Stage 8 - Carcassonne to Lodeve. Version 2

Having completed the itinerary from Tarifa to Budapest I'm now going through it again, checking it, and in particular trying to confirm precisely where I'm going to stay.  Believe it or not I'm going to try and produce a calender saying where I'm going to be on a given date.  Of course things will go wrong and dates will get missed.     On the other hand Christine, my wife, and other friends are proposing to join me for the really nice bits and they need to book their holidays and plan journeys.

Have already worked my through the Spain plan and discovered that when I originally did the plan my glasses were slightly rose tinted and what I thought was accommodation wasn't.  Some of the Hotels have closed down in the six months since I did the initial piece of planning.  Sometimes I just made mistakes.  Where changes have been needed I have just gone back to the relevant blogs and made them.

For Stage 8 the extent of my mistake has meant a complete redraft of the itinerary.  Although the E4 does go from Carcassonne to Lodeve it doesn't go along the route I was proposing.  Thankfully my mistake has been spotted and Menno Wolters, who has walked much of the E4, has kindly gone through my plan and identified where it goes wrong.  He is doing this for the whole route and has provided comments on a number of the sections, particularly in France.

My mistake on Stage 8 was to follow the GR7 rather than the GR71.  The ERA web-site talks about the GR 71 but the IGN GR Map for the whole of France (Map 903) has the E4 going along the GR7.  It takes a slightly more direct travelling along the southern edge of the Parc Du Haut Languedoc while the GR71 goes further north and straight through the middle.  

Menno, as well as experience of actually walking much of the E4, had the necessary FFRP (the French Ramblers Association) Topoguides and these make it clear that the E4 stays on the GR 36 a little bit longer than I had planned and joins the GR 71 at Hautpoul  and does not join the GR 7 until Lodeve.  I need to challenge my mean streak and invest in the Topoguides.

The net effect of the change is a longer walk - around 180 km as opposed to 155 km - over 7 days.  There is a definite option to complete it in 6 although that involves a long day at the end.  Stage 8  takes you through the heart of the Haut Langedoc Natural Park.

The Park runs along the top of the Departments of Aude, Gard and Herault.  Located at the southern end of the Massif Central, including the Black Mountain range, it's a relatively empty area with few significant towns.  Although mountainous, it's not massively so with few "peaks" getting above 1,000 metres.  The mountains are important however and without the rainfall they receive the coastal plan below, its fields and cities, would be sun-baked and dry as a desert.

Heading out of Carcassonne on Day 1 the first 8 kms take you along the banks of the Canel du Midi - the famous canel connecting the Atlantic with the Mediterranean.  You then head directly north via the town of Conques-sur-Orbiel and into the Black Mountains and the Haut Langedoc National Park.  The first place where I can find accommodation on the route is at Pradelles-Cabardes and walking that far involves a tough 34 km walk with a climb of around 1,000 metres.  Instead I think I have found somewhere to stay at Limousis which is just of the trail and about 22 kms from Carcassonne.

Canel du Midi at Carcassonne

Day 2 takes you over the  1,991 metre Pic Noir, the highest point in the Black Mountain Range, and then down to Mazamet.  This looks like a great walk and a tough one involving  just over a 1,000 metres of climb (and a similar amount of descent) and 30 km.   Mazamet is a town (pop 10,000) and has plenty of accommodation.

Fraisse-sur-Agout

Day 3 and at last on the GR 71 and, after a few kilometres from Mazamet, heading east.  The countryside looks a lot more remote and accommodation is again scarce.  The best option looks like the village of Angles which has an auberge.   Another good walk, around 800 metres of climb (back to the top of the Black Mountains) over 25 kms.

Day 4 is an easier walk with a lot less climbing - 24 kms and 600 metres the target is Fraisse-sur-Agout where there are two gîte d'étapes (one with a web-site which I consider a good sign!).  At Fraisse-sur-Agout the GR 71 joins the GR 7 before heading of again in a more northerly direction.


Day 5 and it's getting very remote with little in the way of accommodation.  The best option I think is a 24 km walk (600 metres of climb) to Castenet le Haut where there is an auberge at Le Fau.

Around Castenet le Haut

A short Day 6 would set up the option of doing a mega 40 plus kms walk all the way to Lodeve.  The last part of the walk in particular is downhill but there is hilly country to cross before you get there.  If I don't make it all the way to Lodeve than the obvious half way stop is Ceilhas-et-Rocozels where there are bed and breakfasts and a Hotel and perhaps a lake to swim in.

Lodeve itself will seem like a metropolis after the villages of the previous six/seven days although in reality it's a small town with a population of a little over 7,000.  It sits in a valley at the meeting points of the rivers Lerge and Soulard.  It has a cathedral, plenty of other things to see and lots of accommodation.

Berghaus Challenge

Have won the Berghaus Challenge with a massive 1376 votes.   £1,000 to help fund the project and £1,000 worth of Berghaus kit.  Winning involved an online voting competition against two other excellent projects - all very stressful.

One of the nice side effects is that the competition forced me to "mobilise" all of my networks.  Getting the votes meant contacting everyone:  family and friends; ex-colleagues from the Improvement and Development Agency where I used to work; colleagues from the job before that; and a whole host of people I haven't been in touch with for too long.  Part of the family network included nephews and nieces who are now scattered around the world and who contributed to what was definitely an international response.  I'm particularly grateful for the great support half way through from the Brighton and Hove Ramblers Association who emailed all their members over the weekend generating a noticeable surge in the voting numbers.

I benefited also from the fact that Hannah, my daughter, works for a PR company and is competitive like her dad (although as it turns out a lot cooler).  She plugged into her work networks and her colleagues at Grayling, a big PR agency, generating a huge amount of support through Twitter, Facebook and other channels. Vicky, a daughter in law (also has her own PR company - Indigo Cow) and Jack, my step son, were also brilliant - chasing, proding and getting people to vote.

One of the competition conditions is that the money awarded goes to support the costs of the project - in this case the E4 walk.  A kind benefactor has said however that, if I win the Berghaus Challenge, they will match the award and this matched money will then contribute to the target I have set for raising money for the Britain Nepal Medical Trust.

I had great support from the BNMT throughout the competition and votes were coming in from Kathmandu, where so many great treks start and finish.  I'll be meeting Sadhana Shrestha, who runs the charity, in Kathmandu in November, at the end of trip to Kanchenjunga, and as well as thanking them for the help I got on the challenge will find out, first hand, about some of the things they do.

So if you did, thanks for voting - now back to preparing for the walk.

Stage 17 From Koszeg to Budapest

If I make it to Hungary I guess I'll feel like running to Budapest. I'll be desperate to finish and get home. The pre-occupation with finishing could be a shame as the last stage of the walk looks completely different to anything that has gone before and special. The E4 in Hungary follows the route of the Countryside Blue Tour which can claim to the first long distance hiking trail in Europe (although other E4 parts can make that claim) and is without doubt the most important walk in Hungary. After crossing a whole series of mountain ranges since leaving Tarifa it has also has the attraction of being relatively flat.

The Countrywide Blue Route

After struggling to get quality information on the E4 route through Austria, alignment of E4 with the Countryside Blue Tour means you don't have this problem in Hungary. The information available online is the best so far with two outstanding sites, available in English and both called Countryside Blue Tour, one maintained by Peter Istvan Papics and the other by Horpolin and Son.   I used both to develop my proposed itinerary.

Have been to Budapest twice before, the first time about 15 years ago and the second 5.   The first time I stayed in the famous Hotel Gellert and swam in the Gellert Thermal Baths which are a definite once in a lifetime must.  Budapest is a really lovely city which given the quality of the buildings must have been very properous in the period running up to the First World War. It feels to me a bit like Paris.

Although I never got out of the city on either visit I did visit the Budapest Central Market.  As well as another wonderful building, buzzing like markets should, it is full of "produce" all pointing to a lush and rich Hungarian countryside.

Budapest bears witness to the prosperity of the country running up to the First World War but after that it went through a period of sustained turmoil from which it only emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Although the country's economy is suffering following the recent recession its success over the last twenty years has been huge.

Given that I will inevitably be looking to home and the end of the trek the route from the border to Budapest is not very direct.  In fact it meanders both at the macro level, heading south then north and finally south again, and at the micro level, with some of the loops being so complete they almost form circles.  As well as linking the country from border to border (I'm justing doing the western half) the aim is clearly to visit as many of the local highlights as possible.

This is not a mountainous walk but nor is it completely flat.  Based on the huge quantity of pictures on both web-sites there is almost the look of some English countryside with the long views, hills protruding from what would otherwise be a plain and very green.  The architecture is completely different and we are back to hill-top towns and ruined castles.

The itinerary I have developed assumes both fairly level walking, body fully functioning, and a desire to get to Budapest quickly.  It assumes 16 days of walking which is not going to break any world records but is cracking on.

The itinerary is attached and involves identified accommodation at every stop-over (assuming you can stay at the Gyangyosi Inn on Day 5).

After Koszeg particular highlights look like being the hill top towns of Sarvar, Sumeg (with Hungary's best preserved hill top fortress) and Nagyazsony; the huge inland Lake Balaton and the special landscape of the Balaton National Park as well as what looks like lots of protected woodland.

Budapest of course, as well as the end of walk,  a highlight for that, is also a special place to visit.

Some of the sites along the way.

Savar

Sumeg

Rock formations in the Balaton National Park

Lake Balaton

Budapest

Stage 16 Spital am Pyhrn to the Hungarian Border

Stage 16 is a 14 day walk mainly along eastern end of the Nordalpiner 01 Weitwanderweg to the Austrian border with Hungary.  Crossing from the Upper Austria region and joining the 01 in Styria, the eastern end is perhaps a bit less demanding than the route through the Lechtaler Alps in the west of Austria.  There is still some tough walking, however, before the descent into gentler countryside running up to the Hungarian border and beyond.

Perhaps not as famous as the Austrian Lake District in Stage 15 the route still visits some special places.  The Gesause National Park, with its dramatic limestone landscape, looks particularly good (days 2 and 3) but so does the Hochshwab, another limestone range, and the Murztaler Alps, the last high altitude part of the E4.

Working out an itinerary has not been easy and it may still need some revision.  Again I have had to use a German language guide without being able to speak or read German.  The NordAlpiner Weitwanderweg 01 by Wurst/Rachoy/Messeritsch seems to be the definitive guide and forms the basis for the itinerary in Wikipedia.  It goes from east to west however and doesn't always work the other way.   Long days involving descent become longer days when your climbing.

The proposed approach to joining up with the E4 in Hungary is also very confusing.  The route, using the 01, takes you to the Neusiedler See and then back again before heading south to the Austrian Hungarian border. Makes me tired even thinking about it so I'm cutting that loop off, heading south at Semmering, joining the 02 and then the 07 before crossing the border into Hungary.  If your really interested there is a clever little graphic on the OEAV website which helps - I also have the Osterreichische Weitwanderweg map (1:800,000!) and Google Earth.

Anyway the net impact of all this is positive in terms of journey time.  Instead of the 19 days proposed by Wikipedia I race to the border in 15 - could be in Hungary for the beginning of September.

The proposed itinerary is attached as a link.

After 2 tough days at the end of of the previous stage the first day of Stage 15 is a fairly gentle  6 hour walk to Admont, the gateway to the Gesause National Park and home to a famous abbey.

Admont Abbey

Hess Hutte with Hochter behind

On Day 2 you have two options, a high route over the top of a limestone massif or a not so high route around the side.  Either way the target is Johnsbach and even with the not so high route it's a 1,000 metre climb and a 30 km walk.  The standard itinerary based on east to west, would have added to this with a climb up to Hess Hutte.  Instead I propose to do this on Day 3 and then carry down to Radmer am Stube, a 24 km walk with 800 metres of climb.

Day 4 is a 20 km walk to the iron ore town of Eisenez - been mining iron for over 800 years.

Leopoldsteiner Lake

Day 5 takes you up to the famous Leopoldsteiner Lake and then onto the Sonnschien Hutte.  It's a 25 km walk with an 800 metre climb.

Conserving height for another two days, Day 6 is a 17 km walk to the Voisthaler Hutte and Day 7 a 25 km to the hutte at Turnauralm.  Leaving the Hoschwab range midway through Day 8 you drop down to the small town of Krampen, a walk of 31 kms but with a fall 700 metres.

Day 9 and it's into the Murztaler Alps, a climb of 1,200 metres over 31 kms to Schneealpen Haus.  There is a more direct but less scenic alternative if an easy day is needed.

Day 10 and I'm proposing to go on past Karl Ludwig Haus (the recommended stop over) and press onto Wax Riegel Haus.  The 01 has now split with a northern option carrying onto Vienna.  Day 9 is a 28 km walk staying high all day.

Karl Ludwig down to Wax Reigel

Day 11 and its downhill to Semmering, my last stop of the 01 and at last out of the Alps.  It's about 26 kms and involves a drop of around 800 metres.

Day 12 and I'm now making it up.  My route leaves the 01, heads down the 126b and joins the 02 at Pfaffensattel.  If I'm not totally lost I'd like to get to Monichkircken, a walk of 40 kms.

Day 13 and it's Landsee which sits in the middle of a Natural Park (with its own ruined castle) - a walk of around 30 km.

Day 14 and it would be great if I could make it to Koszeg, the first stop heading east on the Blue Countrywide Tour, the Hungarian section of the E4.  Koszeg looks great (flat!) and will be a good place to stop and recover before the final journey to Budapest

Koszeg

Stage 15 -Through the Salzkammergut

Although Bregenza, the starting point for Stage 14, is in Austria, most of the Maximilianweg is in Bavaria and Germany.  If you follow the sub-alpine variant it's not until you get to Salzburg that you start to walk through Austria in a sustained way.  I have walked in Austria three times (including the test run earlier this year) and it's very walking friendly.   There is a  really strong walking tradition, well marked trails,  lots of good fun places to eat and stay in the mountains, and because of long history of tourism (both winter and summer) lots of good value accommodation in the towns as well.   It shares with Switzerland a brilliant public transport system and is an easy country to travel in.

Have also stayed in Salzburg and Vienna and both are really interesting places.  Vienna in particular with its imperial legacy is fascinating.  Austria, which after all is quite a small country, has a capital which a hundred years ago was the centre of a huge and complex empire.  The empire has gone (almost overnight) but the imperial architecture remains.  

You could go via Vienna if you stick to the sub-alpine variant of the E4 but I have now just about convinced myself that going along the sub-alpine variant and then switching over to the Alpine variant presents the fastest way to Budapest.  You could held south from Salzburg but instead I plan to continue east to Steyrling and then head south for just a few kilometers (along the Osterreiche Weitwanderwege 09) until I hit the Alpine variant at Spital am Pyhrn.  

Stage 15 has two obvious highlights, Salzburg itself and Salzkammergut, the area often referred to as the Austrian Lake District.  I have walked in the Austrian Lake District and it was so wet (like the last time I walked in the English Lake District) that I was forced to take a trip down the famous salt mines - a legacy of the industry which gives the area its name.  Both Salzburg and Salzkammergut are world heritage sites.

Salzburg of course is the birth place of Mozart, the location for the filming of the Sound of Music and famous for its baroque architecture.   Will be a great place to stay for a day after two weeks or so on the Maximilianweg.

The Salzkammergut has a reputation for some of the best walking in Austria.  It has its own Cicerone Guide "Walking in the Salzkammergut" by Fleur and Colin Speakman and offers truly varied walking from tough Alpine to lakeside strolls.

The plan is to do the walk from Salzburg, through the Salzkammergut, and down to the Alpine variant in 7 days. The total walk is 180 kms, with 5,500 metres of climb.  Most of the days are fairly easy although I'm planning to do a 12 hour, down hill all the way day.  The last day to Hinterstoder is very short so it will probably make sense to carry on along the Alpine variant of the E4 to the next stop.

The walking looks excellent.  Day 1 involves a climb up the Gaisberg, a mountain close to Salzburg and apparently very popular with the locals.  End of the day accommodation is at Faistenau, which looks like a small ski resort.  Day 2 involves two lakes, Fuschl am See and Wolfgandsee (via St Gilgen) and then up to the spectacular Schafberg.   Day 3 is a nice short walk down to a lake side stop at Wiessenbach am Altersee followed by a steep climb up to the Rieder Hutte on Day 4, again set in a spectacular location.  Day 5 is the long day with three lakes, Traunsee, Offensee, and finishing at Alamsee.  Day 6 involves a walk to Preisegg and then down the valley to Spital am Pyhrn where I can join the Nord Alpenweg 01 for the next stage which takes me to Hungary.

The proposal schedule can be found via the link.

Salzburg

Fuschl am See

Schafbergalm

Stage 14 - Maximiliansweg

The more I think about it the more attractive the idea of the mixing the sub-alpine variant of the E4 with the alpine variant becomes.  By walking from Bregenz to Salzburg (Stage 14) and then crossing over to the Alpine variant  a few days after Salzburg, I think I'm going to save at least 8 days on the Alpine route even after taking all the alpine "short-cuts".  The whole walk starts to look feasible again (at least before I actually start).  Also it makes the route more varied and in particular presents the chance to walk through a piece of Germany, Bavaria and along another famous walk, Maximiliansweg.

Apart from passing through, I have hardly ever been to Germany and Bavaria looks like a really interesting place to start.  Turns out that a lot of the things outsiders think are the essence of Germany are in fact Bavarian.  This includes some iconic business brands (BMW, Audi and Siemens); classic pastoral  countryside, cows with bells and villages with dome churches, traditional dress and lederhosen and, of course, the huge litre glasses of high quality "Bavarian" beer.  Even the famous white sausage - the Weisswurst is a Bavarian rather than German invention.

However while we see Bavaria as quintessentially German, they, and apparently the rest of Germany see them as different.  This must be partly to do with its distinct history -  Bavaria had its own kingdom until 1918 and partly to do with a different religious tradition.   This part of Germany shares a Catholic tradition with German speakers in Austria and Switzerland and "Gross Gott!" is the greeting you get when out walking.

Bavaria's rich history is reflected in the architecture of the towns.  Highlights include Fussen, with its amazing Gothic Castle and the Lindehof Palace.

More infamous is the Kehlsteinhaus, commissioned by Martin Borman for Hitler's 50th birthday which is located in the Berchtesgaden.

The Kehlsteinhaus features in last episode of Band of Brothers, the story of Easy Company's fight across Europe in the second world war.  Also featured is the amazing Bavarian countryside and in particular the wonderful mix of lakes and mountains.  I'm sure I have got it wrong but I think there are seven significant lakes (or See) along the Maximilianweg all with opportunities for swimming.

The Maximilianweg runs along the same route as the Nord Alpine Weg 04 and forms the first part of the E4 sub-alpine variant.  It's an important long distance walk in its own right and originates from a 5 week trip the Bavarian King Maximilian II took from Lindau (near Bregenz) to the Berchtesgaden in the summer of 1858.  The Berchtesgaden is just south of Salzburg and presents a really stunning end to the walk.

I have developed my itinerary from the Oesterriechischer Alpenverein Guide "Osterreichischer Weitwanderweg 04" by Fritz and Erika Kafer.  It's in German, which I don't speak, but does have all the maps and charts you need to put an itinerary together.  They recommend 18 days for Salzburg to Bregenz (everyone goes east to west accept me!) but I'm proposing to do it in 16 days.  Accommodation is plentiful both in mountain huttes and towns - this is a very active recreational area - and it will be easy to vary the schedule if necessary.

Apart from a couple of long days it's a similar grade to the Jura Crestway in Switzerland.  It is middle difficult in the Austrian Grading system with difficult and very difficult above it and easy below it.  Very difficult corresponds to scary in my grading structure.  Overall the walk is 407 kms long with a climb of about 17,000 metres.  Just over two weeks and then a day off in Salzburg - good plan.

Things to look forward to.

Linderhof Palace

Fussen Castle

View from Alatsee on Day 4

Bad Wiessee

Berchtesgaden

Healthy Food

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.