Wednesday, March 28, 2018: Cloudy in the morning, turning to rain in the late afternoon and evening
Rüssel Pub, Wilhelm-Koenen-Str. 57A, 06526 Sangerhausen, spacious, modern single room with breakfast, amenities down the hall (share with only one other room), €29.8
I had everything together, including the jacket, headwear and gloves in case things should become any colder and was a bus too early to the station. The train was forecast late one minute by the time I had gotten down to the platform, but that would be survivable if it wasn’t DB. As it was, the delay was two minutes in the end and I could get my connections, which were quite numerous today. ICE to Göttingen where I ran across Richard on his way out; local trains for changing in Eichenberg, Leinefelde, and finally in Sangerhausen a bit of a bus tour with two lines needed to get me to the southwest of town where this place is. Went past a supermarket which I later visited.
I had made a sandwich for the longest stretch in the train, so didn’t require any further sustenance. Here it took a while for them to find my booking – apparently the tourist info does this via HRS which I could have done myself, then the girl showed me the room, and took the breakfast details. Place won’t be open tomorrow morning, so will have to drop the key in the letterbox.
Watched the news and the weather, not looking great, but am well prepared. Filled out their form and went downstairs to hand it in and pay. Landlord seemed to be wanting to go on forever about his plans to put a couple of barrels in the forest for hikers to spend a night in, and the bureaucracy that that entailed. Once that was done headed off to the supermarket for some wine and a bottle of softdrink for tomorrow.
Open wifi here, but everything’s so empty I may as well give it a try. Had searched around at home for a couple of 32 GB cards, but could only find about four. Get my brain working on this over the next couple of days.
Thursday, March 29: Still cold, cloudy & a bit of sun in the afternoon, some showers
Hiking: 33.5 km
Nico’s (airbnb), €26.9
Was up fairly early for the breakfast as I had to walk back to the station. Four rolls were provided with ample spreads, so two went into the box for lunch. After that was quickly packed (hope I threw the key in the right letterbox) and on my way into town. Could recognise some parts from last night, and in town I took a chance of crossing through and was met on the other side by the station with ten minutes to spare.
The bus trip took ages, and finally in Wippra I walked from the station into town, caught the E11 signs and was off after a short while up the hill. One diversion just after recrossing the main road took me up the wrong side of the valley; back on the right side the signs were just sufficient to reach a road on the other side which leads to Gorenzen. Had an hydration break here and proceeded carefully, as this is where I had come off the last time. Found the turn-off – well marked – and proceeded down the rather muddy path. Obviously someone had come in with heavy equipment after one storm to extract fallen trees and the track had not been levelled again when a new storm hit and covered the whole thing with a fresh set of fallen trees.
I was following the track fairly well until after coming down a pleasant valley I reached a hill top that had been felled bare. There was one sign left at the top and this is where I came off the track the second time.
OpenStreetMap
Hike with detours. GPS quality: 30/30, coverage: 100%
Down in the village I stopped for lunch and was dismayed that I was only 3 km from Mansfeld (yet again) so I decided on taking the road towards the south to try to find an extension. Saw that Annarode was on the road and was a bit surprised to find the track there (I thought it crossed further south). However, it took me some time to find the continuation on the other side of the road. According to the signs I had another 13 km to go and had found the route just after 3:00. Signs made an appearance again, but they can’t have been very accurate because I was soon at a sixfold crossroads with no indication of where to go. I eventually settled on a track to “B” and after 1 km in easterly direction the signs turned up again and were more or less regular for a while.
This track reached another pleasant valley, only this time the quads had been there first and the track was a mess. At the end there was another climb, this time to a railway bridge, but on the other side alas no markings. I followed the railway track for a bit and saw that I thought were or could have been signs, but nothing too convincing. In the end I landed in Hergisfeld just before 5:00 and at 5:02 there was a bus to Eisleben from where I caught a train to Halle. Rain had set in by now. The station at Halle is being rebuilt from scratch it seems and I was completely overwhelmed about getting to Nico’s place on my own, so I opted for a taxi. A few minutes later & here I was.
Shopping had to be addressed and I was given directions to Rewe. Replenished for the next two days I held a lookout for a place to eat; deposited the stuff here and on looking a little closer to the nearer surroundings found Bambus Haus for soup, chicken fried rice & a beer for €8.
With things now a bit more sorted out I returned to try the computer but whatever had crashed it last night has now taken the hard disk with it. Well, there goes the next three nights’ entertainment. And diary writing, which is why I am doing this by hand. Good thing to have the tickets printed out.
