Walking in the southern Black Forest Day 4 Schattenmuhle to Fischbach

The hotel did not offer a breakfast buffet as was usual at the other hotels, but we had a good choice of ham, Wurst, cheese, jam and honey to go with rolls, bread, coffee and tea. There were no shops for miles so we enquired whether we could purchase three dry rolls to make our sardine sandwich lunch and were given three. We left the hotel and climbed steeply then followed a high level path via Räuberschlössle - the Robbers’ Little Castle which is the remains of a castle on a peak later taken over by gangs of low life types. It would be an ideal place to set a Swallows and Amazons story. We walked on and passed the Stallegg hydro power station, one of Germany’s first hydropower stations. It did not appear to be functioning when we were there. The dam was empty. Perhaps the station was being maintained. During the next kilometers into Lenzkirch crisscrossing a former railway line now used as a cycleway it seemed that we no sooner reached the summit than we dropped again in order to climb back up again. I suspect it is better to follow the cycle path into Lenzkirch and would have done this but my companions had moral fibre. We had to walk the whole route with no compromises. We had a coffee break in the Kurhaus before we began the long climb to Fischbach over Fischerbacher Höhe (1101m). Initially it was very pleasant in the shady woods up to the Geopark with its mini library and chunks of local rocks, but when we came out in the open fields by the Cyriak Chapel walking there was some sweating and puffing. The road seemed to go on forever. We dropped into Fischbach and arrived at the Gasthof Hirschen after 22.5km with 600m climbing. We very were pleased to be offered a Radler as a welcome drink.

The library at the Geopark site

Discussing erratics

Nothing better than a shandy after a long day