In the morning, it was raining. One of the very few days, where I got some water from above. My first steps were through the city down to the river called Main, which is the border between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in this region.
The Spessart is one of the central European “Mittelgebirge” (medium sized mountains) and it is covered with what seems to be one enormous forest.
Sometimes I walked on beautifully designed gravel paths and sometimes it was right through the woods. Sometimes it fell steep to one side and rose high to the other, sometimes the landscape was softer.
Quite some time, I followed along streams or rivers (Kropfbach, Dammbach and others) and in the course of the day, I saw more deer than people.
I was amazed how far away I felt from towns, cities or traffic during those hours in the forest.
At the end of the day, I stopped by the Schloss Mespelbrunn, a medieval castle that is very beautifully placed in the scenery. The Spessart has this reputation, that back in the old days people had to be afraid of bandits in the forest. It is perfectly imaginable how to block one of the paths for a carriage to be trapped and some places seemed designed like in fairy tales. So, I can fully understand how those stories could develop.
My highlights of the day were:
- Feeling completely alone in the woods – only meeting two people in the stretch of five hours
- The strong oppositions in scenery: sometimes very dark, sometimes lit and open; sometimes thick bushes under the trees with short visibility, sometimes open view under a roof of trees; sometimes bright green floors, sometimes brown dry areas
- Learning that the main trees were oak trees up until about 4,000 years ago and now it would be beech trees.
Statistics:
- 28.6 kilometers
- 6:04 hours
- 800 meters uphill and 710 meters downhill
