A strenuous but glorious 12 mile hike across the Vosges hills visiting several chateax and the Abbey of Mont Saint Odile

Date walked: 20th April 2018

Distance: This is subject to dispute. Our route notes suggests 11.4 miles. I recorded 11.62 miles. According to Bob’s phone app we did nearly 16 (no, we did not get lost). Perhaps Bob’s app was picking up how far it felt. 

Map used: IGN No 122 Colmar, Mulhouse/Bale covers the area but at a scale of 1cm to 1 km but it is really not good enough for following the footpaths. I subscribe to an App called IGN Outdoors and this allowed me to download and plot each days walk onto my phone at a large-scale (4cm to 1 km).

Arranged through: Sherpa Expeditions, who chose the route, selected and booked our accommodation, arranged luggage transfers and provided detailed walking notes and large-scale map extracts for each walk. I am very pleased to report that following our feedback about poor experiences of the evening meal being included but not at the accommodation itself, Sherpa are now offering this trip without evening meals as part of the price. 

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WARNING, SOME READERS MIGHT FIND CERTAIN PARTS OF THIS ACCOUNT UPSETTING; PARTICULARLY THE EARLY BITS

I woke with the realisation that something was wrong. Internally. In my nether regions. A dash to the loo confirmed that I had full-blown diarrhoea. I’ve no idea what caused it; I had eaten much the same as Bob last night and although in the early part of the evening I was drinking wine and he beer this seemed an unlikely explanation. The real question was not “why?” but “what to do”?

To start with I knew that in my toilet bag I had relevant pills. But although these claimed to work fast, they were no guarantee of an immediate stop to compelling toilet visits. I also knew that I needed to drink lots of water. So far so good. I met up with Bob for breakfast and decided to risk a couple of hard-boiled eggs and some dry toast and a black coffee – I seemed to remember that it was best to stay off dairy in the circumstances.  The post breakfast question was “to walk or not to walk”.

It was another sunny day and a study of the map did not present any practicable short cuts or obvious escape routes should I struggle to cope. I was worried on this score. When I was walking the High Dales Way some years ago I had horrid diarrhoea en route to Dale; on that occasion I got quite dehydrated and fainted in the dining room of the pub, much to everyone’s consternation including my own. The sensible choice today might have been to abort the walk and go with our bags in the taxi to Obernai.  But I would have felt bad leaving Bob to walk on his own and besides it was going to be a great if quite challenging walk through the hills. (Bob was super supportive and just wanted me to do whatever felt right). I decided to walk, making sure that my water bag was full (1.5 litres – not nearly enough) and that I had plenty of tissues.

Here’s the first map for the day:

Leaving the Hotel Kastelberg, we climbed through the back streets of Andlau and then into the vineyards, those 50 or so or so extra metres of height giving us a nice view back to the village.

We passed below a cross…

…and then paused to watch some heavy-duty earth-moving that was going on where more vineyard was being claimed from the woodland.

We passed though some coppice, where I once again looked with envy at the dense swathes of emerging Lily of The Valley. 

Convallaria majalis

We were climbing on a wide forest track though stands of conifer; in my delicate state I was grateful for the shade.

Look carefully and you can see Little Bob

I was also glad that the earth was soft and that I had packed a sturdy plastic trowel as I did need to make one emergency stop. Without wishing to give you too much information, matters had improved noticeably; time for a re-dose of pills though.

Our first stop of interest was to visit the Chateau du Haut Andlau. 

This impressive castle was built in the C13th from granite – the rock on which it stands.

In the UK inside the entrance would have been an English Heritage entrance booth, shop, cafe and toilets. Here there was nothing; a reflection, I think of the rather wonderful remoteness of most of these abandoned castles that we had come across on the walk.

I rested whilst Bob climbed up to castle walls; he returned reporting that you can’t enter the interior of the ruin. Shame; here’s another pic to compensate.

From the chateau, our path descended, the woodland now a deciduous coppice.

We dropped all the way down a valley side, losing about 600 feet of altitude and  arriving at the D854 opposite the Maison Forestiere de Tollenbach. Our notes told us nothing about this house;neither did the internet.

We were told that the Hotel du Chateau d’Andlau was nearby and I was tempted to call in for a comfort break but it was really about insecurity than need.

We crossed the road and made our way up the surprisingly boggy  forest track though an oak wood under-planted with young conifer.

It was around a 900 feet climb to the top of the hill where we had our next visit – Chateau de Landsberg.

Wikipedia is surprisingly quiet about this excellent ruin; all I can add is that it was built, or at least faced, with a warm red sandstone.

We wandered around inside for a bit, trying and failing to imagine what it was like to live in such a place.

Little Bob providing a sense of scale

Back to the (still deciduous) woods, now with a rather beautiful  carpet of, I think, Sweet Woodruff. 

Galium odoratum

We were now on the GR5 trail. Our path dropped a little, crossed a small road and then climbed once more through a pine wood.

Note the red and white mark on the tree, showing that we are on a GR route

We passed a boulder familiar to me; this is conglomerate – a sedimentary stone resembling concrete that we have lots of in our garden.

See all the pebbles

The path climbs gently towards the Kiosque Jadelot….

…. – an octagonal wooden hut sited at 2,395 feet and constructed “sous the second empire” by the garde forestier general – a Mr Jadelot. Or so the sign above its door says.

My researches date the 2nd empire as between 1852 and 1870. Google didn’t offer much more, but rather gratifyingly on the first page is now a link to this image of mine that you can now purchase full size exclusively from Getty for a modest £375.

This must be a very welcome refuge in bad weather. Today it was a delightful place to have a rest ….

….and enjoy the fabulous view from its balcony.

Here with Little Bob

Ok, here’s another of that view.

Sans Bob

A passing walker gave us a chance to get a snap of the two of us without me fiddling around with the camera.

You don’t get enough of me, I know.

Onwards and upwards (a bit).

The Rocher de Wachtstein  was a little further up the path and 100 feet higher up.

As you have no doubt translated for yourselves, it is a big rock.

Rather improbably with several trees managing to grow on it in no soil

The Rocher is a natural feature but we then came across a wall of massive rocks that were man-made – the mur Paien. Quite when they were laid down is not certain – probably sometime before Christ; have a read of the rather interesting wikipedia entry.

Signed off from our path and not mentioned in our notes was the site the Air Inter Flight 148 plane crash in 1992. 

We went and had a look.

I thought the memorial sculpture was powerful.

Returning to the path, we soon came across the Grotte Des Druides; a natural Dolmen according to our notes.

We continued to walk by the massive walls of the Mur Paien….

This is incredible; 8 miles long

….then turning off to head for the abbey of Mont Saint Odile. 

We were not done with big blocks of stone, though. The Roche Beckenfels was another natural pile.

And just beyond that the path kept to the base of an outcrop of conglomerate attached to which the Stations of the Cross announced the nunnery.

It’s never occurred to me before but I wonder why they are always numbered?

As we emerged into the light, it was clear that the Abbey is a major tourist destination as well as a place of pilgrimage.

We had a bit of a wander round.

I popped into the Chapel of Tears, which was beautiful…

…..but overall, the place left me unmoved (BOOM BOOM).

The view from the terrace, though, was fab.

We decided to have a rest and a bite to eat (an undressed salad and water for moi) and as this is turning out to be a bit of a marathon and there is still  way to go I suggest that you might like a break, too.

Better now? Good. Time for a change of map.

Here’s a view of the courtyard before we go.

Still unmoved

Steep steps led from the plaza in front of the Abbey  to a massive and difficult to understand (what purpose did it serve) open field before returning us to the shade of a mature conifer wood.

We followed this forestry track downhill for about two miles, breaks in the trees giving us glimpses of the Abbey way above us. We were both beginning to feel weary. Ottrot didn’t appear to provide cause for deviation; our notes agreed. The church looked nice enough but I wasn’t tempted…

… and  I was off dairy for the moment, so ice-cream searches were off my agenda. What we did find as we were leaving the town, which was a first for the day, was a field sheep!

Nous aimons, les moutons (have I made that little joke already?)

From Ottrott to Obernai was flat and open countryside; terrain quite unfamiliar to us for the last 5 days. For most of the way we followed the course of a stream, our weariness lightened by the sound of trickling water.

There was a little incline to cope with through the woods.

But for most of this last stretch this was a delightful and soothing walk, designed to also provide locals with encouragement to exercise.

Ha ha . No chance.

The stream was quite perfect, its banks covered with wood garlic that was just coming into flower.

Towards the end of the path, on the outskirts of Obernai, the stream was crossed by an old canal.

Our notes directed us to leave the stream here and follow the busy road into the town. Over to our left the vineyard covered hills rose again but we were done with vineyard walking.

I was feeling increasingly wrecked, so the sign for cardio prevention almost offered genuine comfort.

Turning right at a crossroads we passed the gothic Eglise Saints Pierre et Paul.

And we found our Hotel la Cloche very close by and right in the centre of what turned out to be a very nice town. Our bags were waiting and the rooms, though as small as could be, were comfortable and air-conditioned.  Our included meal was at a nearby restaurant which the hotel owner said was great and very popular; if I remember rightly we decided to unpack and shower and eat early and then have a drink and wander in the town.

Well the restaurant did look nice and was certainly popular. However we were placed in a back room in a corner next to a family with screaming children. We were on a set menu with no choice. As we sat there I began to feel very disinclined to eat or drink. I forced down the indifferent salad but when the cheese-slathered tarte flambe was placed in front of me I stared at it and I just could not eat it. I felt queasy, too. Bob could see that I was not OK and asked me what I wanted to do. I just burst into tears and said that I was sorry but what I really wanted to do was to go to my room and lie down. I felt such a heel depriving him of a celebratory night on the town but he was completely reassuring that it was OK if I went (he really is a lovely, lovely man) so I did. Not the end to our 5 days that I had wanted.

HOWEVER…..

I did have a good nights sleep that night, my appetite was back in the morning for a decent breakfast and we had a great tour of the town together followed by a fab lunch before Bob had to leave to get his train. So to finish here is a pic of my hero at lunch.