Sleeping at the e2 Ferienzimmer (private house with 3 rooms to rent) was simply awesome. All 3 rooms are designed in 3 different kinds of woods and it feels and smells like standing in a forest. I love the whole house, actually, I’d want to move and live there forever! 💚 I usually don’t post pics of our accommodations but this time, I’ll make an exception…
The breakfast was also gorgeous! Fresh fruits and vegetables, home-made spreads and jam, cheese platter, tomato-mozzarella salad… All lovely decorated and presented. Have I already mentioned that I want to move in? 🤣 We’ve also talked a bit with the owner, a former forester, and got interesting information on the house. Since the weather was very dull, grey skies and even fog, we were in no big rush but finally started today’s tour at 9 a.m.
After walking through Maria Langegg (which takes like 5 minutes 😉) we immediately got into the forest and uphill. Although it was cool and wet from the night’s rain and still looked like it would rain any second it was great to hike through the Dunkelsteinerwald, a mixed forest. I’ve never been to a forest I loved that much!
Soon we came to a crossing where our trail coordinates mentioned a detour for a good view down. We were sceptical because it was still foggy and cloudy but went along nonetheless. Well, not sure if it was worth it but judge yourself (the other photo shows the Hoher Stein, another possible detour which we left out due to the weather):
Then we started 400m of altitude down towards Hofarnsdorf. Another detour I doubt it was worth the way. 😉 We could have stayed at the level of 500-600m and made a shortcut through the forest to the Seekopf but we wanted to exactly follow the trail. As mentioned, Hofarnsdorf isn’t very exciting, the “castle” is private and you can’t visit it and there’s not much else to see here.
The only good thing was the view to Spitz at the other end of the Danube:
But getting quickly through the village proved a challenge because part of the trail was inaccessible because of the construction of the flood prevention after the floods that had hit the whole Wachau very hard this July. Of course, there was no single indication of how to bypass it so we looked for our own way with the help of the Bergfex app and bypassed it by hiking through a apricot orchard and a small path through the vineyards. Although it kinda looked like a path the whole way I suppose it was very much on the edge of trespassing. But that definitely beats the alternative: being hit by a car on the road without a pedestrian lane. 😉
After our exciting excursion we found the track again and continued on the most wonderful path through the Dunkelsteinerwald again. We even saw two deers crossing our way a few metres in front of us.
We made only a short break in-between before continuing to our next goal, the lookout on the Seekopf. The weather still was mixed, lots of clouds with a few sunrays and now and then a few drops of rain. We pressed hard on because we wanted to have at least some view down from the lookout.
Soon some wind gusts began and there was a rather dark cloud above us. We climbed harder the last few metres up to the Seekopf and the lookout itself. Up on the top we were greeted with harsh wind and rain drops. We quickly made some photos and then we heard the thunder rumble. Being on a lookout made of metal isn’t very comforting when a thunderstorm nears so we stormed down again and into the shelter of the forest. The rain was rather heavy now.
On the photo with Felix you can even see the thunder cloud. I mean let’s be honest – everyone can make pretty photos on the lookout during sunshine and blue skies. But only we do it with storm, rain and thunder. (Now, honestly, don’t try it at home; it’s not worth the thrill 🤣.)
After a few minutes the thunder and rain stopped and the sun came out. I was like “are you f*** kidding me” and considered hard to go back again but then we continued on.
The path that followed led us through the region “Steinige Ries”, a beautiful and interesting hiking path through beech forests and over rocks and along large boulders. It was very exhausting to hike because it required attention since the path was slippery from the rain but it was a great adventure. You would never guess to find such alpine-like paths in the middle of the Wachau!
And now and then we also had a great view down on all the places we’ve already hiked through during this last week. 💚
Not far away from Rossatz the path got quite scenic along the edge of the forest and we made a short break to admire the view.
Soon we reached Rossatz and already saw from above the damage the hailstorm from July did to the roofs of many houses… 😔
Instead of leading us straight into the town the path went uphill again into the vineyards, quite likely for the wonderful view to Dürnstein:
Then we descended down to Rossatz and quickly found our accommodation in a gorgeous building from the 13th century. After showering and talking a bit with the owners about the hailstorm damages we looked for something to eat. Although we had to walk for at least 1,5km we found a lovely spot in the vineyards directly facing Dürnstein. Mind you, we paid good for that view! 🤣
Today in numbers:
- 27km (+3km for our food search)
- 950m up and 1200m down
- Hiking time: 5h
- Total time: 6h 50min