Five Day Pilgrimage to Mariazell
The third day of the pilgrimage was the most challenging of the entire hike. The 16 mile distance included two mountains over 3000 feet high. In addition, I did not eat anything since the start of the pilgrimage, as my family doctor recommended fasting for cleansing the body. I still had to take antibiotics for treating Borreliose I got by a tic bite. I was quite concerned that I would stress the body too much.
I left the inn by early morning. My friend Sigrid did not join this day. She was recovering from several weeks in the hospital and had to be careful with her health.
The day started with magical impressions of nature – sparkling dewdrops covered spider webs, grasses and flowers, making each little plant the most precious thing on earth.
Just a tiny part of a meadow and so beautiful
Spider webs soaked with dewdrops were resting all over the meadow on grass blades
A thistle with two buds and a blossom
Miracle of nature
My first destination before the climb up to Kieneck mountain was the 12th century castle Aaraburg. I had apple juice with sparkling water in the café before I started to hike up the mountain.
Aaraburg in the distance
For hours, I went along the mountain ridge up the mountain and did not meet a single person. Again, the nature was magical.
Powerful roots covered the mountainous path
The colors of flowers are even more brilliant, the higher they grow
Interesting mushroom formations
The view of the surrounding mountains was spectacular – you can see untouched forests all the way to the horizon. This land is very protected, because Vienna gets its water supply from here.
When I arrived at a mountaintop called Reingupf, I did not see anymore trail markers and checked my phone navigator about the distance to the mountain Kieneck. It showed that Kieneck was several hours walk away. I was shocked – did I make such a mistake? I did not have a good enough map to look where I was and decided to go back to catch the last public bus.
When I climbed down the steep mountain path for a while, I met two hikers coming up. They assured me that I was on the right path. They had downloaded the entire pilgrimage on their Iphone, which was a smart thing to do. I asked if I could hike with them and they agreed. So I hiked the same way up again.
Walking together along the ridge
Several minutes before 3 pm we arrived at the Enzianhütte. We were so lucky that we arrived just minutes before they closed. All three of us did not have enough water with us for the day’s hike.
Terrace of the Enzianhütte
View from the terrace of the Enzianhütte
We continued our hike to the next mountain, Unterberg. The mountain inn was closed. We were happy that we had stocked up on our water supply. Because of the porous limestone, there are no natural springs on the mountain.
Again, the view down into the valleys and lower mountains was spectacular. We passed a charming little chapel called “Maria Einsiedl” with the replica of Virgin Mary of Mariazell. The inside of the chapel looked like the inside of an old-fashioned train wagon.
Wooden chapel Maria Einsiedl
View of the chapel inside
Intimate relation between a stone and a tree
My two saviors getting water at the first spring we encountered
After the Unterberg Mountain, we started the long descent down to the village Rohr im Gebirge. We hiked many hours in the dark and arrived at 10 pm at our hotel. On this day, I had hiked for 14 hours without taking any food. I was amazed that my body had even more energy than usual.