There Were Real Ones, Too

Saturday we took off in rainy weather direction Steinhuder Meer, which is a lake only, but, alas, water, right?

Unlike some young men I did not break down after 6km, instead we marched on and on and found some art on the way, too:

Our route led us into a forest, kinda, seemingly forever, too!

Well there is fern and then there is fern, huh?

(Pic taken in Ben Boyd National Park back in 1995)

Was I glad to see the water again!

The last two km were really tough, I tell ya!
Note to self: 20 km is a max for now for me!

I really thought we´ll walk with old men, with reservists, but, haha, no!!!
There were real soldiers, too! One I saw carried a backpack with 15kg of weight even! And they came from all throughout Germany as well.
The guys of the Bundeswehr estimated a total of 5 hours for the 20km hike.
We arrived after 3 1/2 hours and I was kinda a wee bit proud of myself (and soooo glad to be able to stop walking, really!).

Via boat we were brought back:

It was still very cold, but the sun gave a shy hello here.

Yep, that was our company:

Addendum: I´m not in the pic I sit beside Ingo, who took the pic btw :-)

We got some pea soup, the classic, so to say, and there (very luckily!!!) was a bus ride to the parking lot, too.
All for €6 pP!

And, yes, I do have proof I really made it:

(The arrows are checkpoints for the real soldiers)

Will I repeat this next year?
Unlikely ;-)
And I´m really very glad it was rainy and cold. I think in 30C I´d given up or at least would´ve needed 5 hours indeed!

Funny enough: The next day it wasn´t my feet that hurt, but my back!