Craig Henderson Europe ‘23 Part 8 - Malerweg

24 August 2023 - Bad Schandau, Germany; day prior to start of Malerweg

The German state of Saxony lies on the eastern side of Germany, bordering Poland and the Czech Republic. In the south-east of Saxony, in and around the Elbe River valley, there is an area referred to as Saxon Switzerland.

The area is home to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. This mountain range has been dramatically sculpted by the forces of nature over millions of years, resulting in a vast region of gorges, bluffs, cliff walls and strangely shaped rock formations.

During art’s Romanticism era of the early 19th century, European painters were drawn to the natural beauty and drama of the Elbe valley and its rocky landscape. Among them were two prominent Swiss painters who, feeling that the area was reminiscent of their home country, conferred the name “Saxon Switzerland” on the region. Strangely, the name stuck.

Caspar David Friedrich and other European Romantic landscape painters of the 19th century painted extensively in Saxon Switzerland. The ‘Malerweg’ (or the “Painters’ Way) is a 112 km walking trail that strings together some of the sites in Saxon Switzerland most favoured by those dreamy artists.

Cathy and I will embark on it tomorrow.

We’re doing this walk with the assistance of a tour operator, who has booked the accommodation and arranged luggage transfer. Tour operators often develop their own version of an established multi-day walk. This is usually due to accommodation and luggage transfer constraints. Sometimes, too, the operator tries to make the walk a little easier or shorten it slightly to fit it into a certain number of days.

So, the route of our Malerweg walk differs a bit from the route of the official Malerweg. At 75 km, it’s shorter than the 112 km of the official route and it includes a couple of towns that the official route doesn’t include.

That doesn’t fuss me. ‘Our Malerweg’ covers the areas that we want to see in the time we have available.

25 August 2023 - Day 1 of Malerweg: Bad Schandau to Kurort Rathen (20 km; 6.0h)

The stretch of warm weather we’ve experienced is due to continue today with 32C forecast, so we’re on the road by 8.00am.

The walk starts a little slowly with some farming country to traverse and then some road walking. But it soon hits its straps with a ladder-assisted climb to a viewing point called Brand. From Brand, we get our first exciting vision of two famous local sights - Lilienstein Rock and Konigstein Fortress.

After leaving the popular lookout, the forest becomes thick and dramatic rock formations appear more regularly. By early afternoon we feel we’re making good progress so decide to take a detour to an historic mountain-top village, called Hohnstein.

At the top of the traditional village, making full use of the mountain bluffs, is a sprawling fortress. The fortress provides great views of the surrounding countryside and gorges, but both the fortress and the village have the feel of a backwater. There seem to be enough visitors for a few businesses to operate but nothing looks like it’s flourishing.

After Hohnstein the trail does some roller-coasting. On one of the upwards sections, the track-maker employs cleverly positioned ladders and other metalwork to transport you upwards through an unruly pile of splintered rocks. It’s all very Raiders of the Lost Ark!

With its cooling shade, we relish each metre in the forest. It feels like our friend and ally on this warm day. As in the Black Forest, the bark beetle is attacking the dominant pine species, the spruce. There are numerous patches of forest where the beetles have prevailed and dead spruce stand forlorn. It’s sad to see the forest damaged in this way, although the material we read is quite upbeat, suggesting that the forest is responding with different, beetle resistant tree species appearing.

Overnight is in a village on the Elbe, Kurort Rathen. The temperature is till 24C at 7pm so we keep our streak of outside dinners going.

26 August 2023 - Day 2 of Malerweg: Kurort Rathen to Konigstein (19 km; 5.5h)

The most famous stretch of the Malerweg, called the Bastei, is an elevated and heavily vegetated area of tall rock pillars, cliffs and plunging gorges. Within the Bastei, linking together several rock pillars, is a human constructed bridge (built around 1850) known as the Basteibrucke. The whimsical Basteibrucke was much painted by the later Romantics and is now much photographed by even later romantics.

The Bastei is just out of Kurort Rathen so we’re fortunate to be up there early. The Basteibrucke is shrouded in cloud and deserted when we get there. We check out every viewing spot and take our share of moody photos.

The quality of the walking is maintained by virtue of a gorge track down to the picturesque riverside village of Wehlen. From there, it’s a passenger ferry to the other side of the river and then a climb into the fascinating Rauenstein area. For those familiar with the Grampians Ranges in Australia, this area is similar. Unusual, sculpted sandstone formations, and tracks that wend their way through the rocks while delivering lots of viewpoints.

Late morning, high up on a ridge in the Rauenstein, we unexpectedly come across a remote restaurant/cafe. Yes, I know, similarities to the Grampians have broken down at this point. We order our Macchiato Lattes (strange order but through trial and error we’ve discovered this gets the best result). We’re the only ones drinking coffees; the Germans drink beer at all times of day and night.

The final highlight of what is turning out to be a stellar day is the Konigstein Fortress. This fortress is one of the largest hilltop fortresses in Europe. We’ve seen it from afar numerous times over the last two days and now, as our route goes past the entrance, a visit is an option.

For most of today, we’ve been aware of what sounds like explosions in the distance. We’ve decided it must be a quarry or a rifle range. As we get closer to the fortress, the sounds get louder and we realise they are coming from the fortress. Turns out that there is a cannon firing competition at the fortress. Members of rifle and cannon clubs from all over Germany have assembled with their restored historic cannons and it has been open slather all day. Once you get to the fortress, the booms of the different cannons are incredibly loud and actually quite disturbing. We pass on the opportunity to visit and scurry away hands over ears.

27 August 2023 - Day 3 of Malerweg: Konigstein to Gohrisch (9 km; 3.0h)

Not too many kilometres to cover today, so it’s a leisurely start. But we don’t dally too much because today includes the Pfaffenstein mountain and we’ve read that there’s plenty to see on the plateau where Pfaffenstein is located.

The walk to Pfaffenstein from Konigstein is through lush and healthy forest. Happily, we see almost no evidence of the bark beetle. It’s raining today; the first day of steady rain for a couple of weeks. We can almost feel the forest drinking in the moisture.

Pfaffenstein is like an adventure playground. Again, I’m reminded of the Wonderland range of Australia’s Grampians. It has inventive tracks all over the place, providing access to rock fingers such as the renowned Barbarine and daring cliff top viewpoints. Many of the ladders and stairways and rock-hewn routes were first put in place in the 1800’s when visitors first started coming. Safety standards and approval processes were obviously different then. The Nadelohr (“needle-eye”) descent from the plateau is downright audacious. A trail-maker proposing that path today, with all of its metalwork (ie, ladders, footholds etc) would be laughed out of the halls of government.

The rain eases and we eat our rolls atop a massive boulder with far-reaching views. We watch curiously as a couple with an odd-shaped backpack settle nearby. The backpack turns out to be a cat carrier. The cat is carefully extracted from the pack and a leash attached. The cat takes one look at the boulder, the surrounds and us and dives back into the carrier.

Fascinating Pfaffenstein rock formations

28 August 2023 - Day 4 of Malerweg: Gohrisch to Bad Schandau (11.0 km; 4.0h)

We’re quickly back into the forest this morning and climbing up towards our first mountain target, Gohrisch. It’s drizzly this morning and and mist wafts around the nearby rocky outcrops. The Romantic artists would have loved it.

Gohrisch is soon followed by the main mountain draw card of the day, Papststein. The trail-maker at Papststein clearly came from the same trail-maker school as the dare devil who carved out yesterday’s routes on Pfaffenstein. Thrills aplenty again. Cathy calls it a real world game of snakes and ladders.

At the top of Papststein we stumble upon another of those remote and cosy restaurant/cafes that remind us how different European walking is to Australian walking. We join a couple who are doing the same version of the Malerweg as us. Sigrid and Renze live in the Netherlands where Renze hails from but Sigrid is Austrian. I ask whether they speak to each other in German or Dutch. The answer is: neither. They speak English to each other as they met and lived in England for a number of years. Brexit made it more difficult for them to stay in England so they’ve recently moved to the Netherlands. Their 14 year old twins speak three languages.

We discuss the adventurous track and they explain that litigation in Germany for personal injuries is very uncommon. We agree that’s probably a factor. I suspect another factor at play is that these tracks are valued as part of the history and culture of Germany and people wouldn’t tolerate their closure.

The drizzle of the morning turns into rain by lunchtime and settles in. After a few hours of that, we’re still kind of happy that the forest is receiving its overdue watering but that sentiment is waning.

Intricate networks of ladders lead walkers through the rock formations surrounded by forest

29 August 2023 - Day 5 of Malerweg: Bad Schandau to Lichtenhainer Wasserfall (14.0 km; 4.5h)

It’s still raining when we head off this morning. It’s also coolish at 14C. Our last day on the Malerweg and Cathy’s last walking day before flying home from Munich in a couple of days’ time.

We debate that perennial walkers’ chestnut - when there’s light rain but it’s not too cold, do you don the waterproof overpants from the outset (with the high risk of over-heating before too long)? Or do you walk in shorts/trousers and keep the overpants in reserve for heavier rain or cold later in the day (with the risk of drenched shorts/trousers)? We put on the overpants. Mine are reasonably heavy duty and mid-way through the inevitable morning climb I’m sweltering.

This walk continues to surprise and delight. More beautiful forest, more gigantic rock formations and more bold track-work. We start to wonder if the track-maker’s cousin was a metal-worker.

A highlight of the morning is the Gratweg (ridge path) that has us on an easy path up amongst the rocky outcrops. However, at the various viewpoints, we have to imagine the view as clouds have engulfed the mountains.

We see no one for the first couple of hours until, amidst one of the rock mazes at the top of a mountain, Sigrid and Renze suddenly appear out of the swirling mist, like apparitions. We chat briefly as it’s one of those days when you need to keep moving. They walk ahead and the mists swallow them up.

We finish the day’s walk and our Malerweg highlights hike at Lichtenhainer Wasserfall. From there, the historic tram, Kirnitzschaltbahn, delivers you back to Bad Schandau.

This walk has exceeded our expectations. It’s got wonderful forests and sandstone mountains, with the rock formations and creative track providing the wow factor. On most of the walks, we’ve been lucky to celebrate the final day with fellow walkers we’ve met on the trail. We continue that practice tonight with the charming Sigrid and Renze.