2015-09 Devil's Wall Trail
Bimbi and I were out in the eastern Harz this month to hike the Devil's Wall Trail from Blankenburg to Ballenstedt. Somehow, though, we seem to have strayed a bit off course.
Because at the start everything was almost simple, so the Devil's Wall Trail... was supposed to lead to the Devil's Wall, or was it rather the trail?
Somehow it wasn't so easy to decide; well, actually the Devil's Wall suits it better than a hiking trail anyway, so first we hiked uphill to Grandfather & Grandmother. After we'd found the good ones, we also wanted to enjoy the view from Grandfather, but where the devil is the entrance? Off to a great start; we decided to do a bit of climbing, took the direct route and were rewarded with a beautiful view.
Nevertheless, we didn't quite make it to the top that way, but hey, it's the thought that counts :D
Somehow almost depressing that those normal hikers found the entrance, even though we walked all the way around Grandfather, the entrance remained hidden from us...
... after that shock, first enjoyed a shandy and rejoiced in the unexpectedly beautiful weather. In this weather the kilometres flew by, while we fooled around wonderfully. For example, that a fox den looks different than described here. This nasty fox den, which tore a small hole in my Murmur 37... Well, a piece of tape on it and the matter is fixed again.
From inside, the view wasn't to be sneezed at either, and the room was bigger than expected. If I come here again next time, and there aren't 100,000 mosquitoes hovering on the ceiling due to the season, it would even have been usable as a place to spend the night. A pretty nice one, even!
From the fox den we continued towards the Hamburger Wappen; the path is beautiful and the Hamburger Wappen is definitely worth a trip. I definitely won't have ended up here for the last time. At the Hamburger Wappen I was surprised by a wooden likeness of myself. I can't remember wearing such horns, and I cut off my long hair a few years ago, but the last time I looked in the mirror must have been hours ago. Could just be a mirror image after all.
From the Wappen we continued towards Thale. At that moment I was rock-solid convinced I had never been there before, but that was to change later at the Witches' Dance Floor. While the weather clouded over a bit again, we still had a lot of fun; after all, we kept experiencing little things in nature that lifted our spirits.
And so it happened all too quickly that we apparently strayed a bit off course; heading south isn't completely wrong, but that far, soooo far? I had hoped it was a mistake, but trust nothing you haven't read with your own eyes.
In a frenzy we kept walking deeper into the forest, until we couldn't go any further.
Between the path we were on and the path we wanted to take yawned the Bode river.
While refilling our water supplies at the tavern on the Rosstrappe, we noticed that the game on the menu sounded quite good and had to sample it briefly. Faced with the late hour and the yawning obstacle between us and our daily goal, no path was too far, no mountain too high and no senior-citizen technique too far-fetched to climb the other side.
Battling the gusts of wind and with plenty of adrenaline, we finally made it to the Witches' Dance Floor. After a brief assessment of the situation, we both realised that we had been here before with our parents.
We walked a few more kilometres into the forest and set up our camp for the night in the next shelter hut.
The morning after began with tea and Schokakola; what more do you need?
We had barely left camp when we noticed boards that overwhelmed us with their flood of information. But how often does a picture say more than 1000 words.
Our water could be wonderfully refilled at the next stream. Maps.ME once again did a great job here when it came to finding water sources.
We left the forest, for now there were several paths across fields to the next section of the Devil's Wall,
and no expense or effort was spared, for Bimbi either, to create a brown, shy horse out of the Einbecker white horse and the brown dog.
The butterflies were also well-disposed towards us and let themselves be photographed like models.
I had wished for “once with pros” for sooo long, and now it came true!
You might think Madame has a lot of love left for all living creatures; well, for this tree it only just about sufficed.
But hugging trees saps your strength, so I often had the opportunity to snap them from the summit
The next butterflies were very photogenic again too; as I said: once with pros. And that wasn't just a measly 5 minutes over the course of the day!
Shortly after, the end of the tour was already in sight; the Gegensteine became visible.
But first we climbed onto the walkable Devil's Wall. During the Rock Harz Festival it's a veritable pilgrimage route.
But this time we were alone.
At least if you disregard the planes around Ballenstedt airport.
Before we knew it, the trail was over...
.... Oh, soooo that's how you were supposed to walk it, not like this
Despite the little detour it was a beautiful tour, and so we'll just have to make up the part we didn't hike another time :D
By the way, the packing list for this tour is here
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