The Watermill trail - Ehrbachtal

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Today the plan was to travel up the Hünsrucker bahn (Hünsruck railway) out of Boppard and into the hills for a walk down the wooded Ehrbachtal.


I had been looking forward to this because as railways go, this one is nuts. The gradient is around 1:13. So it is the railway equivalent of going the hard way up a ski jump. Without a rack rail. The engines that are used are standard heavy diesel locomotives, (class 218, all you DB fans) which can be seen speeding expresses along lines such as, say, Ulm - Lake Constance in the south. The line works by sheer adhesion!


However German Railways had other ideas. We found out that due to "repairs" we had a bus replacement. That was as bad timing as the closing of the pool at Boppard: several cyclists squeezed on to the bus, with difficulty!

We travelled up the hills and over the watersehd to the headwaters of Ehrbachtal, which flows down into the Mosel valley.


The wooded tops were a bit cooler, as we made away along a broad track. It was signed all the way, but the signs had different numbers than indicated on the map. We had bought a new map specially, because of the persistent footpath renumbering that had been going on in the locality! Fortunately, there was only a choice of two tracks down the valley and we made good progress, passing old mills on the way. Most had been converted into bars or restaurants, and the last one did a good line in veggie schnitzel and chips, followed by Kaffee und Kuchen .

Feeling well refreshed, we wandered up to the open country above the valley and out into the heat. We managed to be just in time for a minibus which took us to Emmelshausen, to change onto the bus replacement.

We stopped off in Boppard to pick up some of the fine wine on offer and then take the local train to Bad Salzig. That evening we went up to the spa, and treated ourselves to a dip in the warm salty waters in the pool there. Lovely. We had the place to ourselves: a circular pool surrounded by stone carvings. There was hot marble to lie on and glass frontage with views out to the spa and park. It looked raher good as dusk approached and the lights in the park came on.

Pity to be heading back. The B&B we were at was great value, and very comfortable.

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Photos

The way to Ehrbachtal
At various times our route was "E" or "5" or just for a change "50". I think this footpath re-classification thing was taken a mite too far. (No wonder it was a Fuchsrundweg "fox's circular route"). Even the foxes went round in circles.

Comments

[Roger Kimm]

Huensruck
The Huensruck is where the TV saga Heimat was filmed. It is a wild and wonderful place with many unspoilt villages. The area is now being sullied by the development of the former U.S. military base (Fliegerhorst Hahn) as an airport for budget airlines. A motorway is also planned (ugh!!).