In October, I spent 10 days in Bad Orb. Whenever I am there, the main attraction is the densely wooded countryside in which I like to walk every day. I generally leave the B&B at 9.15 a.m. and spend hours walking non-stop until about noon or 1 p.m.
One day, I was coming to the end of a round walk. It was already about 12.30 p.m. and I had already covered 12.9 km. Rain was forecast and I was keen to get back to my room. A middle-aged couple came walking towards me and I greeted them. They asked if they were on the right track and took out a small map of Bad Orb.
"Oh," I said. "But that's just a small map of the town. What you need is the walking map. You can get it at the Tourist Information Office." They said they had the map
"But they told us that all we had to do is follow this sign," they said, pointing to a symbol on the small map showing Bad Orb. The sign was the one for the Spessartbogen walking route. This section led up the Haseltal valley. It's a very specific symbol in green, blue and yellow:
The route basically leads from Bad Orb in the west along the Haseltal valley to the east. The path we were on ran from the north of Bad Orb to the south of it.
I pointed out their mistake. (I teach - I can't help being pedantic.) And I showed them where we were on my big walking map, which I had in my hand. "Look, I said, "you're going in the wrong direction." They said that they would just do my route, only the other way round. I mentally blanched at this, thinking how they would probably get lost in the mountains since they had no decent map with them - and rain was forecast.
"Look, what I would do," I said, "is to carry on and then take route 8 and then route 9 to the spring of the Orb river, cross the road and continue on route 9 back into town. There's a really good café on the way back." I recommended this because there is a road in the middle of the valley and they could not possibly get lost so long as they could hear the traffic on the road.
However, they insisted they would carry on and go round the hill, the same way I had gone - 12.9 km. "Well, take some photos of my map," I urged them.
"Oh, we've got the map." And I realised that they must have had the map with them. Only they made no move to take it out and actually look at it. I looked down at their shoes. Nope, they were sensible; they weren't idiots.
And yet, they seemed to be very big idiots. They had been told to follow some signs and yet they had gone 2 km without seeing that unmistakable sign and seeing others instead without once consulting the walking map.
What is more, it had never occurred to them that the valley they wanted to walk along should have been to the left of them and the hill to their right. Yet they were walking along a path where the valley was to the left of them and the hill to their left. Map-reading is a skill that should be taught in school. I shall be forever thankful to my Geography teacher, Mr Butler, for doing so.
When you are young, you think that wisdom comes with age. That doesn't seem to be the case - not with this couple anyway. How disappointing.
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