The First Week Through The Forests Of Germany

One thing we noticed pretty early is that there are very few trash bins for the society to use but we couldn´t see any bad results, it was the opposite! So far we have experienced that Germany is a cleaner country than Sweden, and maybe it has something to do with the trash bins. If there are no trash bins to throw your garbage you have to take care of it yourself.

By the bigger roads and by fast food restaurants by malls and supermarkets you could find more trash, but it still doesn’t compete with the littering in Sweden by similar places.

This far, Germany seems to have a lot of space between the small towns and a lot of nature in between. The forests are absolutely wonderful and after a few days of rain a sunny day makes the forest magical.

So as many of you have noticed and some of you even commented on, we are a bit early for camping. Some camping sites are open throughout the year, but most of them are based on the seasons and are closed at winter. The season for camping sites is varied; around Mars-April most of them are open for the season.

All the camping sites we have visited allow dogs, some take an extra fee for the dog and some don’t. At the campsite area you (will probably) have to leash your dog and sometimes you have to go outside of the area if you want to walk the dog.

When we don’t stay at a camping we put our tent out of harm’s way, in a forest, behind some trees, if there are any signs of a house or farm nearby we check with them first if it’s OK, because there is nothing like the Swedish ”allemansrätt” in Germany.

Oh we almost forgot to tell you about one funny thing about the camping sites we find most of them have in common! If the camping has a bathing area, like a pond, they look like a sandy beach, so it feels like you are just by the ocean.

We ran out of gas yesterday and the extra one we bought a few days ago was the wrong kind. We needed a gas bottle you screw on to attach it to the camping kitchen. But the most common in Germany is the one you click on. So today we were on a hunt for gas. After talking to one tourist information in the nearest town and two camping sites we finally got the help to get the right one.

We use a lot of gas since almost every meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) that we have from “Blå band” use hot water. You can use cold water but it takes longer time and it’s not as tasty as when the food is hot.

Germans is a very helpful and curious people and so far we have had the pleasure of a nice conversation with two hunters we met, on our way to “Soltau”. They also like the outdoor life and know a great deal about hiking and backpacking. They have been to Sweden several times, skiing. When talking to them, they estimated our backpacks to weight around 30Kg. And we believe they are right even though we have not had the chance to check it out. The best thing bumping into the hunters was that they told us we were in an active wolf area. Later on the trail we even found a sign telling us just that thing.

The owners of one camping site opened the camp for us even If it was closed for two more weeks, they felt bad for us and the weather was coming down on us.

And at the camp we currently stay at lend us a bike so we could go and buy the gas for our kitchen.

The tourist information offices are not that helpful to us as we thought they would be. If you want to do sightseeing and do usual tourists stuff they are the right place for you. But we are hiking, we need maps, wants to know about camping sites, how to find the trail we would like to hike and so on. And they were useless! The bookstore where we bought the map was more helpful and the camping sites are of big help.

According to some we are a little bit old fashioned because we’re not using a GPS, compass and maps is our way of getting around. Because of this we by accident stumbled upon a very peculiar house. Das Verrückte Haus. Can you see what’s so peculiar with this house?

We also went up a hill of 160 meters, called “Wilseder Berg”. Wich means Wilseder Mountain.

An update of our hiking dog, Vattie:

She really loves being out like this! Every morning when we start the days hike, she gets all whimsy and runs and jumps like a maniac, to the next time we will get you a movie so you can see for yourselves! And the moss is so soft and wonderful, so cozy to snug in, she is the cutest.

She has a big appétit and she eats with pleasure, thanks to Brit Care - Endurance!

We have had some cold and rainy days and the clothing from Hurtta have been very appreciated both from us and from Vattie. She likes her sleeping bag, but at night the best place is in our sleeping bags between our feet.

Vattie seems to have no worries and jumping up and down on big hay bales and big lumber stacks is a great deal of fun! We on the other hand are happy Vattie is insured by Svealand Djurförsäkring.

We actually get by with our bad German language but we have learned a lot on the way and the more we try to speak the more we learn!

See you in one week

Tshüss!