We were given an excellent breakfast at Zum Biber in Steckby before heading off to Barby. I asked the landlord if we could follow the forest paths on my Viewranger maps all the way to Tocheim and he said yes we could. This would have avoided going more inland as the Elberadweg does at this point. However a short way into the forest we were told to turn away as it was a protected bit of nuclear forest we were trying to enter. Not nuclear as in the radioactive sense more like pristine or an unspoilt source of forest growth. The whole area was potected but you could walk in some parts. We diverted inland a bit.
It was at this point that the excrement really started to adhere to the blades of the ventilation system. As you know the area was flooded in June and since then it has been unseasonably hot. As a result the insect population has rocketed. As we went deeper into the forest the density of the mosquito clouds around us increased enormously. I've never seen anything like it. It was disgusting and a little frightening. There was no escape but to move as quickly as possible and keep wiping them off your shoulders and arms.
We had protected face legs and hands with mosquito repellant before we left the hotel and they were largely OK but Shiel and I were badly bitten on shoulders and elbows through our clothing.
We stopped in a patch of sunlight in an attempt to boost our repellant cream applied earlier and the went on. After about 400m Frau Barr noticed she no longer had her prescription specs. She had taken them off to apply more insect repellant. We dumped our packs and went back to look for the specs to no avail.
At this point we diverted to reach the main Elberadweg which we managed to do with sanity intact. The cycle route had only hardly any mosquito problem in comparison to the deep forest track. We reached Tocheim without further problems and then followed a nice clear paved path (see photo of Shiel) we thought was heading directly for Ronney. I had downloaded a gpx file of an Elberadweg off the internet and we were hoping to use that through the forest as it was more direct than the new Elberadweg via Walternienberg. However these forest routes had also been blocked off so we spent about another hour walking around a forest outside Tocheim being eaaten by mosquitos. (My elbows and shoulders are itching as I write this!)
We eventually reached Walternienberg with its walled castle which was being used for a wedding reception having passed another stork nest on the way into town.
We moved on a little way out of town and did a foot powdering ceremony before heading down the road to the ferry at Ronney. About 10 minutes before we reached the ferry it started to rain and we had to don full waterproof clothing. We needed it! Just as we reached the ferry it was pulling away. We missed it by seconds. However we only had to wait about 10 minutes for it to return.
Barby looked an interesting walled town with a nice church and Rathaus.
Our pension, Am Colphus, was at the back of the town which will help with our start tomorrow. We had a good meal in the restaurant.
For the statisticians amongst you Shiel counts 30 bites on my left shoulder and 36 on my right. 10 on my left elbow and 2 on the right. Shiel has 15 bites on her left arm and 4 on the right.
We walked 22.1km in 5.5 hours. Note: Shiel walks faster when trying to avoid mosquitoes!
No comments:
Post a Comment