Bad bad day. The first day I feel I have really failed to complete a section of the walk.
Because we only got to Tutzinger we needed a following wind to make Schliersee - it was a head wind instead. Roger and Sue were only scheduled to do the first part of today's walk and decided last night to make a leisurely descent. John and I were walking by 7.30 but the weather was absolutely terrible.
Arrived at Brauneck by 9.30 but we were cold and our foot ware was wet through. Walking to Schliersee on a good day from Brauneck would be a challenge, attempting it today felt dangerous.
Decided to stop at the hutte and work out our options and within minutes had been adopted by a friendly German couple. They were walking the Maximillianweg in the other direction but had decided to that was not safe to go on. Worked out with them the best way to get to Schliersee and in the end they came down on the lift with us to Lenggries, took us to the station and helped us buy tickets.
I was really cold and it wasn't until I got on the train and felt some warmth coming back into me that I realised how cold I had got.
Checking my emails on the train I suddenly realised that today was the day that another cousin, Chris Dickinson, was joining me. My sense of time is completely shot and for some reason I thought he was joining me on Wednesday the day John finished. Changing trains to Schliersee we then bumped into Chris and made the final part of the journey together. What an amazing piece of timing, I only wish I had planned it.
So a nice bit of good fortune in an otherwise miserable day. I'm very disappointed about missing a twenty kilometre stretch of the E4 but bashing on in the rain was risking injury and illness. There wasn't really a sensible choice.
Postscript: John Tatam
When I arrived on Friday it was clear that John had not been around people for some time. While I could cope with communication limited to the odd grunt and occasional squeak I found the personal habits and hygiene rather more disturbing - I had unwisely decided to share a room with him on the first night.
I am not quite sure where we have been over the last two days as it has been raining constantly and visibility has rarely been more than 4 or 5 metres. This morning I put on wet socks wet shoes and wet waterproofs and headed out into the pouring rain and mist trudging up the mountain.
However there are many reasons to be cheerful:
- on two occasions the clouds cleared and suddenly we realised we were not in a Gormerly mist room (was it Gormerly?) but in the middle of spectacular mountains
- the six day forecast - while Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are predicting rain, Tuesday may only have drizzle and some sunny intervals!2
- I have more or less kept up with John despite considerable age and infirmity ( no doubt he will claim he slowed down)
- friendly Germans ( oh yes!)
- good company - Sue, Roger and Chris
- kaiserschmarrn (twice)
- and 5 straight contracts at nomination whist...
Because we only got to Tutzinger we needed a following wind to make Schliersee - it was a head wind instead. Roger and Sue were only scheduled to do the first part of today's walk and decided last night to make a leisurely descent. John and I were walking by 7.30 but the weather was absolutely terrible.
Arrived at Brauneck by 9.30 but we were cold and our foot ware was wet through. Walking to Schliersee on a good day from Brauneck would be a challenge, attempting it today felt dangerous.
Decided to stop at the hutte and work out our options and within minutes had been adopted by a friendly German couple. They were walking the Maximillianweg in the other direction but had decided to that was not safe to go on. Worked out with them the best way to get to Schliersee and in the end they came down on the lift with us to Lenggries, took us to the station and helped us buy tickets.
I was really cold and it wasn't until I got on the train and felt some warmth coming back into me that I realised how cold I had got.
Checking my emails on the train I suddenly realised that today was the day that another cousin, Chris Dickinson, was joining me. My sense of time is completely shot and for some reason I thought he was joining me on Wednesday the day John finished. Changing trains to Schliersee we then bumped into Chris and made the final part of the journey together. What an amazing piece of timing, I only wish I had planned it.
So a nice bit of good fortune in an otherwise miserable day. I'm very disappointed about missing a twenty kilometre stretch of the E4 but bashing on in the rain was risking injury and illness. There wasn't really a sensible choice.
Postscript: John Tatam
When I arrived on Friday it was clear that John had not been around people for some time. While I could cope with communication limited to the odd grunt and occasional squeak I found the personal habits and hygiene rather more disturbing - I had unwisely decided to share a room with him on the first night.
I am not quite sure where we have been over the last two days as it has been raining constantly and visibility has rarely been more than 4 or 5 metres. This morning I put on wet socks wet shoes and wet waterproofs and headed out into the pouring rain and mist trudging up the mountain.
However there are many reasons to be cheerful:
- on two occasions the clouds cleared and suddenly we realised we were not in a Gormerly mist room (was it Gormerly?) but in the middle of spectacular mountains
- the six day forecast - while Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are predicting rain, Tuesday may only have drizzle and some sunny intervals!2
- I have more or less kept up with John despite considerable age and infirmity ( no doubt he will claim he slowed down)
- friendly Germans ( oh yes!)
- good company - Sue, Roger and Chris
- kaiserschmarrn (twice)
- and 5 straight contracts at nomination whist...
No comments:
Post a Comment