Muddling Along

FOLLOWING yet another game finishing in under two hours, I set off from the venue, Hotel Kaiseralm, again intending to take a scenic route to Bischofsgrün's cable car and use it to ascend the Ochsenkopf.

But I had not gone far when I saw a sign stating Fichtelberg was less than 10 kilometres away, and thought I would walk there instead.

I had seen the town of Fichtelberg on the map, and assumed it got its name from Mount Fichtelberg, which at 1,215 metres is higher than Ochsenkopf's 1,024 metres.

In fact I had got my geography in a muddle - Fichtelberg, the mountain, is not in the Fichtel range, but some 60 miles away in Saxony.

The walk started pleasantly enough with sun-dappled forest, albeit I was walking on a straight, gravelly trail 

As on the previous day, virtually the only colours to be seen were greens and grey-browns

The main exceptions to the colour duopoly were the occasional white butterfly and, here, foxgloves

It soon became apparent that, rather than taking a completely new route, I had merely cut off a corner of the day-before's journey along the White Main.

And since it seemed the whole way to Fichtelberg was going to be on a gravel trail, I decided to cut my losses and more-or-less repeat the walk of the previous day (this was probably a lucky choice, bearing in mind that, as I explained above, I had got my Fichtelbergs confused).

So once again I stopped for coffee and water at a lakeside hostelry, and again had lunch, this time pretzel, cheese and water, at the source of the White Main.

Speaking of choice, it's not that I had a limited number of routes to pick from 

A single file of foxgloves, seemingly marching down the mountainside

One change on this second ascent of Ochsenkopf was that the cafe at the summit was open, having been closed on Monday.

Rock Art

Maria Alm, a biergarten-style open space near the foot of Ochsenkopf, was also over Montag Ruhetag syndrome

A final crossing of the White Main, before returning to my hotel