Sunday, September 16: Sunny and warmer, although still a little cloud about
Hiking: 25.0 km (with detour to the lighthouse)
Marco’s
Very peaceful setting here, some distance from any road, but the sun shining into the living room window got me to wake up and start doing something with the day, which was turning out to be better than yesterday.
Breakfast was the coffee with some fresh milk, the yoghurt and a bread roll with two slices of meat; then the lunch had to be made up and the pack packed for a satellite day, so apart from the lemonade it was rather light.
The bus seems to run late as a rule here, especially if the bus driver is not 100% with it. Today’s driver accepted my Kurkarte for the whole of the trip (which meant travelling without a ticket for the last three stops). Once in Wustrow I took off for the last km to the beach, and then along the beach for the first hour or so. I saw a map which had the E9 marked on it so I took a photo of today’s section, just in case.
A couple of photos of the sea along the way (mainly the dwarf coastal cliffs, and one section had been cordoned off with no one taking any notice at all), and in Ahrenshoop the track passes through the center of town (plenty of cyclists on the footpath, with no one attempting to get off and push) and then along the dike on the other side. No real markers, and the signs appeared to be a little out, although they could have been accurate if they were describing a cycle path that somehow went all around the place.
Once inside the national park, the bike path along the dike continued, and I had taken notice that one path would turn up that would lead to a carpark and a youth hostel, and that was not the turn to take, but one further. In any case signs started showing up with the lighthouse, Prerow and an intersection called the Great Star, so I knew I was moving along the right path.
Slide Show
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
The going was now a varied forest with plenty of shade, and still lots of cyclists. I stopped at the Great Star for lunch, as the signs seemed to be saying that Prerow and the lighthouse were both approximately equidistant at just over 6 km. Also the white-blue-white marker had turned up again, with no other interpretation allowed other than I had been on the right path all along. The path was dead straight from then on, until the last intersection where I had to decide whether or not to go to the lighthouse. Briefly looked at the watch and decided I had the time, so off I went.
The lighthouse itself was very well populated (today being a Sunday and good weather, not surprising), but not many good opportunities for a bracket, so I left it at a couple of single shots. Then back down towards town. Managed to overtake an extremely large group of walkers who were effectively blocking the rather narrow track by taking the guide track next to the horse and carriage track that was also in operation today. The markers had since disappeared again, so in town I was left to wander towards the main street, where a map was used to identify a bus stop. That being sorted, I went for an ice cream (mango and lemon) at the ubiquitous Janny’s.
Interactive Map
The bus taking me back was surprisingly on time, and the driver had a much better attitude than what I had previously observed, and we kept pretty close to the timetable. For the record, the trip back was €6.2 as far as Dierhagen, where my free ticket took over. As far as I can work out from the VVR website, the whole trip should normally cost €8.2, so together with today’s fareless journey there, the savings today came to €5.1, which already exceeds the cost.
I was afraid I might run out of eateries, so once I was back and a bit washed I looked at Google maps, and discovered another Asian place at the station (Asia Wok). They had their hands full when I arrived just before 6:00, but I got an order in, and things settled down a little afterwards and I got my Peking soup with chicken fried rice in almost the time I sat around watching other restaurant guests yesterday. A variation on the Chinese takeaway is that these guys also do Döner in all its variations. In any case the soup was run-of-the-mill in price (€2.5), but the fried rice was almost sensational for €3.9, and the beer was €1.5, 50 cents cheaper than the beer at the Döner place last night. Don’t tempt me to compare the Döner prices.
