Hiking Stone-Age-style

The "Ötzi-Walkers" are not actually walking. They are huddled in a miserable little hut without walls in the woods just off a main road somewhere in North-Rhine Westphalia. They are staring at the rain that seems to be coming down heavier by the minute - which is good in so far as the louder it gets, the less you can hear the white noise coming from the autobahn that bothered them all night.

That's right - All night. The trio, clad in linen and leather, slept in the hut as well, even though it got pretty chilly. But that's part of the deal.

During the 15-day "Ötzi-Walk," Lukas Heinen, Marco Hocke and his wife Veronika Hocke were to hike from Detmold to Bonn. It's an usual promotion project for the "Revolution New Stone Age" exhibition that the LVR Museum Bonn will display in its three locations in Bonn, Herne and Detmold starting September 5.

Lukas, an educator, Marco, a self-employed tourist guide and archaeologist, and Veronika, a nurse, mostly carry equipment that humans used during the New Stone Age, which in North-Rhine Westphalia is roughly dated between 5300 and 2200 BC; in other words, between 4000 and 9000 years ago. The titular "Ötzi" is Europe's oldest known human mummy, which was discovered in Austria's Ötztal Alps. Experts estimate that he lived some time between 3359 and 3105 BC.

Rain is dangerous

15 days and nights outdoors, with no modern tents, air mattresses or sleeping bags. Are the three hikers really having fun doing that? "Not today, we're not," Lukas Heinen admits openly while stuck in the hut. He, his best friend Marco and Veronika didn't bring cards or any other game to pass the time. But in general, they are quick to point out, they do enjoy the "once in a lifetime experience."

They wear clothes made of linen that they sewed together with dried and waxed animal intestines. "You can order those on eBay!" Marco says. Their shoes are made of leather and their backpacks are intricate hazelnut stick-and-cowhide constructions. They weigh around 10 kilograms (22 pounds), but more when they're filled to the brim - or when they get wet.

That's why the hike is on break. On their first day, Lukas, Marco and Veronika walked through the rain. When they arrived in Örlinghausen from Detmold after 16 very wet kilometers, their backpacks had ripped in places from the additional weight of the water and the shoes didn't take it well either.

"We had to fix the packs and shoes that night," Lukas says. Luckily, the three of them made everything using their own hands in the first place, so they knew exactly what to do.

"That's what different with this equipment," Marco explains. "When something breaks, I know exactly how to fix it. If the zipper breaks on my regular backpack, I have to have it replaced or get a new backpack."

A visitor has made his way to the hut. Hesitantly wagging his tail, a dachshund is approaching the "Ötzi-Walkers." But after some sniffing, he quickly backs away and runs back to his owner. "Animals have been really confused with us," Veronika says. "We encountered horses that turned around and wanted to run away and dogs usually bark. They probably get irritated by the smell of all the furs we carry around."

Human reactions have been much better. Strangers have bought the three hikers tea and many want to take pictures with them.

They have also encountered numerous people saying they heard about the "Ötzi-Walk" and love the project - which is probably due to all the media the three have been getting. So far, they met with at least one journalist every day. "It's great that the exhibition is getting so much press this way," says Marco, who currently works for the LVR Museum in Bonn.

Not a lot of food variety

On Sunday, the hikers will arrive in Bonn and participate in a show-and-tell afternoon at the museum. Because they've been stuck in the rain, they will have to be picked up or take a train for the last bit. And then, Sunday night, they get to go home to their own beds.

"The floor in the woods is pretty comfortable, though," Lukas says. "There's moss and leaves and we usually look for a protected spot. Sometimes you can hear deer or boars, but we haven't seen a bear or a wolf. Not a lot of those in Germany."

One thing, however, Marco is anticipating with excitement when he gets back home: digging into a bag of potato chips. On the hike, the "Ötzi-Walkers" try to stick to things people ate in the New Stone Age: apples, berries, clover and barley. They also brought bread and cheese along - but they can't hunt or fish like their ancestors, because today, you need a license for that, which none of them have.

Complicated water transport

One big exception to the Stone Age rule: plastic water bottles. In their first week, they had a ceramic jar that they drank out of, but that broke. When they started prepping a couple of months before the hike, Marco tried out other options for water transport, because he anticipated a ceramics jar might not survive the entire trip. That didn't go too well.

"I ordered a pig bladder along with the intestines and tried to turn that into a water vessel," Marco says. Veronika interrupts him: "But it still smelled like pig urine, so I told him I wouldn't drink out of that!" In the end, the pork bladder didn't prove that much sturdier than ceramics anyway.

"It exploded when I tried to dry it and then there was pig bladder everywhere," Marco deadpans. "Probably shouldn't have tried that in our own kitchen." The simpler life, it would seem, wasn't that simple after all.