Boot up

 

A tortoiseshell butterfly and I also see a red admiral.

Boots are important and I am told by Jay Griffiths in her book ‘Wild’ to ‘put my boots on and go!’ Well normally I would but today it is too hot for boots so I put on my beach shoes and give my walking shoes a break. I soon discover that my flat soled beach shoes make it feel like I am permanently walking uphill and there is very little cushioning.

My aim is to visit Grünhütte (Green Hut) with visions of a cool beer and maybe even an ice cream upon my arrival. It’s a 5km walk through the forest on a small winding dirt track. I see a couple of butterflies and not much else apart from the odd tourist. When I arrive early afternoon I am disappointed to see Covid notices everywhere warning that the area is out of bounds to anyone who has not preregistered and been immunized. WTF! Last year you could buy a beer just wearing a mask. The infection rate is lower now but the restrictions have got worse, why? Of course it is a lucrative business selling our data on to marketing companies so I don’t see this changing soon.

 Empty tables at Grünhütte ... why?

This is Germany I would like to remind you all, the land of high standards and ‘low’ corruption. That said, there has already been a scandal with politicians doing dodgy business with FFP2 masks, not to mention the chemists earning a tidy sum from them. More recently test centers gave false test figures enabling them to earn huge sums on each faked 18 euro test.

Trust us the politicians say. Yeah, sure. 

I return home the long way round, initially a long straight track but at least mostly free of walkers and bikers. It also takes me to the highest point on this plateau at around 900m where the forest thins out and there is more chance to see wildlife. Logging is in full swing up here with timber piled high every few hundred meters beside the track.

Deer or maybe wild boar tracks.

On the way back I check the tadpole puddle. There is hardly an inch of water now and that will certainly be gone by the weekend. That means curtains for the toads but the adult newts in the photo below will survive.
 

Toad tadpoles cling to a root with just days to live in their rapidly evaporating puddle. The young newts (top half of this photo) are also unlikely to survive having not reached their amphibious stage by then.

 

Ants are pretty big up here.

I chalk up 15,000+ steps (10.5km) and my beach shoes are still in one piece and what’s more, no blisters!