Tuesday 25 September 2018

Hiking Holiday - Day 8

Day 8 and our last proper day was here; it was Wednesday, the 12th of September. We had decided on today's hike the evening before: The "Große Falkenstein" (Great Falcon's Stone) was our goal.

Another sunny and warm day (25C/77F) was in store:

At 8.34 in the morning on our balcony
 For the first time since our arrival more than a week ago, we took the car. Yes, we could have used several different buses and a train to get to the starting point of our hike, but it would have taken at least 1 1/2 hours, and at least the same amount of time back to the hotel. Therefore, we decided against public transport for once.

After parking the car, our first point of interest was this lake, the Höllschwelle ("Hell's Swelling", the swelling bit meaning that the lake was man-made, making the original small creek "swell" by building a wall through it). Such man-made lakes are to be found here and there in the Bavarian Woods; they are a remnant of the days when a lot of wood was harvested here for industrial use, mainly to fire the ovens of glass makers in the area. The trees were chopped down and the wood cut to manageable pieces, then to be floated on the creeks to the factories. It was hard and dangerous work, but the only way they knew how, and using the waterways for transport was certainly easier and faster than men and horses carrying everything along the difficult paths.





On the summit of the Falkenstein, 1,315 m (4,314 ft) . Note the glass sphere in the middle of the cross.



Small chapel near the summit
After a rest and a refreshing drink on a sunny bench, we continued our tour. The path now took us across a plain that suffered particularly from the big storm Kyrill in 2007. As everywhere else in the National Park, the trees were left as they fell, and now, 11 years after Kyrill, new plants have emerged. From the pictures, you can tell that even here, the summer has been unusually hot and dry.











Some 15 km  (9.3 miles) later, we were back at the car. It had been our longest tour so far, and at times the path was rather difficult - steep and very rocky, so that more than once, we scrambled up on all four. The shandy on top of the Falkenstein was very welcome!

Back at the hotel, we repeated our established pattern of time in the spa until going to dinner for one last time - we were leaving the next day.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting that there were many glass makers in the area. I was not aware of this big storm Kyrill. I just looked it up. I hadn't even been aware that you had cyclones in Europe. Weather -what can I say except that I hope somehow it is better next year. It is so ironic that you were having such a dry summer and we've had such a wet year. I've lost two trees to really wet ground from the constant rain. And it's been raining for days now. The forecast for today said "sunny" but it is terribly dark and gray outside.

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    1. Yes, weather - expect the unexpected! We're still having way too little rain in my part of Germany; others have had more rain.
      It has been sunny and beautiful all week, and warm-ish during the day, but very cold at night and in the mornings.

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  2. Naturewise, it could just as well be somewhere up north in Sweden... (If only looking at these photos without knowing where they were from, it would probably primarily be the cross and chapel that would make me re-think that impression.)

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    1. The chapel and the cross are relatively modern. I imagine there are more lakes in Swedish forests, but I have never been there so don't know for sure :-)

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  3. Oddly this post reminded me of parts of California - the light and the forest with so much destruction in places is just like some of my photos.

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    1. Would the destruction in California be by the same causes (storm and bark bettle), or would it more be by fire?

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    2. It was more by fire, Meike, but the fires were often long gone and the results looked pretty much the same as the pictures you showed.

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