A Walk in the Black Forest

Today we decided to go for a drive over to Germany.

Gone are the John le Carre days of border crossings with men with big guns and no smiles, and angry dogs with big teeth. The sentry box and boom gates have been replaced by a gigantic McDonalds drive through.  There are no signs “You are now leaving Victoria.  Please come back.”, and “Welcome to NSW. Have a nice Stay”.  The only real indication of the crossing of a national border is a dotted green line on the Michelin map, and the fact that we couldn’t read road signs any more.

The Rhine is a real river.  Despite the fact that the Murray-Darling is one of the longest rivers in the world, it really is rather creeky in comparison. Where we crossed there were three huge dams – one hydroelectric, and two with locks for shipping.  And it really is shipping.  We saw two huge barges going through that made the paddle steamers on the Murray look like bathtub toys.

We drove up into the Black Forest along very narrow winding roads.  The farms of the lower slopes were lush and green in early Autumn.  Germany really is serious about encouraging house owners to use solar panels.  Almost every house had solar panels,  and on some it really seemed that the panels were used as a roofing material rather than just an add-on. Some cow sheds even had panels.  I have been told that this is because the German government is serious about renewable energy, and pays generously for power generated, partly for environmental reasons, and partly because it is not that more expensive than building more huge nuclear power stations.

We had a nice cut lunch at a cross-country ski field that was on a continuous 100 km trail through the Black Forest.  Every car park we drove by had lots of cars, and there were Germans walking everywhere.  These walkers were not just the Gung-Hos or super-fit that one often sees in Australian bushwalking, but usually couples of various ages and physiques.  I think a lot of this is because there is such a good network of well-maintained  and well-marked trails of many different lengths and difficulties, and the fact that many of the trails end at a café where one can sit down for a coffee and strudel.

We went for our own small walk in the Black Forest, but turned back when we ran into a logging operation.  In the small part of the Black forest we saw there was no sign of industrial-scale clear felling, but rather more selective harvesting.

Chris