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GeoCaching, Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH, Day 4: Türnitz – Mariazell

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If you guessed it from the title – congratulations!

Somehow I managed to get from Türnitz to Mariazell in one day. It’s about 34,5 km, so no small thing to do … but let’s start at the beginning: in the morning 🙂

I started at 7.10 in the morning, and decided to take it easy. If I’d manage to get to Mariazell all by foot, great. If not, I’d take the bus. Period.

One break was in Annaberg, the next “big” village. 13.5 km – and a rather large part of that going uphill rather steeply. As a reward, I sat down for half an hour, and even had a nice chat with 3 gentlemen from UK. I even saw them again later … lovely 🙂

In Josefsberg (yep, it’s on a mountain. just like Annaberg and Joachimsberg.), I decided to have coffee and homemade Apfelstrudel. Also, I found a cache (nothing special, and dripping wet). Unfortunately, that was the only cache of the day as at the next location the GPS signal kept changing in a range of 30 ft and more.

Somewhere I of course missed a turn and walked along the Bundesstraße again.  And just before St. Sebastian, the gentlemen from UK passed me on the motor bikes 🙂  They even remembered me and waved – that’s a nice piece of motivation!

Did I just say St. Sebastian? Check the map! It’s the last village on the way to Mariazell. I seriously did it. The moment when I realized this was amazing. I started laughing like a madman.

The village itself is as touristy as I imagined. Prices in Pensions and Hotels are of course crazy. Couchsurfers are non-existent. After checking out one Pension (and not liking the room at all: there’s huge demand for rooms, so providers can ask pretty much any price for anything), I found a room at a lovely Gasthaus. If you ever go to Mariazell, let me know. I’ll tell you where I stayed 🙂

Just this much: the rooms are nothing special, but the owner was incredibly lovely. He reminded me of my Grandfather (who died last year in September) big time. In the evening, friends of his occupied the dining room – and we had a blast. Age ranged from about 19  (yep, I wasn’t the youngest there) to 74 (the owner). There was a lot of live music and singing, a lot of laughing and even some food 🙂

Although I was up all day, walking for 8 hours straight (about 10 including all the breaks), I still managed to stay up until nearly midnight.

Awesome.

GeoCaching, Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH, Day 3: Lilienfeld – Türnitz

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I started late on day 3. It was raining, and my plan for the day was to get as far as possible. Due to the rain I did not plan for much 🙂

After failing big time trying to find a cache “on the way” (I have no idea if I really passed it or how far away I was at the closest point), I scored thrice:

The first was easy even without the pretty clear hint.

The second was tricky to get from its hiding place, and even trickier to put back. Big fun!

The third was lovely. I have seen hideouts like this before, but here it can still be used as intended 🙂

During the day, the weather kept changing from raining to dry but windy and back to rainy again, including various stages of sleet. Yuck! Also, there was a part just before Türnitz that seems to go on for ages. I swear I saw a sign “Türnitz, 1 hr” and walked for at least 2 hours until I arrived!

Arriving at Türnitz, I immediately checked out the bus schedule – the next one would have left 4 hours later. I got into the next Gasthaus and ordered a beer to think about my next moves. The bar tender also was the receptionist for the Gasthaus, so I asked about rooms and prices – and was taken aback. A single room would go for 39 Euros! “Can we do anything about that price?” – “Yep. Let’s make it 25. Only, you won’t get an official invoice for that.” How I love the black market 🙂

Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH, Day 2: Hainfeld – Lilienfeld

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After getting off the bus at Hainfeld train station, I went to the next Gasthaus and asked if they could recommend any accommodation in the village. Some minutes later, I arrived at a nice Hotel where I got a room for the night. The hot shower and one hour-nap immediately after arriving felt incredibly good 🙂

The next day, I started out just after 7 am again. The GPS indicated a Geocache only on the other side of the street, but after searching for some minutes, I gave up on that one. Instead, I headed west towards Lilienfeld, where I had a room booked at the monastery. I was very much looking forward to spending the night there, as I had never slept at a monastery before, and Lilienfeld itself, the monastery and the church were said to be very beautiful places.

After two hours of hiking through the foggy morning, mostly along the river Gölsen, I arrived in St. Veit an der Gölsen, where my GPS again indicated a Geocache nearby. It was the perfect cache in the perfect moment: Steingarten, an open-air display of different types of stone, is a lovely place for a break. There are also different kinds of trees, flowers and bushes with descriptions. And right at the moment when I was looking for the cache, it got backlit by the rising sun … just perfect!

At St. Veit, the route divides in two stages: the valley track, along Gölsen river, and the mountain stage, over Staff. I decided to try the mountain stage. Unfortunately, I did not bring enough to drink, so I had to go thirsty for the better part of an hour, but at least this made me meet some locals and also I had the possibility to see their 690 year old farmhouse from the inside 🙂   Also, by choosing the mountain track, I met a doe rather close-up.

At about 2.30 pm I already arrived at Stift Lilienfeld, thus resulting in 22 km hiked within 7 hours (including breaks).

I washed some of my clothes in the basin in my room, took a shower, had a rather early dinner, and spent a lot of time reading before going to bed while outside it was raining heavily.

Enjoying Vienna

Monday is cooking day!

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Every Monday, about 1 pm, there’s a knock on our door, and when we open it, a nice delivery guy hands us a box full of fresh, ecologically grown, regional, seasonal vegetables. Isn’t this awesome?

It’s called “Adamah Biokistl”, and the one we’re having every week costs about 15 Euros each time. There’s always great stuff in it, like yummy carrots, beetroots, pumpkins and so on. And: there is always a little newsletter in it, and on its back, there are a couple of recipes. At least one of them always matches what we get. It’s great!

So this week, we got a nice hokkaido pumpkin, and with some corn, leek, carrots and parsnips, we managed to make a yummy lasagna 🙂  and a bit later, to make sure we don’t have to throw away all of those nice pears we keep receiving in the box, I made some apple-pear-purree.

Finally, there is a reason to look forward to Mondays!

Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH, Day 1: Vienna – Maria Raisenmarkt

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Looking back, there are already a couple of things I can learn from the first day of The Big Hike:

  • try to get as close to your starting point as possible.
    Getting up at 5 in the morning to go to the starting point by public transport and arriving there, ready to finally really leave, at 7 am, thus being 2 hours awake but not really doing anything but wait, is a bad start.
  • get good maps, have a GPS device with you.
    Losing the route every half hour is not funny. Having a GPS device with hiking/mountain biking maps can at least help you to get where you want, albeit not via the route you wanted.

So yes, I got up at 5 in the morning, just to make sure I had packed everything I needed. I had a bus to catch at Siebenhirten (end station of U6 in the south of Vienna), and I was nervous as can be that I could fall asleep and miss the stop either at Siebenhirten or at the stop where I had to change, or the stopt where I had to eventually get off the bus to start the hike.

The hike was not very exhausting physically, but in a mental way it was very challenging: I kept losing the “right path”, because there were not too many signs around to tell you in which direction to go. I am incredibly happy that I had a GPS device with me, especially since Georg and I had downloaded a hiking/mountainbiking map for Austria the night before. That way, I at least knew which way would lead in which direction and if it would take me to the “right” next village at the least.

I called it a day in Maria Raisenmarkt, after hiking about 22 km, just before reaching the Peilstein area which is supposed to be really beautiful. I felt exhausted already, and was looking desperately at the schedule for the regional bus at the bus stop. Some guy was putting up signs for hiking routes, and he asked me where I wanted to go. Bad news was, I would have to follow the route, as it would be the shortest way to get to the next village. Good news was, he had been through the same mess as me, and in the end even offered me a ride. In the next village, I had a nice late lunch (Radler, soup and cake 😉 ) and then checked for the next bus to leave towards Mariazell. I would skip part of the hike, as I did not feel at all capable of walking on, and I was lucky: a bus towards the right direction would leave only 2 hours later. The 2 hours I spent reading at the bus stop – and I also fell asleep a couple of times.

GeoCaching, Outdoors, The Big Hike

TBH: Final stage of Preparations

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The Big Hike (TBH), taking me from Vienna to Mariazell and on to Graz, will start on September 4th, 2012.

Two rooms have been preordered already. The rest will be arranged on the go.

Things to do:

  • charge the phone
  • charge the camera
  • download information for Geocaches along the route (oh wait, the GPS is still in the US … this will have to wait)
  • make sure the plans and route descriptions will be in my backpack
  • start packing.

I’m getting VERY excited now 🙂

CouchSurfing, Enjoying Vienna, Other

Meeting my childhood star

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Tuesday, August 14th: this was by far the coolest day working at the Zoo so far!

Why?

Easy. I could watch the film crew shooting a new episode of TOM TURBO, a series I loved to watch when I was a child. I remember going home with my best friend, Isabel, after school to watch the latest episode, spellbound by the newest adventures by children our age and a high-tech talking bike that can do awesome tricks.

Somehow I seemed to be the only one of my colleagues to be this intrigued by our “VIB” – but I did see some people who had asked if they could have a picture taken of themselves and the bike who were totally freaked out to have that possibility. They were my age 🙂

As TOM TURBO’s garage is located at the Zoo (after the main entrance, turn right, pass the Terrarium/Aquarium house, it’s on the right side), there’s also a life size TOM TURBO to be found there all year round. No wonder I already have a picture of me with him, right? I even used it as my profile picture on CS for some time 😉

Enjoying Vienna, Outdoors

Mission ’24k’ aborted

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If I were superstitiuous, I might not even have left the bed: a cramp in my right calve woke me up in the dead of night and could be interpreted as a bad omen.

Missing the bus, then being dropped off at a substitute stop somewhere I’ve never been, could also stop some people from trying to walk 24 km with a 7 kg backpack. But I wanted to do it!

So after our group was finally complete, we set off to hike from Rodaun to Altes Landgut. I didn’t feel good from the start, most likely from the night-time cramp. But also all the muscles down my back, not being used to the weight of the backpack, started to ache. It was really hot, and after one hour, I decided to have a break. Another hour and a bit later, shortly before Altes Landgut, we arrived at a Rastplatz with a fountain and nice picknick tables in the shadow, and settled down for our lunch break. At this point, Ben, who had joined me for a couple of walks already, said something that made my decision for the rest of the day clear: “I’ve never seen you so tired during a hike yet”.

That was the point where I personally decided to skip the second hike that was planned for the day. 12 km with the pack were definitely enough for me – at least that day.

And it turned out to be a good idea: after arriving back home, I put down my pack, sat down on the couch, and slept for 10 minutes. After that, I took off my shoes, and slept for another 20 minutes. After that, I finally made it to my bed to sleep another 3 hours. And only after that did I feel good enough to take a shower.

Next try: Stadtwanderweg 8 at Sofienalpe, about 11 km, which will mean about 3 hours walking time. I will bring my backpack again, this time not as heavy.

I know I can do it.

CouchSurfing, Enjoying Vienna, Outdoors

Hiking around Vienna, with Couchsurfers

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Stadtwanderweg 2 seemed to be more interesting for others than 1 and 1a. Or did they like the weatherforecast more? Anyways, a handful of people signed up for the event, and they even showed. Just like before, it was not always easy to find the route due to the strange placing of signs: they’re never where you need them. If there is a crossing of 2 or more routes, and you’re not sure which to take, when you just started, and have no idea in which direction to go, be sure there won’t be a sign. If there is only a joining of routes, or not even a forking anywhere to be seen, there will be a sign. And with any luck, it will point in the right direction, and only in that direction. It won’t point in between two routes, it will be intelligible, and will leave no unasked question unanswered.

Of course, we again took shortcuts (unintended, as always), and once or twice took the long way around. Still, we always managed to keep our walking time under the time stated in the information brochures.

As the last Stadtwanderweg, number 9, runs through Prater, I decided to skip that one. Prater is a great area, and I’m sure the route is nice, but I prefer to go (and also to move around) there by bike. So after Stadtwanderweg 7 (happening today), which will feature also a pre-hike hike from Rodaun to Altes Landgut, and number 8 (next week, at Sofienalpe), I will start to walk parts of the Rundumadum trail that goes all the way around Vienna. After walking 10-14 km every time until now, I want to get closer to the “real thing”, and hike 20-25 km per day.