A Strange Week In The Black Forest

You have to understand that when you enter a very famous hiking region like Black Forest when the spring has already started that you will meet a lot of people and hikers along the way. We have met a lot of new interesting people, in many different ways have we met people this week, let us tell you everything.

Our first night in the forest we found something called “Wanderhütte” which we have learned is for hiking people, pilgrims and whoever needs to take shelter from the weather. We have many times used these as lodging for the night which keeps our tent dry and we often get some cover from the wind. Since it’s also not preferred by hunters and rangers for you to pitch the tent in the forest these are perfect for us long-distance hikers. This night however a hunter knocked on our tent and told us what we did is very forbidden, we explained to him how we thought this was made for hikers like us. He told us this was his huntingcabin… Even though it said “Wanderhütte” on the door. He was nice and told us that it was ok to stay for only one night, but we had to keep the area clean. We left the place and we have to say that it looked a lot cleaner when we had left than what it did when we came there, but thank you very much Mr Hunter.

The next night the fog came and the rain started, we once again found one of these shelters on the top of a mountain to stay the night. There was this car that drove pass us the whole night and many times very much too fast, we of course thought it was some young party people having fun. The next day we walked only half an hour when we found the next shelter where these people we had heard all night long driving around had put up a tent. Apparently they were not some party youngsters; they had put up a walking trail from a nearby city for 25 people to walk that day. Also they worked for the community and they thought we were smart putting up the tent in the shelter, they also told us it was totally fine to do so. So we will keep doing it.

The fog continued and rain kept pouring, The Black Forest is dark and very wild. Other forests we’ve been in you can see how they manage the forest in different ways but many parts of this forest are nearly untouched and very dense. With the fog atop of that made the atmosphere really cozy and we definitely think the Black Forest deserves its name. The next night however was pretty fun and a little creepy at the same time. At two o clock in the night we had a visitor, he had been outside the tent and Cecilia had somehow heard him, after only five minutes of talking with him we invited him into our tent for the night. We don’t even remember how that happened, we know he offered us watermelon but we were too tired to accept and after that we slept. He fell asleep pretty quick and in the morning we gave him some breakfast and we talked for a bit before he had to leave for a train.

We kept walking and the rain kept coming down on us. A mountain later we were very tired and felt like it was time to find somewhere we could dry up a little bit and maybe drink some hot tea. We found something called a “Naturfreundes Haus”, they were closed and told us that the nearest restaurant or hotel were nearly 10 km from there. They asked us where we were going and when we said that Portugal is our goal they were baffled and let us in for some tea. We barely had taken off our jackets when they said that we could sleep there if we wanted, although they didn’t normally allow dogs they let us have a room in the basement with heat and everything. A Naturefreundes Haus, we had to know what that was. It’s pretty amazing; they get volunteers that stay for maximum a year that helps them with the maintenance of the house, helps with surveys in the forest or serves in the cafeteria, whatever is needed. In return you get to live and eat for free at this house. Everything they cook is organic and near produced, and let us tell you they cook very tasty food. If you’re interested or someone you might know, check them out and if you do contact them, make sure to say “Hi” from us. www.L24.Naturfreundehaus.de

They are more than helpful and very nice people. These houses exist in almost all countries in Europe.

Lucky for us the fog had stopped and the rain spared us the next whole day and the sun gave us the warmth we so much needed. We spent the day taking it easy and relaxing whenever we had the chance and at the top of one of the mountains we had clear sight over the border to France. When the sun started to set we were in no luck at all though. We had met two other hikers from the area who had booked a tent-spot at a near campingplace, however you could only book the place over the internet. So we called and got the spot confirmed from a touristcenter. Repeatedly we had experienced that the German people are not good at giving directions, and the description + map we got from the touristcenter were pretty much useless. When it had gotten dark and we still hadn’t found the campingsite and we where deep into the forests small trails we decided to call the center and withdraw our order and put up the tent next to the road instead. The day after a ranger called and said we did the right thing, and he also apologized for the bad description we had been given.

Otherwise The Black Forest has been really great and we try to enjoy every moment we can.

Servus!