Super Audax (2010)
Fog and fatigue in the Black Forest

After the first circuit I set my alarm for 30 minutes and throw myself on my lilo. The choice between food and rest is easy. I can eat at one of the rest stops that are yet to come. I have already hiked 103 km and there's 97 km still ahead. This is the Super Audax.

0 km
After raising the national flags of participants from five countries with much pomp yesterday, today only the starting gun matters. At 06.00 in the morning it fires followed by the sound of our footsteps. We start to walk in the fixed Euraudax-pace of 6 km an hour. A stroll for me, but relaxing and I will be able to keep it up for very long time. We traverse the centre of Pfaffenrot, a small village in the Black Forest. A bus stops to let us pass, and drives past us just when we are passing a bus stop where a passenger is waiting. He waives his arms wildly to attract attention from behind the crowd of hikers and the drivers breaks hard.
We are a decent sized group of 103 hikers; 51 French, 31 Belgians, 9 Germans, 9 Dutch and 3 Danes. I am glad for the amount of Belgians, because I speak only a little French and we do have to entertain each other for the time being. For now I walk on my one however, lost in my own thoughts. It takes some time before I am in proper hiking mode and can let go of the enormity of what I am about to do. You can’t afford to contemplate the distance. The first rest stop is at 14 km. That is doable. The route is beautiful, dirt roads and mud through the woods. Nice and gentle underneath my feet. There is a dense fog though, which prevents us from enjoying the view of the hills surrounding us.

23 km
We circle around Marxzell, to which Pfaffenrot belongs, and pass by a small railroad museum. A hill further on and we reach the second rest stop, next to the ruin of Frauenalb, a monastery from the 12^th century. After a fire in 1853 only the walls remain, but one can still see how impressive it must have been when it was inhabited. Drizzle starts. After some hesitation I don my poncho. My hands are getting cold and it’s not even night yet. The flowered fields surrounding us look dejected and grey against the misty backdrop. Not a landscape to cheer the senses.

31 km
The first big rest stop is in Moosbronn. Divided in two small rooms we eat spaghetti, accompanied by beer and wine.  It’s 11.34 and we are hungry. Heartened we press on, along a huge meadow where horses truly act like a herd. They run freely and plow through the bushes with their stout bodies. Photography ensues. We cling to the valley wall, where a stream flows unchanging. I strike up a conversation with Pascal,  a Belgian, and Kjell, one of the three Danes. When it gets dry I tie the poncho around my waist. The issue of where I would leave it otherwise resolves itself, because soon it starts raining again. Along the path we see many downed trees. They are not spindly or sickly things. Massive trunks split though the middle sinisterly protrude from the earth. A result of the extreme Christmass storms of 1999, where wind gusts of 213 km/h where registered. Tens of  thousands trees went down and the French went without gas, water and light for more than a week.

I notice the sand on the dirt roads is red. I am used to the Veluwe, a Dutch nature preserve, with it’s pale yellow drifting sand. Fascinated I look at my feet, because of all the tracks in the wet sand. The big for a roe deer. Red deer? In the forest we turn right, but on a path ahead I see something that stops me in my tracks: a doe. A few hundred meters out she stands in the middle of the path, surrounded by fog, like a ghostly appearance. When I alert others to her presence, she silently disappears in the woods.

Hiking trails are well marked and there are blazes and signs everywhere. We also come across some tourist information. It turns out we are walking along a historical road which marked the border between the grand duchy Baden and the kingdom Württemberg. There was even a toll booth, right in the middle of the woods.

Higher and higher we climb and the dirt road becomes a rocky path with large boulders where you have to mind your feet. Delightful that this is even an option on a 200 km hike. We stop at a view point with a large cross. Marion recalls hiking here in spring and having a lovely view. I climb up but there is nothing, a white wall of fog. In a cabin at the foot of a rock is a guest book and we entertain ourselves with filling it out. A bit lower down we glimpse a village in the valley. Clouds roll by and touch the hilltops. A gorgeous stream gets met excited again. There is still much to enjoy here.

When I have fallen behind somewhat I up my pace. The general pace is slow, so I speed past the group. Hardy, one of the Danes, takes issue with being overtaken and starts speeding up as well. We make a game out of it, to the amusement of the other hikers. “Hardy, you’re being followed by a woman!” they call out. Even though we do not speak each other’s languages, we both laugh.

61 km
In Bad Herrenalb we have a short rest stop again, but a bathroom break is more important. There are some things you just cannot do behind a tree. From the volunteers I receive the 50 cents needed to open the door. Afterwards I put a toilet roll in the doorframe, so the door won’t close and other hikers can get in with less hassle. Relieved I can now enjoy Herrenalb, the ruin of a friary dating back to 1194. Here too only the walls remain and on one of them a 250 year old pine tree grows. How extraordinary. History is literally all around us. On a quiet forest path a rock catches my eye. Two cannon balls from 1796 are buried  halfway into the rock. A remnantof the first coalition war, when Austria and Prussia came to the aid of French King Louis XVI, who feel out of grace during the French revolution. Archduke Karl traversed the Alb-vale with his army in 1796 and fought the French in this area.
Water flows down the hills. Somewhere along the path someone installed a tiny water wheel, which turns squeaking. Who says Germans don’t have a sense of humor?

67 km
You can’t call this a big rest stop really, because the hotel is very cramped. We are back at Frauenalb for our evening meal and our luggage is scattered in the hallway and an empty hotel room. A hikers grabs his chance and stretches out on the bare mattress of a bunk bed. After the entrée I lay may head on the table to rest a bit, but keep moving my feet to prevent them from becoming stiff. I am tired and am not very hungry any more. I take a few tablet to keep my stomach from revolting, ever my body’s way of saying: enough is enough. The catnap has refreshed me somewhat. When we leave we are all wearing safety jackets and headlamps. It is getting dark.

Sleep deprivation is my worst problem and I am not alone in that. The Belgian Dirk confesses he is having hard time and I offer him my arm. That way he can walk with his eyes closed for a time, while I make sure he does not gets into an embrace with the shrubs. This can only happen at Euraudax. At ‘free’ hikes pace is more important and everyone wants to be fastest. Euraudax means hiking in groups and taking care of each other. It might take years before we see each other again, but tonight we are one big family.

It doesn’t take long before I too start seeing things that are not there and almost hike into the shrubs. Sometimes I almost tread on the heels of the hiker in front of me. Where did he come from?
It is completely dark. No stars, no moon, no street lights or light pollution of nearby villages. It’s pitch black. Only the lights from our headlamps illuminate our path. We have to keep paying attention, because at night we too hike on wide dirt roads with water filled potholes. Dirk talks to me. I cannot answer him, because I don’t know what he actually said and what I have imagined him saying myself. The night passes slowly.

103 km
Back in Pfaffenrot, the sports hall. My lilo. Rest. I have set my alarm clock, but still I lie down too long. It takes too long to bandage my feet and put on clean socks. The group is already leaving. Just when I am outside, I realize I have left my poncho inside. I run back to grab the thing and hurry back outside. Well, at least I am awake now.

Birds start singing. Daylight helps. Hiking becomes easier and the fatigue slowly dissipates. I am surprised how smooth things are still going. No tense muscles at all. At every rest stop I take two magnesium tablets and apparently it is working. But probably the hills are helping too. One uses different muscles, which prevents them from being individually strained.

114 km
Euraudax truly is the most lazy way of hiking. You don’t have to worry about the route,  blazes or a route description. At the head of the column is the track captain, the stately Willy 72 years of age. He knows the route and all we have to do is follow him. It’s not allowed to pass him, so when I do so to take a picture of the group it elicits a lot of good-nature comments.

128 km
The first day I kept my cell phone turned off. Then I didn’t need support and encouragement  yet. Now it’s fun to text my hiking friend in the Netherlands as a distraction. As I encouraged him during the Mergelland hike, he supports me with his messages. He does find the Euraudax pace objectionable though and is worried that the average pace will go down. I try to convince him to hike the 200 km in Lommel with me next year, but he is not enthused. Ah well, then I will have to find another to hold onto at night.

146 km
At 09.30 in the morning we reach yet another tourist destination, the Hohlohturm. The stone lookout tower, formerly known as the Kaiser Wilhelmtower, sits at an altitude of 984 meters is 29 meter tall as on 1968. After the storms no trees grow here and a clear view surrounds us. The tower offers a view of the Gernsbach-Reichenvale, but there’s not much of a view today. The tower disappears into the fog.

We proceed into nature area Kaltenbronn, an unique moor- and peat area. Hiking here is annoying, because  while the Germans have constructed a wooden boardwalk, they have neglected to cover it with chicken wire fencing. The wood is slippy and we are more concerned with our feet than the beauty around us. Only when we stop on occasion and lift our heads, we are struck with how beautiful this place is.

165 km
Ruud has had back trouble for a while now and has been hiking more and more crooked over time. With just 35 km to go he indicated he’s about to quit. Dismay among the hikers. That’s not right, is it? We’re almost there! With combined forces we convince him to carry on till the next rest stop. Someone gives him a pain killer, I take his fanny pack, Huub and Dirk physically support him. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s doable. The finish is almost in sight. This was the last big rest stop. Only five little rest stops remain. We can count down to the end now and that provides new energy. At the next rest stop at Eyachbrücke Ruud has found his courage. We are going to make it!

180 km
The last 25 km the mayor of Marxzell walks with us, Raimund Schuster. An energetic man with trekking poles. I have often seen mayors holding a short speech before a large hiking event, but never that they joined the hike. Very nice!

I am getting a wee bit tired now. Because the groups counts so many nationalities I am forgetting in which language to address them. I accost a Dutch in German, a Frenchman in English and a German in Dutch. Very confusing. The final kilometers I hike solely on chocolate and cheese cubes. I have known for awhile now that I am going to make it, this 200 km. It’s going fine, my legs and feet are still pliant. I just have to do it. Turn off my brain and go.

190 km
The rest stops follow each other quickly now. Some 4,5 km to the next one. This is how it should be at such a long distance. A stretch of 7 km of too long now. We follow some railroad tracks to Marxzell and approach civilization. I admire the traffic wardens who guide the traffic around us. We occupy a whole lane, so cars are waiting behind us, while the traffic in front is waived on. It’s like a dance.

Fatigue makes me cranky. After the last little rest stop we turn to the village, where I know the finish to be. Right before we enter the village though, we turn onto a road to the right. I am not happy. An extra loop, with only a kilometer or two to go is not enjoyable. Finally, finally we enter the village. A few streets. I see people in the distance. Hikers start congratulating each other. At the parking lot of the sports hall fireworks are lit.

200 km
That mixture of pain and joy, fatigue and exhilaration, tears fighting a smile. We’re back. I made it.