From Hohenwarte to Bockfelsen viewpoint 23km

Set off down to the river from our park up above the massive dam wall of the Hohenwartestausee, the lake/ river system / serpentine reservoir were circulating for the next few days. Crossed it on footbridge  

 and entered the woods for a steep climb up to our first “hutte” which still had some Christmas decorations up. 

  
We got a look at the massive turbine pipes we’ll be crossing in a few days  

 before missing one of our red circle on white background markers and struggling back and forth for awhile before gaining the hilltop ridge at over 500m and getting back on track and stopping to admire the view. 

  
We came upon an elderly forester doing something strange to the bushes and had a non conversation. We keep throwing in Spanish words when trying to communicate here. I guess it shows some effort to speak a foreign language even if it’s the wrong one. I must say we’re struggling to understand, God help us in Czech, Slovakia, Hungary etc. 

Further down the trail we came across a mineral lick on a stick, presumably for deer.  

 How nice we thought until a few yards on we discovered the shooting hide that was nicely line of sight to the licking deer.  

 

There was another “hutte” a bit later that had some great wood carvings around it. There have been a lot of wooden sculptures and they are an inspiration for my two scots pine trunks.  

 

Something else popular are the miniature spirit bottles. We’ve seen them being knocked back a few times and find the empties all over.  

 

We stopped for a quick naked mud sauna at the Hotel am Stausee (as you do). 

 

We emerged at the lake side not that far from where we had started about three hours previously passing a row of what was to be a common feature on stretches of shoreline. Cabins.  

 These first were abandoned and shabby but they come in a multitude shapes, sizes and styles and are very often built around, over and even under caravans. Some of the lower orders just have a caravan.  

  

It was interesting to walk past a long strip of the cobbled together structures all higgle de piggledy along the waterside a lot with nice gardens of flowers.   Some were pretty posh with veranders, decking and pontoons with boats. This was supposed to be a campsite. 

We couldn’t resist the call of a beer garden sign and called in for coffee which soon included large platefulls of food and glasses of local ale. 

On our map we spotted the symbol for an exceptional tree trunk in a couple of km and this one was named ” cliff pine”, so we hurried on with anticipation. It was a scots pine struggling valiantly to grow out of the cliff and doing well.  

 

The grain fields were frequently ringed with poppies and cornflowers 

 and made for beautiful stretches between the forests, which were also a joy with their cathedral like spaces.  

 Our next stop was the Mooshauschen hutte  

 which had a great view and lovely moss filled internal walls.  

   It also had charming hosts.  

 Don’t know what they were but there were a good few of them in the walls and roof and they were not afraid of us. 

Wilhelmsdorf was the supposed end of the first days walk but we were only calling in to look for dog food but it was another seemingly empty hamlet with plenty of fine houses and civic spaces but nobody about and no shops.  

 

Back to the woods – mixed mostly conifers of every type in small blocks, thinned selectively and allowed to grow to maturity.  

 

We ended up for the night camping at a high rocky viewpoint overlooking the water and the cabins beside it.  

   Fell asleep to the sounds of deer, foxes and owls.