Day 27 of the Walk to the World
Cup – JUNE 5th
Singhofen to Steckenroth – almost
there!
It’s me and Sandra for the remainder
of the walk to Frankfurt. Tristan and Will, two of Tim’s
friends are flying out on Wednesday and Dan will be there
with Dave, Jordon and Gareth on Friday but for now it’s
the two of us and Tim, of course.
The nearer we get to Frankfurt, the more
I think about my darling son, who was so brash and stubborn
and yet so kind and loving. All he wanted was a chance to
live and be the best he could be – it doesn’t
seem too much to ask for. Walking today, I had lots of time
to think about the tough times and the unmentionable times
but also the happy times and the good times but most of
all, what he would make of this, what he would say to me
about my life and the future.
We re-cast the route last night and decided
to stop messing about up ‘secret valleys’ and
get on with it – thanks Tim. The only disappointment
was that it meant I wouldn’t walk through Katzenelnbogen
– Yes, it really does exist – the cat’s
elbow! The B260 cuts through this part of Rheinland/Phalz
and Hesse like a knife from Nassau to Wiesbaden and I walked
a 7 mile stretch this morning. It was quiet, Whitsun Public
Holiday, and the road was straight with some steep ups and
downs. I cracked on and covered the 7 miles in 1 hour 45
minutes and turned onto a cycle track for Laufenselden (how
appropriate). There were some cyclists and walkers around
and I exchanged a few ‘guten tags’ but when
coming out of the woods, the reply was ‘are you really
walking to the world cup?’ spoken in a very English
accent and I passed a few minutes chatting to an English
couple who I had happened to bump into in the middle of
a German wood.
Sandra was waiting at Laufenselden and
1st stop. The second walk took me first up and then down
a long, twisting ravine onto a road busy with motor bikers
and to Burg Hohenstein. We stopped in Unter Burg rather
than Ober Burg and had lunch of pasta, mixed bean salad
and ham cooked in the van.
The weather was cloudy and cool, good
for walking but the sun started to appear more in the afternoon
and it became quite warm. Walk 3 took me through the villages
of Breithardt and Steckenroth and I finished after a stiff
climb at a road junction. The path across should lead me
back onto our original planned route and tomorrow we will
reach the outer suburbs of Frankfurt.
Back at our hotel, the Berghof at Berhghausen,
we have a good room and balcony views of the hills across
the valley with the imposing windmills always on the move
right on top. After my usual shower, I’m going to
try and use the owner’s PC to send the diary updates,
leaving time of course for a nice evening meal with Sandra
and a chance to practice my GCE German some more.
Yellow jersey, walker of the day –
Tim – always offering me good advice.
Distance covered – 19.4 miles.
Total covered – 512.1 miles
