At about 18 km, the longest walk or hike we went on during this year's May holiday was a lot shorter than the 30+-kilometer walk of last year. It took us to a place I first visited in June 2016, a few months after O.K. and I got to know each other. You can read about it here. It was also our first hike in 2020, and I could have sworn we've been back once more since then, but there was no entry about it in my diary and nothing on my blog, so I must have dreamt it!
Anyway, there we were on Wednesday, the 12th of May, starting from the same parking space O.K. likes to use for this particular walk.
The weather was no surprise and no different from what most of the previous few weeks had been like, a fast-changing mix of clouds and sunrays, with the odd shower to be expected (but not reaching us this time).
Even if it is not very steep, the long uphill stretch (5.5 km) from the parking lot to the tower (Moosturm) had me wanting a rest before climbing the steep spiral staircase inside the tower.
As it was a weekday, we met few other people along the way, and there was nobody around the tower when we arrived on top of the hill, giving us free choice of where we wanted to unpack our sandwiches. We chose the shelter you can see to the left in this top-down view from the tower.
The clouds made for some interesting shadow-and-light effects on the landscape around us. As before, my mobile phone thought we were in France and sent me a message "Welcome to France", when in fact it is about 25 km from there to the border.
Our next stop was the monument for storm Lothar. It is always a popular spot for cyclists and walkers, and today was no exception with a few small groups and single hikers there.
We decided on a different route back to the car, walking past a place with a shelter called Hilseneck (sometimes spelled Hylseneck) and the Kornebene, a guest house run by the Friends of Nature, a Germany-wide association. Of course, like all other places, both houses were shut. It felt strange walking around them, the atmosphere was a mix of feeling abandoned and anticipating their re-opening.
The "Ebener Weg", literally "flat (or even) path", was really that - very comfortable to walk, but seemingly never ending. Every time we expected to find the Kornebene around the next bend, another stretch followed - I didn't mind the length, but admittedly, it was still nice to get back to the car eventually.
After coffee and a brief rest at home, we paid a quick visit to a friend to hand over his birthday present. For our evening meal, we had delicious pasta with arrabiata sauce and pesto, both very nice. There was only one day left to our holiday together, as O.K. was working on Friday and I was going home that day.
You make me feel very lazy when it comes to getting out and going walking. I have to admit that I had forgotten about the storm and then I realised I was ill with influenza over that Christmas and it was also a very traumatic time in my life. As always I do enjoy your walks vicariously.
ReplyDeleteYou make ME feel lazy when I read about all that you do around your house and garden, Graham!
DeleteThat storm was indeed a life-changing event for many, and even life-ending for some. Thankfully, not much damage was done where I live, and nobody I knew back then was physically harmed by it, but it was a different matter in O.K.'s area.
You have a lot of very attractive and well laid out walking routes there, but do you have many where you can stride off through wild countryside on unmade paths, e.g. like YP does here?
ReplyDeleteThere are unmade paths in the woods and across fields, but with the rather wet weather we've been having, we prefer walking on proper paths. I don't mind a bit of mud, but would not like to wade ankle-deep through it for miles.
DeleteAlso, most of the great views we so enjoy are reached by laid out walking routes. It is a very popular area for walkers and hikers, and several organisations look after those paths, make sure of good signposting etc.
I agree with Tasker--you do have a lot of great walking routes. Very hard to go striding out for walks in most locations here (no walking across private land at all) unless you are in a county, state or national park. Glad you didn't get wet this time. Did laugh about the mobile system welcoming you to France. When I took a ship up the Rhine from Switzerland, my mobile went a bit crazy trying to figure out which country I was in at any given time until we got north of Karlsruhe.
ReplyDeleteWe don't walk across private land here, either; there are a few rare exceptions when a path leads between two orchards or through a vineyard, but most private land is not accessible. The way of right that YP benefits from in England is not in place over here.
DeleteI can well imagine how you kept getting those messages on your phone, welcoming you to one of three countries all the time!
You and O.K. find so many wonderful places to walk! I love the picture of the tower, the dark clouds behind it give it a rather spooky look. I know the views must be amazing when you get up so high in the mountains!
ReplyDeleteIt is actually not all that high, Bonnie, only about 870 m - well below what the Alps and other "proper" mountains get up to :-)
DeleteBut it is certainly high enough for me, since I am not very good at going uphill. The views are great in all directions from the top of the tower, and of course we always try to make out "our" village and other places we know.
What a lovely walking holiday you and O.K. have enjoyed. I especially liked your sunset photographs.
ReplyDeleteThat was truly special, and so unexpected after the mostly overcast grey day.
DeleteHello. Sorry, I don't know how to email you. I have 12 black and white aerial photographs of Hamburg taken 1960 I think. I would like to pass them on to someone who might appreciate them. Do you have a contact of someone in Hamburg I could send them to? Or I could send them to you to pass on. ilona.meanqueen@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteHello Ilona, thank you for offering the photographs! Personally, I have not much of a connection with Hamburg, but I know my uncle and aunt used to live there in the 60s (my uncle is from Hamburg). I see my parents tonight and will ask them whether they think my uncle could be interested in the picture.
DeleteYou should be able to see my email address by clicking on my profile here on blogger, if that has not changed along with other changes they have recently made to the platform.
Thank you for your reply. I did click on your email address but I'm not sure if my Gmail system is compatible. A new page opened and I didn't know where to go next. If your uncle is interested let me know and I will post them.
DeleteDear Ilona, I have decided to make it a surprise for my uncle and aunt, but I do not want to post my full home address on here.
DeleteYour gmail should be compatible with mine - it is a gmail (googlemail) address, too.
Do you have a paypal account? That would be the easiest way for me to pay for the postage.
Oh my, I read about Cyclone Lothar...I don't remember that at all but Richard says he does. What a terrible thing! I looked up the Lothar monument, it looks as if it is at a very high elevation! And it looks like wood, with 3 heads at the top. I will keep trying to see more about it, I want to learn more about the monument itself...who designed it, what does it all mean. It said there was 110 fatalities from the storm, 88 in France alone. So sad.
ReplyDeleteWe have visited the monument before, and I think there are pictures of it on my older post. Yes, there are heads at the top of the three stems leaning into each other. The whole upper part looks a bit like skeletal humans, a bit scary and sad, and I believe that is what the artist wanted it to be.
DeleteAs I said before, borders interest me, whether national or regional.
ReplyDeleteKnowing a little of Western European history I am drawn to any place in Germany that is just 25 km from France.
I have a book titled *The Half Known World: On Writing Fiction* by Robert Boswell.
Writing like your own, which looks closely at the geopoetics of place, takes me to that half-known world.
Such writing leaves enough space, which the readers can make his/her own, a place lighted by those cloud-shadows in your fifth photograph.
Geopoetics is a term coined or popularised by the Scottish writer Kenneth White, who has spent much of his teaching life in France, living near the Atlantic coast.
Jack Haggerty
Geopoetics, I can relate to that term.
DeleteA sense of place is very important to me, and I feel that I can get that sense best when I explore it on foot. For instance my hometown, O.K.‘s village and Ripon - those are the three places I have walked most, knowing almost every street and path. Not surprisingly, they are also the three places where I feel at home.
I note that the Moosturm was erected in 1890. Did it commemorate someone or something or was it just built as an observation tower? I wonder who paid for its construction.
ReplyDeleteIt was purpose-built as a viewing tower and is maintained by the Schwarzwaldverein. The local group of that association has been around since the second half of the 19th century, so it is well possible that the tower was also built by its members, but I am not entirely sure.
DeleteI've been following your walks on my phone or tablet, enjoying the scenery. Myself I've kept mostly indoors the last week, pretty much "knocked out" by allergy, and not even feeling up to my own usual (much shorter) walks...
ReplyDeleteYou have mentioned your allergy being rather heavy this year, and I hope it gets better soon so that you can go walking again.
DeleteWow, I am enjoying your photos once again, thanks for sharing by the way.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, and I am glad my pictures enable others to enjoy the beautiful sights I have seen, too.
DeleteHey Sweetie, thanks for sharing those photos. Love them.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! However I must say I am a bit puzzled about your addressing me as "Sweetie".
Delete