Walking in the Black Forest has been something we heard to be great but failed to experience it ourselves. We did a weekend trip 2 years back in December but that didn’t really turn out very good. For one, the weather was bleak and it was constantly drizzling. The only walking we did was through a small town and then back to the hotel. It was miserable.
Recently, hubby had read something in a magazine and we thought it would be worth the try. We drove for an hour through some pretty picturesque areas of Baden Württemberg to make this walk, Drei Schluchten Wanderung or in English, Three Gorges Hike. This 10km hiking trial seemed relatively mild with an altitude range of 430m…with the nice weather we were having over the weekend, the Three Gorges Hike was perfect for a day trip.
We parked at Oberburg (at the center of the map) and walked back along the main road to join the trail. It’s not very obvious on the map, but the path essentially follows 3 rivers, Tränkebach, Gauchach and Wutach. We decided to walk towards Gansschacher to start with the smallest river, Tränkebach.
In the forest, the path led down to the ravine at a gentle decline and it was as clear as day. We even walked pass a couple of families with children tagging along, so there was absolutely no way you could get lost here. The path slowly narrowed to a single-lane path that reminded me of some adventure out of Indiana Jones. I think we even had the right number of flies to mimic a tropical climate….at least I think I had that many flying into my face. 😛
Once we got to Tränkebach, we were surprised at how dry the river had become especially since there had been rain over the past weeks. In fact, the walking path seemed to have collected all the rain and remained hideously muddy while the river was as dry as a bone! We tried to walk along the riverbed but there was so much debris from fallen trees that we decided to stick to the walking path. Still, it was a delight to make this walk alongside a non-existent stream.
It was easy to spot the connection to the next gorge; Gauchach was a descent sized river that was constantly flowing. The path never widened and stayed as a single-lane path but instead of being amongst trees, the path was sort of carved along a stone wall. Less muddy than before and hence less slippery, the walk got easier but the number of people also grew quite a bit.
If you think the Japanese are weird for having vending machines everywhere, then the Germans are no less weird with their obsession with beer gardens. In the midst of the forest, we came across this tiny hut selling drinks and ice cream! Small tables and benches were set up beside the hut for walkers with their children and dogs to stop for refreshments. With the place filled with chatter and children screaming, we decided to carry on to escape the crowd. We figured this was probably the half way mark for the Three Gorges Hike.
The last river, Wutach was the largest of the three rivers. But that didn’t mean much for the paths, it stayed a single lane for a long stretch before broadening. By this time, crowds of people were having guided tours so walking became rather difficult until we got to the forests again. We noticed several other pairs of walkers carrying heavy looking backpacks and figured they must have camped somewhere in the gorge. It was great to see that despite its popularity, the nature here has been well preserved. I guess the hardest part of the trail was leaving it; leaving the forests and the rivers behind, and climbing up back to the wheat fields and then to the car to head home. In my estimation, we took roughly 4 and a half hours to complete the trail, although I’m sure it could have been covered in a much shorter time frame. I’m hoping to do this again soon but perhaps to explore a greater length of the Wutach river….there’s still over 10km of the gorge to explore!
Belosophy 