Hiking Tour: “Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 Stage 6: From Melk to Unterhub and Texing Plankenstein”

The North-South-Long-Distance trail (Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg, also known as the “05”) starts in the north of Austria at Nebelstein and ends in the south of Austria at Eibiswald. The trail is ~500km long, ~18 000m in ascent and the same amount in descent. The trail was initiated by Carl Hermann and officially established on the 25th September 1970. The trail is separated into 3 parts: the northern part from Nebelstein to Plankenstein via the Mühl- & Waldviertel and the Wachau, the middle part from Plankenstein to Trofaiach via the Ötscher, Hochschwab and Eisenerzer Reichenstein, and the southern part from Trofaiach to Eibiswald via the Pack and Koralpe. It normally takes 3 weeks to complete the entire trail.

	Nord-Süd-Weitwanderweg 05 – Checkpoints
	Melk: A stamp can be acquired at the municipal office (Rathausplatz 11). Gassen (alternate checkpoint to St. Leonhard am Forst): Gasthof Dorn (Gassen 4) St. Leonhard am Forst: A stamp can be acquired at the municipal office (Hauptplatz 1). Unterhub / Rauschhof: The stamp is located in the red box mounted on the tree (official stamp).

Personal impressions:
Transportation:
I’ve planned to accomplish this stage as a single day-trip because of the possibility to use public transport. The way to the starting point is connected very well, the way back requires good scheduling but is doable.
To reach there, I used the following means of transport:

1. CJX 5 from Wien Westbahnhof (07:18) Melk Bahnhof (08:21)

To go back, I used the following means of transport ( The bus service is only operating between Mondays – Fridays!):

1. Bus 679 from Texing Plankenstein (17:15) Ober-Grafendorf Bahnhof (17:59)
2. R 56 from Ober-Grafendorf Bahnhof (18:04) St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof (18:22)
3. IC 743 from St. Pölten Hauptbahnhof (18:32) Wien Hauptbahnhof (19:05)

The hike:
I’ve started the hike on a Thursday morning (08:30). Doing the stage during the week allows for two important things: (1) the bus back from Texing Plankenstein is only operating during the week (not on the weekend!), and (2) stamps can be collected at the municipal offices, thus not being dependent on opening hours of restaurants.
After arriving by train in Melk, I first went into the city center to get a stamp at the municipal office in Melk. I then started from there the tour, going back to the train station and continued the tour further southwards. After leaving the city of Melk, the tour crosses the motorway over a bridge and then follows a trail through fields and a forest till reaching the street L5339. The trail then follows this street for a while till Rosenfeld, exposed to sun and on tarmac. After some curves, the route finally leaves the street and then follows a trail through the forest till Gassen (Checkpoint). Gassen is an alternate checkpoint to St. Leonhard am Forst but has actually only one single opportunity at the Gasthof Dorn. As I started early, I passed by this restaurant around 10:45 and thus before their opening hours but I have planned anyway to get my stamp at St. Leonhard am Forst at the municipal office. Thus I continued following the street southwards through the village of Gassen and went on to St. Leonhard am Forst (Checkpoint).
I arrived in St. Leonhard am Forst at around 11:00 and since the route passes by the municipal office, I acquired my stamp there and then continued to Billa (local grocery store) to purchase lunch. I sat down in the nice city center and enjoyed my lunch and had coffee afterwards at one of the cafés around before I continued the tour southwards. The tour now follows trails on various types of roads (paved, gravel roads, trails) mainly through meadows and fields which makes it very demanding on hot sunny days. There is rarely shadow and also no restaurants or grocery stores. Luckily I had stocked up my supplies in St. Leonhard am Forst and also the afternoon was a bit more cloudy so temperatures were bearable.
After a long and exhausting hike with no highlights, I finally reached Unterhub and the only self-operated Checkpoint. The stamp is placed in a red metal bin which is attached to the tree opposite the farm. I found it a bit challenging to get the stamp due to the fact that the stamp pad was dried out and I first had to refill it. Luckily there was a bit of ink available but it became very messy and ended up having ink all over my hand (and no water to wash my hands). Thus, it might be not a bad idea to bring your own stamp pad (as I figured out on later on other stages that this is anyway a good idea as I run several times into the issue of broken or dried stamp pads).
After a short break, I continued the boring trail southwards, crossed the main road right after Unterhub and followed the trail opposite the street which turned out to be a dead-end. At the main street, you must turn right, follow the street for a few meters and then turn left. The signposts over there were not clear, thus careful attention must be applied.
After I managed to be back on the right trail, I followed the trail again through meadows and fields, exposed to sun (it cleared up again and got very hot) till reaching the next big street L89. Here I decided to end the stage of  05 , turned left and followed the street to the bus station Texing Plankenstein, taking the bus and then the train home to Vienna.

Summary:
This stage definitely does not make it to my favorites. The tour is mainly done on sun exposed roads or trails but with limited view. It also gives the feeling of hiking on a “connection” between two regions (which is in fact true as Plankenstein is the end of the northern part and the beginning of the central part). If at all, the only highlight on the tour was the self-check-in at Unterhub and the resulting mess of refilling the stamp pad. To be fair, no-one said that all stages of the long-distance trail will be stunning and indeed there are certain stages that are only there to connect other, more promising stages. This one really qualifies for this category .