Posted As Missing

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It took the trio a while to find the hot pool. Rachel couldn't see Sankt Blasien down through the clouds to guide her. After a few false leads and a return to the top, she remembered how they had initially found it. "We were traversing across the side of the ridge and stopped in a rib of trees by a small stream for a drink. The water was warm. We followed the stream up the hill, feeling it get warmer."

She paused to think. "The stream disappeared above a small pool. Edom looked up the gully and thought it too deep not to have water farther above. We followed the gully upward and found another small pool of even warmer water ten metres or so higher. Another five metres higher was a large deep pool of water a few degrees above body temperature. A few metres farther up was the top of the gully. The water coming out of the rocks was much too hot."

Rachel looked at the map again. "It's about a third of the way down toward Sankt Blasien from the rounding of the ridge — it's only a hundred metres or so in elevation down the treed rib."

"Do you recognise the place on the ridge where we need to head down?" David asked.

"I can't tell now that we're back down into the clouds. Edom always led the way to it. When it was clear, we used the copper dome of the church. It's hard to miss — it's one of the largest domes in Europe. My father said only Saint Peter's in Rome and the Duomo in Florence are bigger. I can't see it, nor can I see the rock outcrop to lead us down."

"Do you think we're near the line?"

"I'm sure we're within two hundred metres one side or the other."

"Let's head back up along the ridge three hundred yards or so and descend a hundred metres from there, then spread out down the slope and walk back along parallel to the line of the ridge top."

As they descended through a steep meadow, Rachel said, "This is right, there's a meadow on each side of the forested rib." They turned, spread out and soon entered the forest. A few minutes in, they came to a small gully with cold water. They confirmed up and down the slope that the water was cold all the way along. Less than ten metres farther along, Rachel shouted, "Warm water! We've got warm running water." She climbed a few metres. "We're here. Here's the big pool."

Maria quickly descended to the spot, dropped her pack and was nearly undressed by the time David had made his way back up the slope. She followed Rachel into the pool, looking back at him and saying with a giggle, "You're the last one in again."

They sat up to their shoulders and soaked. "Doesn't have the smell of sulphur like the one in Banff," he said. "Doesn't have the luxury hotel either, but it will do just fine. Where did you set-up your camp?"

"There's a pretty little grove a short distance across there." Rachel pointed to their left. "Midway between the hot and cold running water. This is such a delightful spot. I haven't been here for many years, since before we moved from Unterhallau ten years ago. Long before that, you hadn't yet started school. We needed a break from you kids," she said, looking at Maria and smiling.

"We're only about two hundred metres above Sankt Blasien, an ancient town, said to be over a thousand years old. A monastery is how it started."

"People below must surely know about this place, it's so near."

"No Sweetheart, I don't think so. We never saw anyone here, never any signs of others having visited. It's up a rugged slope with much gentler terrain on both sides. The hot stream runs into the cold one after only twenty-five or thirty metres. It's an easy place to miss. Besides, they have a thermal down in the town and another one a short distance along the valley in Menzenschwand."