Day 24 of the Walk to the World Cup – JUNE 2nd

Langenfeld to Mayen – from February to June in one morning

The hotel in Adenau wins the prize for the most unfriendly of the walk by some distance. Last evening, we were told that the bar and restaurant were shut so we adjourned to a nice Italian place – Gulia, just down the road. There was someone at breakfast this morning, presumably to take our money.

Up into the hills for the last time, we were into the clouds at several points and disembarking at Langenfeld, I had my Barnsley FC hat and Nike gloves on – it was distinctly cool. This would be my last walk with my brother and nephew and I’ve appreciated their company, humour and support immensely. A slow start to the day as we headed for Kirchwald and our planned shortcut but we settled into a rhythm and the mist cleared so that we could appreciate some of the views. On the edge of Kirchwald, we turned off to the right and picked up a tarmac path that would take us down over 400 metres onto the plain of the Rhine and Mayen. I was not looking forward to this as my knees feel the strain more going steeply downhill than up. Sandra had gone ahead to find somewhere for tonight – her brother Phil is back out today with his son, Sam, for a weekend’s walking.

All went well for the first mile or so, the tarmac track came to an end as expected and we followed what we thought was the route, always downhill. Ten minutes later we came to a virtually sheer drop – oops. Tom, our pathfinder set off to find the right track but returned without an answer so we retraced our steps back up to where the tarmac track finished. There were look-out towers everywhere and Tom climbed one for a look! We decided on another route and he ran off again to check it out. This one was more promising and soon we were into woods and going steeply downhill for a long, long time following a stream until we came to the expected road. My walking sticks had come in handy to slow me down on the descent.

Not only was it warmer for being over 1000’ lower in the valley but the sun was out and soon T-shirts were in order – what a change in less than 2 hours. We passed St. Johannes Schloss and picked up another footpath by the river for the last 3K to Mayen. It rose gradually giving us a birds-eye view of the river valley below through the trees and after another steep descent, we were at the Sportsplatz and the motor home and Sandra for the end of our second half day’s walk.

Sandra had booked us into a lovely little hotel in Monreal, 7K away and after a bath, we are back in Mayen, me heading for an Internet café and the others to have a look around this large, bustling town, the gateway to Koblenz and the Rhine, which we should cross tomorrow, one day ahead of schedule.

King of the Mountains - Chris – he’ll always be a King to me.

Distance covered – 9.8 miles. Total covered – 449.8 miles