As I already mentioned in the previous stage: hiking in June means to me making long days from early in the morning to late in the evening, nice weather, blossoming nature and fields almost ready for harvest. Today, the second day of my two-day-trip,  is one of those days.

I leave the inn at 04.15am. Wearing my headlight I walk out of Kefermarkt up to the local castle and through the woods, northbound. After one hour the sun has risen and the nature starts to awake. I see deer and hare in all sorts and sizes running around. Passing the Braunberghütte (a mountain refuge  where everybody is asleep) the path continues to Liebenstein. The course of the path is very typical for hilly landscapes; you climb a hill (approx. 300 m upwards), decent on the other side, again 300 meters, cross a creek and start to climb upwards immediately again. The weather is grey and sometimes it starts to drizzle, but it does not grow into anything bigger. At 1.15pm I arrive, after hiking 40,5 km,  in the small village of Liebenau. I decide to have a big lunch break and order a Wiener Schnitzel in one of the local inns. At 2.00pm I continue to walk, to the village of Karlstift. The path is in this section simultaneous to the E6, the hiking trail from the Eastern Sea to the Adriatic Sea. The weather starts to improve, and shortly before Karlstift I cross the broder between the provinces of Oberöstereich (= Higher Austria) and Niederöstereich (= Lower Austria). At 5.15pm I arrive in Karlstift. I have some blisters under my feet, after two days of hiking in wet shoes. I don’t feel really tired, although I do feel that my day started already 13 hours ago. I don’t hesitate and leave Karlstift northbound. I walk another 6 km along a  gurgeling creek, following a steep and narrow valley. After leaving this, the path goes upwards, as the “mountain” Nebelstein needs to be climbed. My motivation is slowly starting to diminish for today, mainly due to the blisters, and slowly I continue my walk. During the evening hours nature starts to ease down again. The birds make some extra noise before the night falls, and a deer has chosen its place to sleep close to the road which I am walking on. It does not even make the effort to run away from me, as he probabely sees that in my current condition I will not be able to chase him anyway. At 9.30pm I arrive just under the top of the hill, and the sun has completely set. All birds are all over sudden completely silent and nature’s day has come to an end. At 9.45pm I cross the peak of the hill and go to the Nebelsteinhütte (a mountain refuge where everybody is asleep). Having some luck I manage to get inside and shortly afterwards I sleep in a comfortable bed. A beautifull day has come to an end.