Thursday 20 January 2022

The Enchanted Forest

Enchanted - that was definitely what it felt like at times, walking where we did last Saturday, and you'll see why when you look at some of the many, many pictures in this post.

Some of us manage to illustrate their posts about walks with just a few pictures, still clearly conveying the atmosphere of that particular walk. But I am one of those people who take picture after picture in an attempt to somehow store those magic moments and be able to return to them, and then I am unable to decide on which ones to use. Oh yes, I do delete maybe one out of ten pictures when I am not happy with their lighting, or because they are blurry. But overall, sorting through my pictures makes me think that maybe just this one could show my readers exactly what I mean.

Anyway, here goes!

We woke up on Saturday to a dense fog covering the village and surrounding area, but we knew the sun was out there somewhere. On a satellite map, we looked at the way the clouds were moving, and decided on the direction for our walk. All this (and sleeping in) took a bit longer than usual, and so it was around 2:00 pm when we reached the parking lot at the small town/village of Hausach, 35 km away.

From there, we walked upwards, with only a general idea in our minds but no fixed circuit to follow. As you can see, we had indeed managed to follow the sun:




In the woods, the sun rays were creating magic views:

The mist was still hanging low in some of the valleys, as we could see as we were getting higher up:



And then there was snow! Very tiny patches of it had been visible here and there already for a while, but this was the first bit where the path was actually covered:

Behind me, you can see a sign post. It was here that we decided against continuing towards what would have been the highest point of our hike, the Brandenkopf, a place O.K. first showed me in 2017. We were only 4 km away from it, but it was already 3:45 pm. With 1 1/4 hours left until sunset, we would have been still in the middle of the woods when darkness descended, too dark to see where we were going. And so we made this snowy meadow the highest point of our walk, stopped briefly for a drink of water and a chocolate bar and then made our way back towards the car, on a different route.




If I were to choose a favourite picture from this hike, this one would probably be it:



With the sun getting lower by the minute, the mist was lit up magically in the valley below:



Another favourite is this one:
If a unicorn had suddenly appeared between the trees, I think neither of us would have been surprised!

The moon was up just before we arrived at the bottom of the valley. Maybe you have to click on the picture to enlarge it, if you can't see the moon:
Almost there:

This last picture was taken at 5:09 pm, just a few minutes after sunset. By the time we reached the car again, it was fast getting dark. We were back home well past our usual coffee-and-cake time, but ravenous; at 11.6 km, the entire hike had not been all that long, but with some steep uphill bits plus the snow, it felt more than that.

I enjoyed every minute, and the magic created by the sunlight and mist will certainly stay in my mind for a long time.

30 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures. A unicorn would have been amazing.

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    1. Maybe a fairy or two would have completed the picture!

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  2. Wonderful all picture. Amazing photography. Wonderful place. Where it's place? Beautiful write up for nature. I like. ✍️🙏

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    1. It's the Black Forest, a region in the southwest of Germany.
      Glad you like it!

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  3. That was fabulous! Never too many photos as you explain them so well and you have so much beauty to share with us! That was a magical hike and I am glad you got home safely!

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    1. Thank you, Ellen - I am glad you are not suffering from "picture overload" in this post :-)
      It really was wonderful, I could have taken even MORE pictures!

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  4. The Unicorn hid from you only because she is camera-shy.

    Michael Serres wrote an essay on the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry of Cluny, I think.
    The Unicorn has always been with the Lady, because the Unicorn represents syntactic language, which is part Nature, part Imagination.
    Chomsky said language began in a very small group of hominids in Africa, a small mutation occurring in a single person and transmitted to offspring.
    *Noam Chomsky - The Science of Language. Interviews with James McGilvray* (2012).

    Enchantment requires a forest, cave, hill or seashore.
    Your first photographs are panoramic before we enter the enchanted forest.

    I have been reading stories by Theodor Storm, *Carsten the Trustee* set in the coast of North Friesland, enchanting no doubt, but rather bleak and lonely.
    Your hills, valleys and woodlands are never lonely.
    Jack

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    1. Thank you, Jack.

      Language is fascinating; we would not be where (and what) we are today without it. Good or bad is open to everyone's interpretation.
      I know exactly which tapestry you mean, having seen many pictures of it (but never the real thing).

      A building can also be enchanting, like a castle at midnight or a remote cottage sleeping in golden afternoon sunshine.

      Theodor Storm's most famous work (at least here in Germany) is Der Schimmelreiter. For several years, my family and I spent our summer holidays in Husum. We visited his house (which is of course now a museum) at least twice, I think.

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    2. Husum is now on my radar, thanks to your summer holiday memories.
      YouTube films of Husum look enchanting.
      The Storm stories I read were set after the Napoleonic Wars, a bad time to be poor in Britain.
      I enjoyed The Swallows of St George's, The Last Farmstead and By the Fireside, a cycle of ghost stories. At times I was reminded of the east coast of Scotland which can be lonely yet poignant: I visited the historical novelist Nigel Tranter there, he died in Gullane by the sea. He used to write in notebooks while walking along the sands, near his home, in order to escape the confinement of his book-lined study.

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    3. I should have said that Nigel Tranter lived near Aberlady village, East Lothian.
      It must have been 1975-76 when I visited him at this bird-haunted coastal paradise.
      *Drive from Edinburgh, along the coast to Aberlady.*
      YouTube. May 20 2020. The Broonfords.
      JH

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    4. Our family holidays in Husum took place in the early 1980s, long before YouTube existed. Funnily enough, I have never looked it up since then.

      The Napoleonic Wars were hard times for many here in Germany, and for Ludwigsburg as well. See the footnote of this older post of mine:
      https://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.com/2010/10/monument-to-friendship.html

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    5. Thanks.
      So Wurttemberg went from being a dukedom to a kingdom, all because Friedrich made a pact with Bonaparte or Boney as the English toffs called him?
      Another piece in the great jigsaw of European history which has enthralled me since my history classes in Glasgow in the 1960s.
      *Napoleon For and Against* was the book by Pieter Geyl I liked perusing.
      Then there was the biography of Boney by Vincent Cronin, the first I ever read, which was sympathetic.
      On his first night in Paris, Cronin wrote, young Napoleon was chatted up by a single girl from Brittany. Only later did he realise she was a sex worker, and when he was in power, tried to make things easier for poor girls in Paris.
      I also remember Napoleon being on an English ship in his youth, and finding everything so quiet, unlike a French ship. just the wind in the sails and the timbers creaking.
      A book I enjoyed recently is *Britain Against Napoleon 1793-1815* by Roger Knight, which gave me a pictorial image of the English ruling class, determined at all costs to defeat Boney at all costs.
      I enjoyed Julia Blackburn's *The Emperor's Last Island: A Journey to St Helena*.
      Jack


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  5. These photos are magical! If I had a walk like that, I don't know that I would ever want to come home -- it's just beautiful. Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if a unicorn popped up, or a fairy or even a fairy tale prince! That light through the trees is breathtaking.

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    1. My personal fairy tale prince was with me all along, Jeanie :-)
      The transience of it all was probably part of the magic. We knew each moment was unique, with the play of sun rays between trees and on seas of mist ever changing.
      As for going home - towards the end, we were really very hungry and also a little cold, and so O.K.'s warm, cosy cottage held a strong appeal.

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  6. I, for one am delighted that you took lots of photos. What a lovely outing, I can almost breathe the cold, crisp air.

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    1. The Black Forest air is so much cleaner than in the densely populated and heavily industrialised area around Stuttgart, where I live. The cold air still makes my nose run, though, and I am never without a packet of tissues.

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  7. Rather fascinating with the snow vs no snow on the same walk :) I think my favourite photos among this lot are No 2 and 3, though, because they give me a sense of the landscape and the height. And also the last photo, looking mystic and like it could be from somewhere else entirely (like an African savannah or something!)

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    1. Monica, it was interesting how the snow seemed to be almost "cut off" on the path, visible behind me on that picture with the sign post. We were not all that high up yet, there are areas in the Black Forest where they've been having much more snow (and happy about it because they depend on skiing tourism).
      I can see what you mean about the African savannah in that last picture. Let me assure you, though, that it felt anything but African at that moment :-)

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  8. Thanks for your comment on my blog, (at long last). This is a wonderful post, and the walk is indeed memorable. I have sometimes wondered if you would care to display your photos at larger size, the one you say is your favourite is indeed landscape photo quality, but the mist rising is beautiful too. And the dusk. It made me think of wonderful walks I have been on and so I can share a little of how you felt.

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    1. Every year, I have wall calendars printed with my favourite photos from walks throughout the year, as Christmas gifts to family and friends, and for myself. They are monthly reminders of beautiful places and memorable times.

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  9. I also particularly liked the one with the green rocks, and many of the final pictures when the late sun is shining through the trees. I do think Germany has some very "fairy tale " landscapes which in a way is not surprising considering so many of our fairy tales come from Germany!

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    1. I‘m glad you also see how beautiful those mossy rocks are! Often during our walks I come across such small, beautiful corners but don‘t often take pictures of them, it‘s mostly views and skies on my photos.

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  10. Again, a wonderful hike with you and OK. How we enjoy these walks! I think of you on my rare walks here. I'm in a recovery program that suggests walking. Although I try, I'm not successful in venturing into the wild each day. The wild being the lovely road I call home.

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    1. It is nice to know that you think of me in the context of walking, Jill! Walking as part of a recovery program sounds reasonable. There are few medical problems I can think of where walking would not be helpful.
      The lovely road you call home - if you had your own blog, you could show us!

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  11. Fourth and fifth from the end were my favourite photos. I have a very soft spot for contre-jour photos and those with the sun through trees particularly. I always enjoy just going through the photos enlarged without text at one point in my 'reading' of your walks.

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    1. Nice to know we share a favourite, Graham.
      Every now and then, I look at my photos on my TV, mirroring my iPad on the relatively large screen. They‘re not half bad, are they.

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  12. I adore this post although it makes me sad at the same time. Your landscape is magical and it's even better because you two have eyes to see it and appreciate it and imagine the creatures which surely inhabit it, even though they may well keep away from you. One day they will allow you to see them, keep faith.
    Much love, Ursula

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    1. Thank you, Ursula. Yes, both of us can see and appreciate the beauty of that area (but then I guess anyone would). We do occasionally come across a deer, and the traces of wild boar are easy to spot, but neither of us has met a unicorn so far.

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