Day 4, Riefensbeek to Altenau, 5.5 miles

This was an easy walk; there was no one about and although we had to travel a bit on the road into Altenau there was little traffic. We also walked through some lovely woods with more wildflowers such as foxgloves and the ubiquitous rosebay willowherb though this was not so abundant as on the more open, arable land. We stopped for a while and watched fritillaries on clumps of a fairly tall yellow flower. This may have been yellow gentian or, perhaps, arnica (same thing?) and was all over the place. In Sankt Andreasberg later there was an Arnikastrasse so I think it is, or has been, important to the area.

We treated ourselves to a proper lunch in the garden at Sperberhaier Dammhaus which is right on the road to Altenau and useful for people walking the Hexensteig. We were considering this but later decided against as we didn't think Angelo would go for it.

Arriving in Altenau we stopped at the first likely-looking place and sat outside for a beer, tieing up Angelo nearby and giving him some carrots. He was fairly good but did bray at one point which we tried to ignore. As we set off again a young boy (Fabian?) turned up and said his mother worked at the place we were booked into, Landhaus am Kunstberg, and he would guide us there. Two of his friends on bikes arrived too so we were quite a little group. Angelo refused point blank to go up the step and through the alleyway to the back where there was plenty of grass so instead he stayed in the garden next door. One of the children thought it was 'cool' having a donkey for the night and during dinner we could hear Angelo's new fan club talking to him. The family here was incredibly kind and helpful and didn't seem to mind the bare patch left in their lawn after being nibbled all night.

Day 3, Osterode to Riefensbeek, 9.5 miles - it felt like much more

We got away by 10 am which was to be the usual time, sometimes earlier. I asked if Angelo had brayed and Frau Linnemann told us that indeed he had, late at night, bringing round the neighbours to complain. They thought it was the children with a trumpet but on being introduced to Angelo were delighted with him and said no more about the noise. All the family turned up to give us a good send off. The weather was still very good and lots of people stopped to chat.

The first part of the walk was through the forests above the Soesestausee. We passed a beautifully-situated campsite so stopped for a coffee. In front of the caff was a buddleia which lived up to its name with red admirals, fritillaries and cabbage whites flying around.

We also learned something of Angelo's dislikes. Small wooden bridges being one of them. We had just been talking to a man, Herr Linke, in an electric wheelchair who had been buzzing about and said we should be in Riefensbeek in no time. When we were almost in view of the rooftops we came across a small wooden bridge at which Angelo absolutely refused to budge. We tried everything, love, hate, bribery, threats. We also found out later, rather embarrassingly, that a man who had jogged near us during the pantomime was a friend of Barbara's who had phoned her to describe me on the other side of the bridge holding tempting handfuls of grass out and Jack trying to push the beast. All to no avail. We had to turn back and go down to the main road and come in that way. It wasn't the first time we had had to turn back that day as Angelo had also refused the narrowest concrete drainage runnel across a path you ever saw as well as a tiny brook which is why the walk was longer than expected. Herr Linke found us on the road as he had been concerned when we didn't turn up so came looking.

We finally got to Landhaus Meyer and a lovely welcome with lots of help from the Meyer grandson. Also some very welcome beer as we waited for a friend of Barbara's to turn up to show Jack Angelo's quarters up the road in Kamschlacken. Herr Linke came and stayed for a drink and a chat. He told us he had been a woodsman until nine years ago when he had fallen at home and become paralysed from the neck down. It made us particularly careful in the showers in all the places we stayed as often they necessitated a bit of an awkward high step up and into the tray which was rarely non-slip. I always put a small towel down for security.

The evening was warm enough to eat on the terrace and our delicious dinner was venison for Jack and wild boar for me. There were never many puds offered in Germany, usually you can have anything you like so long as it is ice-cream, but I had something called rote gruetze (a kind of red fruit compote) with ice-cream which was extremely good and which I plan to try. It seems that we were lucky enough to hit on a place with a reputation for good food.

Day 2, Schwiegershausen to Osterode, about 7 miles

We walked, via Feldbrunnen, on side-roads through very quiet open countryside and hardly saw a car or person. In fact we saw more horses than people. Several times groups of horses would see us and come galloping down to the fence and then go along the fence with us as we walked. Angelo wasn't interested but the horses seemed curious. The day was hot and sunny so it was all very pleasant.

The only time during the entire walk that I felt a frisson of embarrassment was when we arrived in the centre of Osterode which as it was a Saturday was filled with people just sitting about in caffs watching the world go by. We became the focus of attention as people wanted to stroke him (yes) or ride him (definitely no). Some children were obviously longing to touch Angelo but in the end were too fearful and others had no inhibitions at all, showering him with embraces as though he didn't have large teeth and hooves to kick with. We came through that way as Jack wanted to show me the statue of a man with a donkey who had brought salt to Osterode long ago and is part of local history.

Jack had booked for him to stay at the local youth hostel as they had space for Angelo, and me to stay in a hotel. When we got to the hostel a man, Herr Linnemann, appeared and said the arrangements had changed and Angelo was now staying with them. After some clarification it turned out that the family had read the story in the local paper, rung Barbara, and offered their garden for Angelo for the night. Jack was a bit relieved as it meant that he could now stay in the hotel too as the hostel had forty Polish children staying there. No doubt lovely children too, but ...

When we got to their house we were offered delish coffee and kuchen with sahne and then beer which was all most welcome. Friends of theirs arrived too and someone turned up with hay. A reporter arrived from Der Eseltreiber who took pics and asked what we were doing - story dated 23.08. and titled 'Mit dem Esel durch den Harz'.

Once Angelo was settled inside his fence we were given a lift to our Hotel-Pension Boergener which was labyrinthine but very comfortable. Coming back from dinner in the stadtmitte we managed to get lost in the dark, no one around, but eventually got back on track again.

Day 1, Wulften to Schwiegershausen, an easy 5.5 miles or so

Angelo doing what Angelo likes best

Angelo's load was packed under Barbara's close supervision and instruction and Jack got a final recap on hoof maintenance. Definitely a job for a chap. As the load contained the electric fence for Angelo, with battery, there wasn't much room left for our stuff. Then we set off down the hill not quite knowing what to expect. Before getting on to a bicycle path we had to go two hundred yards along a fairly busy road - me in front with flag and Jack some twenty yards behind with Angelo. Walking into traffic is very scary but throughout our walk all the cars behaved well and the trucks particularly gave us a wide berth when possible. During the whole time only two nitwit drivers gave lots of toots as they passed which made us nervous but left Angelo unimpressed.

Thankfully we got safely on the path which was lined with great numbers of wildflowers: meadow sweet, thistles, bull rushes round a pond, golden rod, rosebay willowherb, a small blue thing, a long purple spike thing, ragwort and plenty of clover which we discovered Angelo likes best. He kept plunging his head in the clumps of birdsfoot trefoil too which also was plentiful.

Not many people came along the path although two of them said they had read about us in the papers and stopped for a chat. Lunch was what was to become our usual: beer, cheese, salami, tomatoes and rolls. And very nice too. I offered a cherry tomato to Angelo but he spat it out again. Later Angelo managed to get a stone in his hoof which Jack actually got out OK. Where's a boy scout when you need one?

Barbara met us in Schwiegershausen as she had decided that it was easier to take Angelo back to his stable rather than leave him with us the first night. The B&B was excellent and the house, whilst seeming quite small on the outside, was, like the one in Hoergen, like a tardis. All the houses seemed to be like this. The people were enormously welcoming and everyone as usual made a fuss of Angelo although we had to say no to a bun for him. We found a nice meal in a local place and felt our first day had been rather a success and the whole enterprise was going to be a doddle.

Getting there, 14th August

Back of B&B in Hoerden

Considering the number of changes to get from New Southgate to Wulften via Stansted and Leipzig - train, tube, train, plane, bus, train, train, train - it was remarkably trouble-free. The only point of tension being getting to New Southgate station with only one and a half minutes to spare.

Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is a large shopping centre with trains that happen to be attached. A nice new express took me to Halle from where I got a double-decker train so just had to lug my rucksack upstairs. It was like travelling in an attic as the sides slope sharply in and you have to watch your head. From Halle there were an enormous number of allotments by the rail side and many had small wooden buildings on them which were far superior to the usual English ramshackle shed. I think people use them for weekend accommodation and the allotments were not just packed with rows of vegetables and fruit but had play areas, barbecues and so on.

Drifts of rosebay willowherb also lined the track. One drift would still be very purple and next to it would be all white, fluffy seed heads. You would think they would all mature at the same time. There were also many clumps of what looked like golden rod so the view was quite colourful. The countryside was open and undulating until after Nordhausen (another change) as the train neared the mountains and forest.

Jack met me at Wulften but so that I actually could get into the car he had to take several longbows out first and then put them back in round me. As you do. We then went to meet Frau Barbara Kuppers, Angelo's owner who runs and owns the Ponyhof in Wulften then went on to Hoerden where we had B&B with Frau Minde. Her house has more solar panels on it than I have ever seen and a nice summer house where we had dinner.

Eine wundebare Urlaubsreise im Harz

Jack, Angelo and Barbara (Angelo's owner)
Photo from HarzKurier

I got back on Friday after a great holiday with Jack and, of course, Angelo. It wasn't possible to update the blog at the time so I'll do a summary now and post the diary afterwards.

First, the weather We were not too hopeful but in fact it was good throughout apart from some rain after the first week. We were very lucky.

Then, Angelo Neither of us knew a thing about donkeys apart from riding them at the seaside (and the one that bit Gael in Blackpool) but with Jack's pre-walk training and Barbara's support we had very little difficulty. The first couple of days Angelo refused cute wooden bridges, pretty (and very small) babbling brooks, narrow drainage runnels across paths and, above all, steps. However, after Barbara had shown us how to cajole him we had no further problems although we gave steps a miss. Another thing we learnt about was donkey braying. It's extremely loud and ends in a few snorts which have an unfortunately damp effect on the surrounding area but you only get caught in a donkey snot shower once I can assure you. It gave rise to lots of terrible Jack jokes along the lines of 'snot fair'. Angelo also had a tendency to tread on feet if you were not careful and many the time did the mountains ring to the sound of Jack's howls. I was OK as the boots I got for NZ have very strong toe-caps.

And then, the people I spoke to more people in that fortnight than in the past year. Everyone loves a donkey and many had read about us in the local paper and stopped to admire and pet Angelo. Kisses on the nose he took as his due. Most evenings saw him regally ignoring a fan club although he would condescend to notice if anyone had an apple or carrot. It helped a lot, of course, that Jack speaks such good German. I was able to chip in occasionally but tended to only get the gist of anything which, combined with my usual hearing mistakes could lead to a bit of confusion and blank looks. Everyone was very nice and chatty, interested in what we were doing and enormously helpful. All the places we stayed in whether B&B or small hotel were helpful and welcoming although the Germans don't seem to read in bed any more than the French do so bedside lights were mostly useless.

Finally, the route Jack had worked hard to figure out a circular route from Wulften, booking into local B&Bs, small hotels and suchlike which were happy to have a donkey in their garden. Only one tourist information person began to crack up ringing a hotel and asking for 'two single rooms and a meadow'. We used roads, side-roads, bicycle paths, footpaths and so-called marked paths across country. The last gave us a few problems as maps and way-marking didn't always seem to coincide or be very clear. Angelo was surprisingly happy in traffic although I was a touch terrified at first as I was the idiot who had to walk in front, into on-coming traffic, holding a very bright flag. It is not something I am used to and although Angelo didn't blink when large trucks hurtled past I certainly did. Fortunately most roads were very quiet and there was often a verge we could use.

All in all we had lots of fun and were so glad that we tried our Walk with a Donkey.

Off tomorrow

Everything ready now for the Off. Jack has booked accommodation (decided not to bother with camping: nice idea, totally unreliable weather) up to 24th August. If I keep walking until then I shall be amazed.

Jack has had some practice runs with Angelo and is assured that the donkey will not be so contrary once away from his home turf. I hope this is true. Apparently we take an electric fence with us to keep Angelo contained when he isn't stabled so I hope it works OK as it would be embarrassing to lose him. As for food, he will graze when and where no doubt he chooses and we shall buy hay as required. We shall have a shovel with us too in case he poos in unfortunate places. Maisie always used to and I see no reason why Angelo should be any different.

The weather is as dire as it is here so fingers crossed for at least some sunny days.