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Day 3 of walking begins with mist lurking. Although it makes for interesting photos as I catch the 0845 train/bus service back to Weissenkirchen, I don't fancy walking in it as I wander around the hills en route between Weissenkirchen and Spitz. But in the end I don't get affected: I guess it burns away before I get to the hills.
My route today starts by doing route 21 of the Rother book walking in the reverse direction. So first I go up hill to Vorderseiber, then to Seiber and then to Buschwandlwand. This is another lookout point. At this point, route 21 goes to Woesendorf, but I want to go to Spitz. Well, it so happens that part of route 22 covers the route from Buschwandlwand to Spitz but again walking in the reverse direction. Both routes are classified as red by Rother which is the medium category of severity.
At the start of the route in Weissenkirchen, I see a signboard that says that my route is 12K long.
It's a hard climb out of Weissenkirchen. A quarter of the way up, I see some people cutting bunchies of grapes. The green waymarked rout than leaves the road to take a lane described as the Weinweg. It reaches a lane junction and seeing the left hand seems to be returning to the road, I bear right. I reach a junction that has a crucifix on a red background. The maps have the route going straight on at this point, and the waymarks indicate that I should go straight on, but the Rother book's route uses the lane that goes right at this junction. I'm curious and seeing I'm feeling confident about my map-reading and can see the way ahead and can see from the map how I can rejoin the waymarked route, I decide to go right.
At the next junction by some sheds, I go left. This seems to be close to a point marked 382m on the maps but I see no trig point. After going left, I see the reason probably why the Rother book's route goes this way: a view opens up down to the Danube below and I take two photos (note: these two photos are currently out of sequence). It's not obvious which way to go at the next junction, but left looks safetest to get back to the waymarked route.
After passing through vineyards, a forest is reached. Here there is a choice of paths. The path to the left goes to the road, the path bearing right goes along a track into the forest whereas the path straight on takes a footpath into the forest. The latter is the way to go and it's a blue waymarked path.
Progress along this path for the next 1.5K is slow as lots and lots of different kinds of mushrooms force me to take photos, photos, photos.
Eventually, Seiber and Seiberhuette are reached. You come of the forest and reach a T-junction. Here you go left and almost immediately go right. In the photo, the exit from the forest is shown on the left and the turn to the right is behind the wheely-bins.
You go pass some houses that are in Seiber and then you reach a confusing un-waymarked junction. There are paths to the right and one that goes left downhill but the way forward is straight on which goes into the trees and to a path that is waymarked in blue.
The path exits the forest at a T junction with a main road. Here you go right and walk tarmac for about 0.5K to an obvious junction of footpaths either side of the main road at the point marked 686 on the maps. Here go left.
Almost immediately, another junction is reached as you enter the wood. Most of the signs point off right, but I carry straight on along a path that is later waymarked in blue. At an un-waymarked junction bear right and at the next waymarked junction bear left. I was a bit asleep at a junction that occurs later as I nearly followed the cart tracks left instead of bearing off right (it is waymarked). Later, you leave the blue waymarked trail at a Buschandlwand sign to take a footpath that is waymarked in yellow. Shortly this gets to the lookout point at Buschandlwand that is the Josef Grueber Warte.
After taking some misty phtoos of the Danube, it's time to head down through the forests to Spitz.
At one junction to the left, I go straight on and it is only about 1K later when I get to a junction trying to work out whether to go left or right it dawns on that I haven't seen any waymarks recently. I have to back track to the junction where I should have gone left. There are two signs to say that you should do this, one being on a tree and the other is on a stone.
I meet two people using a powerful machine that splits enormous pieces of wood in two.
At one waymarked junction, you have to leave the track and go right and down into a heavily overgrown path but after a while it becomes less overgrown.
And I arrive in Spitz. Here the return bus to Duernstein does leave from the railway station.