Proper hiking boots were in order, and you'll soon see why! Wutach gorge is a nature reserve, and the woodland is mostly left to its own devices. After a landslide or when rocks fall down (as they do), sometimes not all paths are open to hikers. We were lucky and did not encounter any closed paths. Mobile phone reception is patchy, and hikers are advised to pay attention to the signs that tell them which rescue sector they are in at all times, so that they can get help quickly if necessary.
You can learn a lot more about the gorge here on wikipedia.
After a drive of maybe half an hour, we arrived at Schattenmühle (Shadow Mill), a parking spot designated for hiking, with a restaurant in what used to be a mill.
This was the actual path:
For quite a while, the path was never far from the river. Then, it lead across a surprisingly wide bridge, and a very comfortable (O.K. even found it a little boring, compared to the more challenging part we'd been through) stretch followed, now along the top on side of the deep gorge.
You can tell where the landslides were!
The path took us back down to the bottom of the gorge and across this bridge.
After passing many impressive rock walls and edging along some very narrow, slippery stone paths (sometimes provided with a steel cable to hold on to), we arrived at this spot where the Wutach is joined by the Gauchach. From here, we took a path up to a place called Wutachmühle (Wutach Mill) where a bus serves as a shuttle for hikers who, like us, want to walk along the stream but not take the same path back to their cars.
While we were waiting for the bus, we had a welcome snack at the little kiosk (there are no shops or restaurants at Wutachmühle), and even cake and coffee.
It had been a great first hike of about 13 km here, and we were looking forward to explore a different part of the gorge the next day.
Rugged! It looks like quite an interesting hike through this gorge, even if O.K. found parts of it somewhat boring.I'm impressed with how it has been developed for hikers with the bridges and steel cable.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't actually find it boring, especially not down at the bottom of the gorge, but the comfortable road along the top where we walked for a while for him was like going for a Sunday afternoon walk anywhere - no challenge :-)
DeleteI use Feedly and with such a lot of photos it struck me for the first time that it was much easier to look at all those photos (enlarged even more than the enlargement Blogger provides) first and then open the Blog to comment. I enjoyed that.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Feedly but I am glad you enjoyed the photos! I took many, many more but (as usual) found it really hard to decide on the ones to use on my blog. Plus there are about 400 that O.K. took and which he kindly transferred to a USB stick for me - which I forgot at his home last weekend...
DeleteYes, I can see why you needed proper boots.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos.
Thank you, Patsy!
DeleteYes, it would have been difficult, if not dangerous, without hiking boots, at least in parts. And we were lucky with the weather - I wouldn't want to be there when it is really wet!
What a beautiful place. I'd love to have a hike there.By the way, I can't help feeling "Wutachschlucht" must be a difficult word to say while eating dinner, without spraying the dinner all over the place. Does it seem like a tongue twister to Germans? :)
ReplyDeleteJust a little bit, Jenny. Try "Gauchachschlucht", that's three "ch" in one word, and you'll get to see the place in one of my next posts :-)
DeleteHow lucky for you both to have this incredible hike! You know I would love it!
ReplyDeleteAlso, did you think to leave breadcrumbs behind you, just in case you got lost?
(A shameless reference to Hansel and Gretel, as you no doubt already know!)
We didn't bring any bread this time but were confident that we'd find our way out of the gorge at the other end - just follow the river ;-)
DeleteWe were most lucky weather-wise; it is not advisable to walk there when it has been raining a lot, as the muddy paths are sometimes rather steep and get slippery, and there are not always handrailings or steel cables to hang on to.