Into the Black Forest
We were going to hike through the Schluchtensteig; a 119 km hike through the Black Forest over 6 days. It was marketed by the German Tourism board as the best route to fully immerse into region. Being a fan of long nature hikes, I was enticed.
However, Bel wasn’t as enticed. She was not looking forward to spending nights in a tent in a forest, without a toilet, and a comfortable bed. Moreover, we will be hiking at the end of autumn, when the weather will be chillier. Fortunately, the route passes through towns that we can find lodgings nightly. We just have to plan our nights and our routes, it will be as good as glamping.
On the first day of our hike, we parked our car at the end of our route, then we were supposed to take train and bus to get to the starting point of our hike. But because we exhausted ourselves having fun at Europa park and drove home late yesterday, we slept in and went directly to the hotel at the end of our first day. We are not as young as we used to be!
We had some time in the evening for a day hike. Then we went to the lodge’s restaurant for dinner. The nice elderly German waitress welcomed us and seated us by a green porcelain wall. It turns out to be a heated wall, which is a very nice feature for this early winter weather.
Once bitten by the humongous portion of food back in Stuttgart, we ordered just 1 fish dish. Our waitress motioned to either of us to make sure that we rightfully ordered one dish for two.
“We eat very little!” I assured her.
“Kleine portion” Bel added in half-German for small portion.
When she came back to our table with 2 plates in hand we were shocked. Did we accidentally mean we wanted two? The waitress, noticing our confusion quickly explained that they have cut our order into two plates. It was a very nice gesture from them!
This time we had enough room for dessert: Black Forest Cake!
The Hike Begins
Now on the actual first day of hike, we started by climbing over a hill guarded by ruminating cows. Then we strolled through a short forested area, ending up along a river. The unwelcoming wet muddy path makes each of our step goes “splosh”, and intimidatingly makes the ground feels like quick-sand. The cold makes it treacherous to take it slow as we needed our body heat to stay warm. Even rests are not as restful as resting too long would quickly usher the cold into our bones. Nevertheless, it was nice to be out and about, enjoying the outdoors.
The Turning Point
That night as we recuperate from the 20 km day hike over cold sodden mud, Bel and I started to ponder:
“Will the next 4 days be the same experience?”
I went to dig up my map and summoned google maps satellite view, in the hope of forecasting our route ahead. Indeed the hike ahead would be quite the same as what we had today. I was thinking, I do not mind the discomfort, as long as the hike is worth the view. If the next few days was going to be the same forest along the same river, it may not be as worthwhile. I don’t mean that it was a bad experience, but we came all the way from Singapore. Given a choice, we would certainly wish for a larger variety of unique experiences.
Then Bel jolted in excitement. She stumbled upon a news article announcing that Switzerland has just become part of the Vaccinated Travel Lane. Back then we were limited to the option of vacationing in Germany due to the Covid travel restrictions of returning to Singapore. The idea of visiting the alps, gracing the land of cheese and chocolate was very enticing.
But we were at a loss. I have invested so much effort in the planning of the routes and in booking of the accommodations for the next few days. We are also stuck in the middle of some forest along a river. Do we really want to ditch our plans and dive headfirst into Swiss? How can we even get out of here?
Considering the utterly cold night, the lack of prospects of the next few days’ hike, and the utter discomfort of muddy wintery hike, we tossed our route maps. Then we went on a rabid search for what we can do in Switzerland and how we can get out of where we were back to our car.
The next day, we strode to the bus stop where we can catch an early bus to a nearby town with a connecting train back to our car. As we wait and wait amongst the frosty morning, past the time the bus board says it would come; we found little asterisks on the bus schedule leading to a footer that says it does not operate off season. As such we were again at a loss.
I told Bel we could only make it out of here if we hitch a ride. Thus we waved our thumbs by the road at passing cars. Luckily, the first car that passed gracefully stopped, and hitched us to a nearby town which we hoped would have a bus to a train station. But bus service was especially sparse in the rural towns, so we had hitch some more.
It was surprisingly not too difficult for us to get a ride. It could be due to my hitching strategy of putting Bel up on the road while I conspicuously wait slightly off sight. I read somewhere before that female hitchers get more stops than male, and thus our hitching strategy. But it could also be because the Germans are very helpful and welcoming!
We eventually reached back to our car after 2 hitches, a bus, and a train ride. And thus begins our trip in Switzerland!
Our first stop was Interlaken. We had ample daylight to reach our lodging we booked just last night, and still make it to the town square to witness the alps by the golden hour.
Stay tuned! Will be sharing about our Swiss adventures in the next post 😉
Dashing Heights 