Wet finisher

Slowly, very slowly. My feet feel as if they were twice as thick. My legs are a rock-hard muscle package that hurts with every step. I’ve never taken part in a marathon, but I suppose I am feeling like a 42-kilometer-runner on the day after the race – with the difference that more than two marathon distances stick in my bones, literally. From Wednesday, 8 a.m. to Thursday, 7.55 p.m. I hiked 96 kilometers. And I have reached my goal: from Cologne Cathedral on the Way of St. James to Aachen Cathedral within 36 hours, including an overnight stay. Five minutes before the time that I had set before I reached the gate of Aachen Cathedral. The mission “Power pilgrimage for Nepal” was accomplished.

Flyers

A candle in Cologne Cathedral

When I walk into the cathedral early on Wednesday, it’s still empty. I light a candle, then a priest in the sacristy gives me the pilgrims’ blessing. Ready to go. At 8.20 a.m. I’m on my way. In Widdersdorf, at the edge of the Cologne city area (after 13 kilometers), I swear like a sailor for the first time. Somewhere on the last about 500 meters, I must have lost my map sheets that were in my trekking pants’ pocket. So back again. At a crossroad, I find the empty transparent envelope. The about 20 map sheets have been blown by the wind across the road. Two passers-by help me to collect the sheets that are partially wet now and printed with tire marks. “Now you know why we call it flyers”, says one of my friendly helpers and grins.

Not quite perfect piste conditions

The sun says goodbye

Then my hike goes by without incident. “All fine for skiing and tobogganing?”, a joker asks me in Frechen-Königsdorf (kilometer 21), when I pass him with my trekking poles. “Perfect piste conditions”, I reply. That’s not entirely true. Only after five and a half hours, I’m walking for the first time a long distance on forest trails. After all, the wind has now blown away the clouds, the sun is shining. When it goes down at 4.30 p.m. – I’ve left Kerpen (kilometer 33) behind me – the hardest part of the day begins. I am getting weaker, with pain in my legs and feet, walking only in the light of my headlamp. Don’t think! Go on and on, now on country lanes that seem never-ending.

Got my hopes up too soon

In the light of the headlamp

It’s about 7 p.m., when I see an illuminated rotunda on the horizon. I assume that this is a church in the town of Düren, where I want to finish my first stage. I summon up my last reserves of strength – and get disappointed by the place-name sign Merzenich (kilometer 47). The eye-catching building was an old water tower. Another five kilometer till Düren, then even across the town! At 9 p.m. I reach my interim destination (kilometer 56), after 13 hours on the road. Obviously I look all but fit, the woman at the hotel reception hands me commiserating a bottle of mineral water.

In twos

Still almost dry

I don’t sleep much due to heavy storm and rain that is pattering against the windows. Nevertheless, I feel so far recovered the next morning that I leave the hotel on time at 8 a.m. My son Jan, who is studying in Aachen, has got up earlier than I to accompany me on the second stage of my hike. This is balm for the soul. You are hiking simply easier if you have someone to talk to. Behind Düren, the Way of St. James leads through forests for a long time. The trails are muddy after the severe weather the night before. After four hours we enter a snack bar in in the small village of Schevenhütte (kilometer 70). We fill up our empty storages of calories with meatballs and large portions of French fries.

Raining cats and dogs

Hiking in the rain

“Normally, no more pilgrims are passing here in November”, tells us the owner of the snack bar. He is surprised that we didn’t ask for a pilgrimage stamp at the church on the other side of the road: “You are no real pilgrims without stamp.” We make up for it a few hours later, in the small village of Breinig (83 kilometers), where the stamp for the pilgrims is hanging in a box on the main road. At that time, it is already dark again, and it’s raining cats and dogs for a while: For the last six hours, we are hiking under a constant shower from above.

Stumbling to the finish

Our wet handprints on Aachen Cathedral

The forest and field paths are muddy or have turned into small streams. The water flows into the shoes, into the neck. The rain cover does not work anymore. When we turn to the finish line in Aachen, we are wet up to the underpants. On the last kilometers, we are even stumbling through the city, no longer in an upright position. It’s only the goal to reach the Cathedral within the set time that pushes us forward. And we succeed: Only when we are already taking our “summit pictures” in front of the now closed Cathedral (kilometer 96), the church bells are ringing: 8 p.m.

Go to the bank!

So, dear sponsors: Now please multiply the amount you fixed for each kilometer I hiked with 96 and transfer the money to the account of our aid project “School up!”:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

Thank you – also on behalf of the children in Nepal! If I have estimated right, the amount of my sponsored hike should be about 800 euros (including donations as fixed amounts) for the reconstruction of the school in Thulosirubari. For that, I accept my heavily aching muscles for a few more days.

The site where the school was located

“We feel very sad to see ‘Ground zero’ of this huge school building”, says Sunil Krishna Shrestha, representative of the German aid organization “Nepalhilfe Beilngries” in Nepal. As reported before, the devastating 25 April earthquake had damaged the “Gerlinde and Ralf School” in the small mountain village of Thulosirubari so badly that it had to be demolished. The ruins had posed a danger to the children who had continued to play there after the quake. Meanwhile, the destroyed school building, where about 700 students from the region around the village had been taught before the quake, was leveled to the ground. “We were able to recover windows, doors and a few school desks and boards from the rubble”, Arjun Gatraj, the chairman of the school management committee at Thulosirubari, writes to me, adding that the old bricks could not be saved because the IOM (International Organization for Migration) had used heavy machinery to demolish the building.

Provisional classrooms

The winter is coming soon. The lessons are still held in tin sheds. “We haven’t any plan how to heat the rooms during winter because there is not enough money”, says Arjun. “The tin sheds are too cold in winter.” Nevertheless, the teachers want to continue their lessons. The ongoing blockade of the Nepalese-Indian border by opponents of the new constitution has consequences for Thulosirubari too. “Important goods and medicines are running short because it is hardly possible to find a vehicle to transport them here”, says Arjun Gatraj.

From Cologne Cathedral to Aachen Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral

Last June we started our donation campaign “School up!” to rebuild the “Gerlinde and Ralf School” as soon as possible. The well-known climbers Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner from Austria and Ralf Dujmovits from Germany are collecting donations for “School up!” during their lectures and other events. The slogan of my next activity for the project is “Power pilgrimage for Nepal”. Two weeks from today, on 18 November, I will set off in my hometown Cologne from the Cathedral for a (tough) two-day sponsored hike in all weathers on the Way of St James. The end of the hike should be the Aachen Cathedral, about 100 kilometers away. Because of my no longer quite new knees, I will not walk nonstop but stay overnight halfway and continue my hike early the next morning. That should be tough enough.

Donation per kilometer

Aachen Cathedral

I am looking for sponsors for my “Power pilgrimage for Nepal”. The revenue is used one hundred percent for “School up”. This is how it works if you join in: Before I start you determine an amount for every kilometer that I will hike between 18 November, 8 a.m. and 19 November, 8 p.m. Means: If you want to give for instance ten cents per kilometer, it would be a total of ten euros at 100 kilometer – if I really succeed in hiking this distance within the time indicated. Those who prefer to contribute a fixed amount of money can of course do so. I am grateful for any euro for the school in Thulosirubari.
While I’m on the road, I will inform you via Twitter where I am and what I am experiencing. At the end I will tell you how far exactly I hiked within these 36 hours. Then you should transfer your donation directly to the bank account of “School up!”:

Recipient: Nepalhilfe Beilngries
Bank: Volksbank Bayern Mitte eG/Germany
IBAN: DE05 7216 0818 0004 6227 07
BIC/SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1INP
Intended purpose: Gerlinde and Ralf School

You may wonder why I’ll go on a pilgrimage, albeit a short one. Very simply, because I am a Christian. And a bit of assistance from above for our project in Nepal cannot do any harm.

P.S.: You can inform me by email (you find the address on the bottom right) about the amount that you have decided to give for “Power pilgrimage for Nepal” – of course, under the pledge of secrecy, as an additional information and motivation for me. Many thanks in advance!