My last walk centred on the village of Görwihl, located in the Hotzenwald, the southernmost part of the Black Forest, on the edge of the Albtal. The landscape of the Hotzenwald is characterized by variously high plateaus, on which most of the districts are located. Because of its sunny location, the Hotzenwald is considered the "sun terrace of the southern Black Forest" and the area around Görwihl is repeatedly honoured as the place with the most hours of sunshine a year. Transport connections are infrequent, which meant I would not arrive until around midday, permitting only 5 hours before the last connections back to Hinterzarten. As I would be spending more time travelling on public transport than hiking, I hoped this visit to the Hotzenwald would be worthwhile. My journey to Görwihl took me first by train to Seebrugg then buses via St. Blasien. I left Hinterzarten earlier than necessary to allow a couple of hours in St Blasien to visit the beautiful cathedral again and also sit outside a café in the hot sun drinking coffee and watching the world go by. The bus from St. Blasien arrived at Görwihl School around midday and I was pleased to notice the Hotzenwald Querweg passed close to the bus stop. Following the black/white diamond signs, I walked along a metalled road for a kilometre through fields and meadows until reaching the edge of a forest. On reaching the forest, It was nice to leave the hard road surface and start walking on a wide path through the trees on a carpet of dead leaves. The path became narrower and wilder with many rocks and tree roots as I began a steep descent through the forest into the Albschlucht. Around and down went the trail until reaching a fork where the path joined the Albhaldenweg. I now saw signs that showed I was on the Albsteig. The right fork led towards the Albsteg, a bridge over the Alb. I didn't think I had time to visit the bridge, so instead took the left fork which brought me to the confluence of the Alb and the Höllbach. The contrast between the two rivers was interesting because while the Alb flows rather leisurely, the Höllbach rushes noisily down the gorge.

I was pleased to see a bench had been fortunately provided there, so I stopped for lunch in an ideal location. The forest scenery around me certainly was quite beautiful and I enjoyed sitting on the bench accompanied by the sound of the Höllbach as it tumbled over many rocks to join the Alb. A sign informed me that I was in the nature and water conservation area Alb and also displayed a few rules of conduct. For example, it is forbidden to alter the shore area and the bottom of the river, to remove plants and animals, to fish or to leave any waste of any kind. Lunch over, I followed the Albsteig signs as I made an ascent of the Höllbachschlucht. This gorge was quite steep and thickly forested, mainly with beech. To my left, the Höllbach noisily crashed down the slope over many boulders. The scenery was quite reminiscent of the Teichschlucht - very green vegetation and almost iridescent moss. After 30 minutes, I passed a small waterfall, crossed a bridge above it then soon reached the Grosser Höllbachwasserfall. This was an impressive waterfall despite its 8.5 metres height and is a great place to marvel and linger. Located in the middle of an old beech forest, gracefully falling over walls of granite with caves washed by water, I found it much more appealing than the big waterfalls at Todtnau. Continuing uphill, I could see the Kleiner Höllbachwasserfall, but there was no obvious path to get close to it, so I carried on uphill for a while, until I reached a crossroads. I had spent much time taking photographs and due to scarcity of buses, I took the option to go back to Görwihl instead of continuing on to Sägmoos. This fork led me further uphill until leaving the forest and I was back out in the open again and could see Görwihl about a kilometre ahead of me. I walked through some meadows heading towards the church tower. No cafés or restaurants were open in town so I settled for a bottle of beer from a small supermarket, then a short visit to the Heimatmuseum Hotzenwald while waiting for a bus back to St Blasien. On my way back to Hinterzarten, I stopped off at Altglashütten and ate a Bauernrösti for dinner at the Bistro Express. The food there was excellent, also the local Rothaus beer. Today's walk had been quite short, but the scenery was fantastic.

This ended my walking holiday. I had originally planned a quite ambitious itinerary, but hadn't expected the incredible heatwave that had resulted in daily temperatures of over +40C. However, despite having to make some changes, I did manage to achieve most of my objectives. The bright sunshine wasn't really conducive to waterfall photography, so I had far less "keepers" than I had hoped for. I especially enjoyed the walks through the gorges, with the Teichschlucht, Höllbachschlucht and Gauchachschlucht being my favourites. The Hotzenwald region looks very interesting, so it's quite possible that I'll walk the Albsteig Schwarzwald next year in conjunction with the Friedrichshafen Amateur Radio Convention

Along the Hotzenwald Querweg	Forest path to the Albschlucht
Downhill path getting rougher	Lunch location across the bridge
Bridge over the Höllbach	Trail up the Höllbachschlucht
Un-named waterfall in Höllbachschlucht	Grosser Höllbach Wasserfall
Grosser Höllbach Wasserfall	View to Kleiner Höllbach Wasserfall
Path exiting the Höllbachschlucht	Heimatmuseum Hotzenwald