I forgot to mention yesterday that I saw my first squirrel last night as we arrived here. Ran across the road. It was very small and very fast. Dave saw one the other day as well.

Well today was to be an easy day so we started out slow. Took our time getting up and ready. This area has over 23,000 km of hiking trails. How to choose one is absolutely impossible, so we are going with the one in the book. The plan was to drive to Simonswald and catch a bus to Gütenbach (6.5km time 24mins) and then walk back via the forest. It was supposed to be an easy downhill walk and about 7.5km. Well as usual that wasn’t quite the way it turned out. It was about an hours drive to the start to the bus along very narrow winding roads and the scenery was very Austrian, very vivid green grass and dark pine trees.

The bus trip was going to be interesting just getting our tickets but I practised the pronunciation from Google translate and that went over quite well. We arrived at Gütenbach at about 1pm and had some lunch in the bus shelter then headed on our way. Today we were following the green and yellow diamond track. Our initial track was up, so much for downhill all the way, it went up and up and up. We came across a signpost that needed translating “Durchgang verboten wald ar beiten” which meant “Passage prohibited forest acres work”. Lucky we didn’t have to go that way. As we walked the signpost read 9km to Simonswald, then we walked for some more and it read 9.5km, then some more and it said 9km. It just didn’t seem to be getting any closer. After about 2 hours we came across what looked like a little house but appeared to be a cafe. we decided to go in for refreshments (our usual wake me up cola light). When we went inside it was like we were interrupting a German family lunch, it was so warm in there and the smell was amazing like home cooked soup. DB would have like one of the sausages and noodles one of the girls was having. We felt very out of place but enjoyed the experience. We only stayed for about 10 minutes and were on our way as we still had 9km to go. So much for a 2 hour walk. We still had at least 2 hours to go so we thought. DB indicated maybe he should have checked the elevation of the walk, he just assumed it was all down hill, he said this as we started to climb up yet again. We followed single file tracks most of the day, some times easier than others, past mossy trees and rocks covered with different moss, fungi (my favourite) and ferns and lots of pine trees. The weather was quite poor with quite heavy rain at times. Most normal people would have stayed home today, but not us. There was an adventure to be had. Luckily we were only out in the rain in the open spaces but most of the time we were sheltered by the pine trees foliage. By the way I love my jacket, keeps me warm and dry and with a hat to stop the rain on my glasses it was a very pleasant walk. We passed many piles of timber all stacked like it belonged to someone but was just along the track nowhere near any houses. The timber was covered with rubber lined taups. I just don’t understand who it belongs to. We had some luck today, we saw some deer, giant snails without their homes, goats, sheep and cows. So a good DB day. We also passed through a snail forest with painted snails and wood carved beaver, rabbits and a mushroom. When we got to the 6km mark we had the same problem as the 9km mark, we came across a 6km mark about 3 or 4 times after walking at least another 10 minutes each time. Needless to say our 7.5 km walk was a lot longer than we thought. We just kept on walking and the time kept rolling on. The scenery was very beautiful and even as we saw the homes in the valley they were very lovely as well. Besides the tough uphill parts it was a very pleasant walk. We finally made it to the end at 6.15pm, so 4 hrs 43 mins and 16km. our moving time was 3 hrs 12 mins but with the stop at the cafe, taking pictures and the occasional rest after a hard climb it added an hour and a half.

After the walk we had planned to go to Triberg to see the world’s largest cuckoo clock. To go or not to go. As per usual we went, always trying to cram the most into every day. Probably the wrong decision this time as it was a 40min drive there and we couldn’t find the clock and it was dark. Oh well, maybe we will learn from that one, but probably not. We then had over an hours drive back to out house along narrow winding roads in the wet and dark. Not much fun for David. We arrived home at 9pm, time to cook dinner and rest. hehehe. I thought I would be home at about 6pm tonight. It’s now after 10 and we have just finished dinner. It is still raining, maybe we will rest tomorrow, but only time will tell.

A little cuckoo information.
Why is it that a kuku calls out of the Black Forest Clock, and not another song bird?
The kuku is a Black Forest Bird and needs for his call only two tones. These two tones are copied inside the clock with two air blown whistles.