-lite.

With Roger armed with more detailed information I progressively surrendered my E4 guiding responsibility happy to let the man with the maps take the decisions. Until the point I lost Roger and Sue this worked well.

Today was a big walk, about 27 kilometres and 1700 metres. There was a high level option, which might actually have involved less climb, but this involved crossing some fairly exposed stretches and it was felt that the longer route was safer.

After yesterday the weather at least had improved. Initially in fact it was perfect, fresh and clear, and we had some great views as we left the Kenzenhutte and climbed up over our first ridge,the Backenalmsattel.

Kenzenhutte

Going down the valley to Linderhof was not so pleasant. The vegetation was high and wet and we should have put out leggings on but instead got soaked. More challenging was crossing a ford in full flood. I helpfully took the photographs but Roger and Sue unsportingly refused to fall over in the torrent.

Boots off

Linderhof was full of tourists visiting the palace. We had the prospect of a 700 metre climb up to August-Schuster-Haus so didn't hang about any longer than it took to drink a cup of coffee and eat a Mars bar. Liked the statue in front of the palace more than the palace.

Outside the Linderhof

The walk up to the August-Schuster-Haus was if anything tougher than we expected and we didn't get there until two. Great bowls of soup enjoyed in an amazing location restored flagging spirits.

August-Schuster-Haus

We got down to Unterammergua really quickly but still had to make our third climb of the day, another 600 metres up to Hornlehutte. It was now raining and Roger and Sue were running on empty.

The way up was pretty straightforward and after initially declining the invitation from Roger and Sue for me to press on to the top and I decided to do just that. About a 100 metres of climb from the summit I had to run a gauntlet of cows who for some reason were neither eating grass or chewing the cud, and who were a bit spooky about something. The thought did cross my mind that Roger and Sue, without my rural heritage, might find their behaviour a little more than interesting but I'm afraid I just pressed on already tasting the beer in the hut.

I arrived at 6, ordered my beer and waited. At 6.30 I went back down the trail to look for them, did at lot of shouting but no sign of anyone. Must admit I was getting worried. No reception on the phone and in any event Roger had broken his phone and I didn't have Sue's number. At 7.15 went to the top of the summit behind the hut. Had a voicemail from a friend in London saying that Roger and Sue, confronted by aggressive cows had decided to walk back down to Unterammergua. Got a text later confirming that they were safe and that we would meet up tomorrow night. Going to be an interesting postmortem on this one, already a dispute about the sex of one of the animals and the absence of bull fighting expertise in the party.

Wednesday 20th July Fussen to Kenzenhutte

Fussen is a really interesting place, certainly enough to do on a day awafrom the trail, but all I did on my rest day was buy a new hat. I'm a Philistine, I feel bad, but no doubt I'll get over it. By the way I bought, at hugely expense a gortex hat, Given the damage I did to my forehead on the one sunny day I didn't wear a hat I think it's a good investment. The only question, after today's walk, is when am I going to get to see the sun again.

Today was the first full walk with Roger and Sue and the weather was really bad. They are new to alpine walking and the mountain's towering over Fussen are a bit challenging and there was some initial discussion about taking a cable car to the top. In the end they bravely decided they wanted to walk with me although we didn't take the "Alpine Gefahr!" option, which we think means "watch out this is scary".

Given the rain, which started early in the morning, we did cheat a bit and caught a bus out of town to foot of the cable car. This knocked off some through town walking and perhaps saved us about a kilometre. We started walking at 8.45, the sign said we had a three and half hour climb to the restaurant at the top of the cable car, but going nice and steadily we actually made it by 11.15. 900 metres of climb in two and half hours, not bad when you've just arrived from the UK.

If the weather had been better we would have enjoyed amazing views of Fussen's famous castles, as it was we did get a bit of a taster.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Having done so well to get to the top quickly it was a real blow to find the restaurant shut (the weather was too bad for the cable car). No option but to press on. There are two E4 options at this point, a high scary option and a easier more direct option. There is also a third Maximillianweg option which is an intermediary to the other two. All three routes take you to the Kenzenhutte, and given the weather we went for the direct route.

Even the direct route on a better day would have been stunning. A narro path high up on the side of a steep valley followed by a really sharp drop through a gorge and then a walk along a forest trail through tall pines. Trouble was feet were soaked, I was cold, and it was hard to appreciate even what might have been in a driving cold rain.

In the rain coming down from the Tegelberghaus

My favourite bit of the walk was the last hour. The path went through at a wide flat valley with a lake at the bottom. Occasionally clouds lifted enough to provide just a glimpse of huge towering cliffs we surrounded by. There were waterfalls in every direction. The final little sting in tail was a walk along the edge of one of these crashing torrents, a slip at which point would certainly have finished things nicely.

Waterfall up to Kenzenhutte

Got to Kenzenhutte at about 2.30 and have grabbed the table next to the fire. Hats, socks and gloves are currently drying out nicely and for me at least the memory of freezing feet is starting to fade.

First Impressions from Sue.
Choosing July to join John was based on a mistaken assumption that it would be warm and sunny - how stupid was that! Tucked up by the fire and I feel like we're on a skiing holiday. Highlight of the first day for me was the early part of the descent with some quite steep grassy drops to one side onto a tree lined valley. Found a prime spot for lunch - huddled up in a tiny hut/observation point a bench just big enough with the rain tipping down outside.

Monday 18th July Unterjoch to Fussen

Big news today is that I met up with Roger and Sue, friends from London, and they're going to be walking with me for the next few days. They walked up from Fussen to Falkenstein and I met them there for lunch. Really great to see familiar faces.

I know it's not my fault but can't help feeling slightly guilty that I haven't been able to arrange better weather for them. Today was cold, damp, and of course the views were restricted. Outlook for the next few days is not brilliant.

Their arrival also means new shoes and socks, for the time being at least the smell of damp dogs has been banished.

After the climbs of the last three days today was a much easier walk. Turned out that my gasthof was about 15 minutes outside of Unterjoch so the day started with a short walk along the side of a stream to the village. Unterjoch by the way looks nice and has lots of places in it to stay; must be some sort of winter resort.

Unterjoch

After a gentle uphill climb to Scheidbachalpe, the route takes you down to a river which you follow through a valley all the way to Pfronten/Ried. A very easy walk and changing into and out of waterproofs was the only challenge.

Vils

Pfronten is a polycentric settlement and deciding which centre to choose was a challenge. After a couple of false starts I found the right one, found a sign with a map, and I was on the E4 up to Falkenstein. After such a gentle day the climb up to Falkenstein was savage, not helped by a phone call from Roger half way up when my phone buried deep in my waterproofs. Anyway meeting them in the restuarant at the top was a real reward.

Falkenstein

Nice walk down to Fussen mainly through trees. The border between Germany and Austria is very convoluted around here and we were constantly crossing from one country to the other and changing footpath signing systems as we did. Lovely lake just before we got to
Fussen.

With Sue

27 kilometre walk and a guess a climb of about of 600 metres but with more descent. Roger seems to think he walked about 26 kilometres up to Falkenstein and back (with 1500 metres of climb) but my guide (which I now have), says 20 - I think I'll keep quiet about this - don't want to discourage him.

Fussen is a picture postcard town and it's two fairy tale castles are a huge tourist attraction. Roger and Sue went round them yesterday and were not impressed with the crowd herding techniques. Good news as far as I'm concerned, have an excuse to give the tour a miss. Resting up today and then two nights in mountain huts.

Sunday 17th of July Sonthofen to Unterjoch

It sounds a bit like a schoolboy excuse but I do have German guide to the Maximillianweg I just don't have it with me. Couldn't find a shop with a local map yesterday and couldn't get on the internet to research the route last night. There were lots of E4 signs taking me to Sonthofen but none taking me through it. I somehow had to sniff my way to the E4.

From a schematic at the hotel I knew that the route went high up on the north side of the valley running east out of Sonthofen and that it had to cross the only bridge over the river in the same valley. So the first thing I did was find the river and then, walking alongside it, find the bridge. Sure enough at the bridge, at Binswagen, there were lots of footpath signs although none mentioned the E4 or Unterjoch. Worse still heading through Binswagen I couldn't work out which paths to follow.

Decided to follow the road up the side of the valley on the basis that the footpath would have to cross it at some point and, after 20 minutes, just as I was about to give up on this strategy I got to Walten, found the route and, better still a map. Took a picture of map and used that to navigate my way to Unterjoch.

Desperate navigation measures

Not a long walk but quite a tough one involving a steady 900 metre climb up to the highest point at the Tiefenbacher Eck and the weather, which was nice and sunny at the start, was obviously getting worse. Messing about in Sontofen meant that it was getting onto 10 before I was really on the route. So by the time I could see back across the valley to yesterday's walk it was already getting cloudy.

Back to Sonthofen

Saw signs firstly to Breiten and then Bildstockle and followed them. The signs were not exactly thick on the ground and at one point had walked at least 500 metres without anything confirming I was on the right route. Went past a lovely church in miniature just before Breiten.

Mini church

Bildstockle turns out to be a giant cross. On the map the path goes from solid red to a line of red dashes and sure enough on the ground the convention changes as well. Initially an E4 sign points you to Tiefenbacher Eck but then I had blue poles, blue blobs on trees and occasional blue cross to follow. You could also make out the path although after you got to Tiefenbacher Eck itself, which encouragingly had an E4 sign, the path became very indistinct. Worse still the blue dashes then decided to distribute themselves either side of an electric fence which I discovered was live. The weather was getting worse.

Eventually got to a sign, with red and white markings, pointing me to Unterjoch. Great joy. An hour later, at about 2, was in the very nice and very reasonably priced Gasthof am Buchl. It was raining heavily by 2.30.

By the way I should get the guide book, new socks and new shoes tomorrow. Just like the last two times I replaced my shoes the sole of the right shoe cracked once it knew it was no longer needed.

Saturday 16th of July Staufnerhaus to Sonthofen

For once got my timing right. Walked along a brilliant ridge in perfect weather and with absolutely great views. Today was definitely a contender for the best walk so far. Had originally planned to go from Lingenau to Gunzesried, and as it turns out that would have been a really tough 11 hour walk and I would also have been doing it yesterday when the weather wasn't nearly as good as today.

I thought I had done all the hard work yesterday but today was a tougher walk. Didn't have my GPS on but I expect that it involved at least 1500 metres of climb and even more descent. It was a ridge walk but there were five significant climbs along it as well as some smaller ones. Basically it's a sandstone ridge, with rock very similar to the conglomerate I came across at Monserrat. It forms the northern flank of Alps and and after it everything drops away very steeply into vast expanse of Germany. To the south there is a valley and then the much high Lechtal Alps.

Got away at about 7.30 with first climb up the Hochgrat right outside the door of the hut. It was perfect morning and the views were just great and it actually stayed clear all day with none of usual heat haze gathering to obscure everything. Was able to see much of the route I walked with Christine last year in particular the scary ridge on the Hoher Freschen which we climbed just as the sun was setting on the first day. It's the mountain in the middle distance and the ridge running up the front is clearly visible.

Hoher Freschen in the middle distance

Not sure which were my favourite views, the views south across the valley to the higher Alps or the views east and west along the ridge

Lechtal Alps

East along the Ridge

Just to prove I was really there a self portrait at the top of Rindalphorn. No hat today and my huge forehead got a bit burnt.

Rindalphorn

As the walk progress it got busier and every sort of walker was out. Really nice to see so many young people walking, lots of women, and a bit scary, lots of people carrying babies on those backpack things. Did it myself when Hannah was a baby but it now looks a bit mad. I didn't actually see anyone carrying a baby up the ladder on the optional last peak.

Fire escape

Got down to Gunzesried at about 2, had something to eat and decided to walk down to Sonthofen to make tomorrow's walk a bit shorter (the weather is apparently changing again). Wanted to buy a map but couldn't even find the town centre and spent the last 90 minutes or so trying to work out where the E4 leaves heading east. Think I have but will do a bit more research later on the Internet. Staying in a nice not too expensive Gasthof on the east side of Sonthofen.

Friday 15th of July Lingenau to Staufnerhaus

Because I'm two days ahead of schedule I'm putting in a couple of short days, today and tomorrow, and staying at the Staufnerhaus, a hut run by the German Alpine Association. It's very much like the refuges I stayed in while crossing the Pyrenees and along the Jura Howenweg but because it's now in the walking season and on a Friday it's full. I'm sleeping in the dormitory, at the end of a giant bunk bed which sleeps thirteen people on each level. The end spot is a prime one but maybe the management have heard about the imminent arrival of a smelly Englishman. Fortunately footwear is not allowed in the sleeping area.

The really good thing about staying here is that I start a spectacular ridge walk tomorrow almost from the doorstep. The hut is at 1600 metres and after climbing a couple of hundred metres to a peak called Hochgrat and, if the weather is good, could get to enjoy a twelve kilometre ridge walk, including a little climb up to another peak called Rindalphorn, before dropping down to Sonthofen. Walking 5 and half hours today and climbing in total about 1200 metres I've basically done all the hard work for two days of walking.

I don't have a GPS trail on my IPod for the German or Austrian stretch of the E4. While I'm pretty sure I could have got across Switzerland just using the signs it's a lot harder here. Even with a map it's confusing and around any sort of settlement the density of routes is so great that you constantly have to check against the map to see where you are. I think the local trails have yellow markings and the national trails red ones but there seems to be a lot of national trails. So I'm currently walking on the northern variant of the E4, the alternative to the tougher slower southern Alpine variant. I'm also on the local higher variant of the northern variant of the E4, which at the moment is also the Alpenweg 04 and the Maximillianweg. I'm also from time to time sharing the route with the Via Alpina, another set of long distance trails. No wander it can get a bit complicated on the ground.

Anyway I got here, it's not raining although it's not very warm either.

The next village along the valley from Lingenau is Hittisau but instead of going along the valley the route takes you up it's side through the trees before dropping down again. Nice view down to Lingenau.

Lingenau

Hittisau is another place with lots accommodation and I guess I could have stayed there yesterday if I was trying to get to Sonthofen today.

Hittisau

The walk then takes you up the lovely Lecknerta Valley, past the Leckner See, and here you can either stick with the lower E4 variant in the valley or head up the side to the ridge and Staufnerhaus for a walk along the top.

Leckner See

On the way up to the Stuafnerhaus you cross the border into Germany marked with a scruffy sign.



Arrived at the hut at about 2.30. Accommodation to Austrian Alpine Club Members (like me) costs 8 euros which means that tonight is the first time I've been within budget since leaving France.

Staufnerhaus

PS

There are definitely people staying the night up here on the mountain who are not walkers, have come up the chair lift to have a special night sleeping in a dormitory, takes all sorts.

PPS

Interesting night in the dorm. I will try and describe it for those people who have never done it.

Your sleeping with a mixed group of people, men, women, children, different ages, different physical shapes, all confined to a fairly small space. A lot of people are in walking groups and know each other so there is a lot of noisy whispering until things settle down. There is little point in going to bed early, unless your an amazingly sound sleeper, as the last people to come up, although they try to be quite, will, alcohol fuelled, still wake you up.

You should try not to look but a mixed group of people going to bed is not a pretty site. Huge lager cultivated bellies, rolls of sagging white flesh, spindly legs - stuff of imminent nightmares.

And then the noise of sleep, snoring, farting, grunting and shuffling. If you want to get back to nature then share a room with thirty other people.

Thought I never would but actually had a good night's sleep. Sleep to about 5, awoke just as it was starting to get light, and listened to the symphony. Not like the dawn chorus, more base tones.