Short German trips, Sat, 03 Apr 2021 | written by Jemma
Jemma and Simon at a Mountain in Europe, Germany

This morning we drove back through Bad Schandau to get to Lichtenhainer Wasserfall. It was pouring with rain, as it had been the night before, so we were unsure if we’d be able to carry out our hiking plans today. But it passed after a little while and we actually had some sun. The waterfall was cute, although not very impressive, and just by the road… with a bratwurst stand next to it! Even though we mostly are vegatarian, we jumped at the chance of having a hot bratwurst to munch on as we admired the fall, and cracked open one of our beers.

We then started our hike in the ….. mountain range. We were following a trail that began to climb Häntzschelstiege, when the nice wooden stairs quickly turned into metal steps stuck into the rock, enabling us to climb up sheer rock faces. I was terrifed as I’d only ever climbed rock faces with a harness and rope before, and was convinced that this wasn’t a route for no climbing equipment. I tried to climb up the first bit, but my legs went to jelly so came down to a safe level. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt so scared if we hadn’t seen an injured person being airlifted off the mountain by a helicopter yesterday. Two guys who came up behind us to use this route chatted to us for a bit and told us what to expect, and gave some rules on how to us the route safely. After this and some warming peppermint infusion, I felt it was important to conquer my fears and tried again. It was quite scary, especially as some of the route required us to step over sheer drops between the moutain fissures. I freaked out a bit at one at the top, as I couldn’t see how I was going to step across with only a handrail and single metal step on the otherside, and required Simon to go across first and reached out with his hand so I had something to grab on the otherside. The most exciting part of the trail was climbing up the steps through a long ‘chimney’ in between the rock. It was scary and amazing and I would definitely do it again.

We walked through the forest at the top of the mountain and took in the amazing views. We decented through a rock formation called the Wilde Hölle, which were really beautiful, but not before we stopped in Carolafelsen for some more great views and a wander between the weathered sandstone formations. We then climbed back up to see the Idagrotte, and from there took a long way round back to The Baron. In total, it was an epic hike, we were on the move for about 7-8 hours.

On the route, we noticed that a lot of the surrounding forest was dead. So many of the pine trees had brown needles and the bark has been completely scripped off. On closer inspection, it seems like the trees are infected with some insect, as the wood is full of holes.

After our epic journey, we drove off to find a parking spot. We ended up going for a carpark with many campers this time, which isn’t our preferred type of spot but we didn’t have many options today.