sad sounds of a tiny elephant

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This post is about a 28km walk from Hundsheim to Schönbühel. I have difficulties finding a place to camp and end up next to a monastery.

I woke up in a nice hotel room. “It’s cold outside!” my dad had said at dinner, “and what if the rain comes back?”

zimmering through the vines

The hotel had a breakfast buffet. I ate all the things except for those that contained meat, then I got on the road. The world seemed a bit drier than the day before. The clouds were still heavy, but the grass and the trees weren’t dripping anymore, and the asphalt had cleared up as well.

I put in the “Dune” soundtrack and went into my walking rhythm for a while. There were grape vines everywhere, and walking was nice and easy.

When I got to a small village, I found a store where I stocked up on supplies. I had been nibbling on the same loaf of bread for four days, so I decided to buy a new one, along with some bananas, tomatoes, a yoghurt, and some M&Ms.

camping forbidden

The cycle path was busy today. Most cyclists seemed to be old and German, and most seemed to be going in the opposite direction as me. They were following the course of the river, away from Germany, towards Vienna, Budapest, and eventually the Black Sea. For them it was the call of the wild, for me it was the call of home.

I had walked about twenty kilometers when I reached a large parking lot. It seemed like a good place to camp except for a bunch of signs that said CAMPING FORBIDDEN and threatened anyone who dared to disobey with LAW SUITS. I kept going.

to the monastery

Suddenly, both sides of the cycle path were full of lush, thick, green vegetation. I had entered a nature preserve. There were signs with introductions of frogs, ducks, beavers, and snakes. I kept going. In Austria, the maximum fine for camping in a nature preserve was about the same as the price of an affordable car.

About an hour later, I lay stretched out in my tent on a slope next to a monastery, listening to a tiny elephant. Whomp, trumpeted the elephant, whomp whomp. Of course both the elephant and I knew that there was no elephant. There was a spooky sound that came from the inside of the monastery whenever the wind went into it.

I preferred to think of it as a tiny elephant.

pictures

the walk from Hundsheim to Schönbühel:

the road out of Hundsheim

Roman ruins near Hundsheim

castle ruin near Hundsheim

the other side of the river always looks better

grocery shopping

village street near Hundsheim

lunch

village on the Danube

access forbidden

this reminded me of the honey vendors in Kazakhstan

and another village on the Danube

Markus from Switzerland

water levels on a wall

is this a garage?

ruined fortress

bike path through a nature preserve

first incline in the road

Schönbühel monastery

foot bath