After a very good night’s sleep (it helps when the bed is comfortable), we decided to do a hiking tour of Kap Arkona (Cape Arcona). It is one of the favourite areas in Rügen to visit, and is situated at the most northern tip of the island. According to the hiking guide, it would only be a two hour twenty minute walk. All together now. Laugh out loud. LOL! We will tell you more about the timing later …

To get there, we had to take the Wittower ferry (see above left) across a tiny strip of water. As the car could not fit on it, it had to be towed behind. What?? There is no bridge. You could swim over I suppose, but it is not allowed.
So you really believed that? Hee…heeee…No, this is the real ferry. It probably only took five minutes to cross over. Five nail biting minutes for some-one with all sorts of watery fears and phobias!

After another 15 or so minutes of driving, we parked our car, packed our bananas, and excitedly started our tour. We could have taken this comfortable, faster and oh so touristy train at least halfway up to our next point of interest, but NO, we opted to walk. After all, we were still fresh and fit. The first stage would only take twenty minutes. Forward! March!

Okay, walking has it’s advantages too. Look what we found. Sea Buckthorn, or as it is known on the island, Sanddorn! It was our first ‘sighting’ of many many many MANY more. These are everywhere and in everything. In jams, in tea, in cakes, in juices, in creams, in sauces, and yes, in BEER! Basically, in EVERYTHING … See, even the snail likes it …

Horse power. Another popular mode of transport, which can be quite inviting when your legs are weary. We were still FIT and energized, so we carried on walking … Cute though, aren’t they?? All of them …

We then reached this lovely little fishing village called Vitt, and not after twenty minutes. We’ll leave it at that. This village only has thirteen houses, twenty four residents and these pretty pink hydrangeas. We do not know about cats and dogs, but there are many many birds too …

We also found this smoked fish ‘factory’. There are many of these on the island. It’s basically out of the sea, into the smoker, onto a bread roll, chomp, chomp and chew, then into your stomach. You get a lot of smoked eel too…so who needs a burger joint!

The harbour of Vitt. Is this not a fantastic photo? For a small village, they sure have a lot of boats. Wonderful, not so??

The protective barrier, still at Vitt harbour. Believe me, it gets very windy, huffing and puffing and blowing everything over …

This is the coastline at Vitt, with a view of Kap Arkona, showing the amazing Chalk cliffs (Kreidefelsen). That is our next point to reach. Yep, that one over th-ee-ee-ere…. There are two options getting there. Along this coastline, from Vitt, but not recommended by the authorities. It is quite dangerous, due to the crumbling cliffs, especially after rains or stormy windy weather. We chose the other recommended route, along the top of the cliffs.

Don’t look down. Don’t. Look. Down. Too late, we looked, then went down … down … down …

… and arrived here … The descent was worth it, even though the shore is very stony and pebbly, with not a single seashell in site. There are quite a lot of flint stones (nooooo … not the ones from Bedrock), so collect these instead. You might need it someday … Better still, fill your pockets with some chunks of chalk … messy chunks of chalk … And … hum, do not wear black!

Yours truly sitting on her throne! From here one has a lovely panoramic view over the coast of Kap Arkona. Take your time to enjoy the view. It helps when the legs are weary…We’re halfway there! Phew…

This photo emphasises the beauty and the contrast of deep blue sea, grey shore, green vegetation and white steep cliff…Aaahhhhh…

Aahhhh again. An imposing view! There are many swallows’ nests up there too…Invites one to stare, open-mouthed…

Look at this contrast against the sky! Breathtaking!

View towards the village of Vitt, right at the end over there, to the left…Amazing too is the ‘still life’ of the washed up twigs in contrast to the shore…

Mer-man on the rocks!

An ancient wooden carved Slavic God, with one of two lighthouses in the background. This is at the entrance to the area called the Jaromarsburg, which unfortunately was closed to the public due to crumbling ground and landslides…again…

This is an ‘observation’ tower (was used by the navy many years back) where one has an unobstructed view over the island. We abandoned the thought of climbing up all those stairs. Excuse me! It had nothing to do with our condition…ahem…but there’s an acrophobic running loose…This building also houses an interesting jewellery shop…

There’s the touristy choo-choo again. Is this not another lovely photo??? Sigh…hmmm…

The two lighthouses, right next to one another. The one on the left was built first, and is called ‘the little fat one’. We also think it’s funny. LOL!

The coastline has a lot of rocks, and with the sail boat in the background, shows once again the wonderful contrasts that we admire so much…

The last stage of our ‘official’ route, we walked on the top of the bank, through the trees and bushes, to the end of the west coast, then changed course and walked back along the shore. This was not in the guide book, but we thought it was worth the time and the effort of trying not to trip all over the many many stones…The photo above shows the barred part (no, we did not go there), because last year a big chunk of this broke off…And to end our ‘unofficial’ tour, we had to climb up a lot of steps to get back up again. A LOT! Pant…pant..

So, after all that, we were really happy to rest our feet! Our tour took at least FIVE hours. Okay, stop laughing! Let’s explain why. We are adventurous. And yes, we are in a very good mental and physical condition too. Must be all those bananas…The guide book is just that, a guide. When we discover paths or buildings, or anything interesting for that matter, we WILL explore. And just to show you how fit we are, after ALL this, we still had time to browse in a market, also pay some good friends a visit in Lohme. So there! We did sleep like logs though…hee…heeee…