Follow the Mountains : Hiking along the rim of the Swabian Alb

After returning to my route by train on Saturday, I hiked up to the Swabian Alb. Actually, it is called Swabian Jura in English, but I like to make up new names ;) It is an ancient sedimented marine floor, so you can find fossils, if you are lucky.

From then on, I hiked a part of the 365 km marked Swabian Alb Northern Rim Trail. I already did the other part about the same time last year and loved the small trails, good views, ruins, castles, rocks and old beech trees. However, last year the weather was much warmer!!!

After enjoying good views and exploring some ruins, I didn't get far. It started to drizzle and was so cold, that I camped in a little forest.

The night I woke up several times with cold feet, but was too sleepy and tired to put on another pair of socks. I wasn't surprised when I opened my tent the next morning: snow! I decided to turned around in my sleeping bag. It was Sunday anyways.

When I finally started hiking, it was very foggy and once in a while snowed slightly. No more views for me!

But I liked the ruins of the castle Reußenstein. Yes, there are a lot of castles here and while some are not visible anymore, the Reußenstein is one that still has a lot of walls, staircases and parts remaining. Perfect for kids or someone like me to explore :)

I also saw lots of red kites (Milvus milvus). I love these raptors, because they are the only species, even I can identify! They have a particularly V-formed tail. They are an endangered species, but common on the Swabian Alb.

I was surprised to see so many people, but it was Sunday and since Corona, even more people go hiking. It was pleasant walking on small paths along the rim, although there were several descents and ascents into the valleys and back up to the rim, that made me huff and puff. I'm not in shape (yet).

Another cold night, but it stayed dry. The entire Monday was cold and gray again with some drizzles. It was sad, passing several view points without views. But the day was dominated by pleasant hiking in the forest, without too many ups and downs, which my muscles appreciated.

Another impressive ruin was the castle Rosenstein, which also seems to be a popular climbing area.

My camp spot tonight is in a beech forest patch, above Unterkochen. It's not a perfekt spot, pretty thinned out and close to a little path. I started looking for a camp spot long before, but didn't wanted to end up in town.

Tonight's dinner will be bananas, thanks to a short dumpster dive on Sunday. Usually it's cereals, but I got a bit low on water before camping and want to save it for breakfast. I carry a max of 1 liter at the moment and refill at streams, springs, wells or graveyards. Graveyards?!?! Yes, in Germany most graveyards have water taps, however they usually don't run in winter. The water source called 'spring' on my map, that I wanted to refill, consisted of some holes with locked lids on top. So I continued without water. But I'm not really worried. Due to the geology of the Swabian Alb, being a karst area, there isn't much surface water on top, but usually there is water in the valleys. And the trail also passes enough houses or farms to get water from, if really necessary.

By the way, the GPS of my new cellphone works perfectly fine since the day after my short trip home, although I didn't change any settings. I will probably send it back anyways.

[I wrote this yesterday but didn't have a good cell connection, so I'm posting it today]