Events 2005

 

Read more about the events from 2005

Cherry camp in East Germany

Mid June 2005  ★  On a cherry orchard when the cherries are ripe - that sounds good, doesn't it? The plantation is still poorly maintained by ABM workers. Their working time begins with an hour eating cherries – rightly so! Up to 5 people took part in the camp. You think it must also take place in 2006, with greater participation if possible. In any case, the cherries are enough.

Garden camp near Hanover

30 July - 7 Aug 2005  ★  "The nice thing about this camp is the private, family atmosphere," says Elke Anders, who also brought her son with her. Bordenau, where I used to live, is 30 km northwest of Hanover. Heinz Job, a consistent original methodologist, made his home garden available for the camp. There is a bathing lake 2 km away and the Leine, a tributary of the Weser, 300 m away. It is ideal for rafting. Since my raft can only keep 4 people afloat, we went in 2 groups. Because the camp had up to 10 participants. The river has a good current and makes big turns; we went downstream and carried it back overland. The hikes were also nice; Bordenau is surrounded by forests. There was a lot of fruit and herbs to harvest. In addition, the supermarket had enough fruit and vegetables in stock, except - no wonder - avocados.

Hanover - Freiburg Cycle Tour

7 - 14 Aug 2005 ★  The bike tour began in Bordenau at the garden camp (see above) and ended in Freiburg at the summer camp (see below). I had already done bike tours with overnight stays in the open air as a student. But now I wanted to ride the whole tour barefoot. I was unsure: Won't my feet hurt? I packed old sandals that were barely usable. But after 2 days I found out: The feet don't cause any problems. The sandals landed roughly in the dumpster; I drove the whole 900 km barefoot. Your feet need flexibility and air! In my opinion, the risk of injury is not that great; it is counterbalanced by the stronger feet. We were 5 cyclists for a few days until Michael and Roland Bahmann got knee pain and had to give up. The three of us drove on; on average 120 km per day. Reiner had to take the train home on August 14; that quickened our pace. On the way we visited Elke Anders and her son, whom we had previously met at the garden camp in Bordenau. We were equipped with tarps (tarpaulins stretched over the sleeping area with cords) for rain. But Reiner proved to be afraid of water when the water comes en masse from the sky; we only slept once under the tarps, otherwise in shelters or on straw with farmers. However, we mostly had good weather. Rolf has ridden his bike as far as Spain, Greece and Denmark; At that time, however, only as a partial raw foodist. This tour has now convinced him of the Urkost; in the last few days he felt fitter than ever! We spent the last night at his house; he lives near Freiburg.

Summer camp near Freiburg

15 - 27 Aug .2005 ★  On the first day, things didn't look good around the summer camp: It rained incessantly. I had stayed with friends in Freiburg. In the afternoon I finally got on my bike and rode through the rain to the Kleiner Opfinger See, where the summer camp was to take place - after some searching I met a participant. But with the weather, the number of participants increased to up to 20. When the sun is shining, you can swim in the lake. As the days went by we built a raft here too. A friend from Freiburg got the materials from a hospital and from construction sites. The children in particular enjoyed rafting on the lake. When the weather turned rainy, a stroll through Freiburg was the order of the day, otherwise day hikes in the Black Forest and in the Rhine Valley.

Slow hike near Freiburg

27 Aug - 3 Sept 2005 ★  My biggest project in 2005 was the migration from Germany to Spain. However, there was also the desire for a leisurely hike with children. So we started on Sunday, August 27th at 11 am with 5 children and 12 adults at the summer camp. I had chosen a route that largely followed waterways with the idea of ​​running the raft parallel to the hike. However, the nearest river, the Möhlin, was 8 km away. So we carried the 2 x 2 m vehicle for a day - sometimes in twos, sometimes in fours. The width and water level of the Möhlin were tight; with a few blackberry scratches we just about got through. I love such adventures! Besides me there was another child on the raft. Then the Rhine - the current looked scary. But it proved harmless to us, and as we were going downstream it was very pleasant. We carried the raft 4 km to the Rhine-Rhône Canal in France. Now we had a countercurrent - it was getting tiring and the children's interest was waning. We kept it for 2 more days because Marion had blistered feet, then we gave it away. The hike went smoothly, we had dry weather, the mood was good. As at the other events, we ate some of the food we had collected ourselves and some that we had bought. However, the children were also looking forward to the end of the hike and to seeing friends at home. They are all siblings, children of Gudrun Hering, and of course they would like to do something with children from other families during the holidays. On September 2nd we crossed the Rhine a second time - 25 km further upstream. The next day we were at the Müllheim train station around noon, and most of them said goodbye. Probably many will see each other again. Everyone has their own world view and attitude to life; a way of living naturally. It was instructive to spend a week in nature with all of them. Things really got going for 11 people in Muellheim: they went on a three-month hike to southern Spain.

Hike to Spain

3 Sept - 15 Oct 2005  ★  The planned route was around 2,200 km long. I had chosen a route that didn't run over mountains but mostly through valleys: along the Rhine-Rhône canal, the Doubs (it can be seen in the photo below left), the Saône, the Rhône and the Mediterranean coast. However, I wanted to avoid highways as far as possible; it should be small ways. I wanted to do around 40 km a day.
Hot talking points
Sven, for example, who has years of hiking experience and perfect, i.e. very light equipment, advocated hiking trails; He couldn't stand the noise of traffic or machines. Other participants, on the other hand, didn't even have problems with major highways if it was the shortest route. Sven even went over the mountains alone several times. The reunion went surprisingly well. He arrived almost on the minute, while we still put a sign on his way - although mountain paths are of course more demanding. He is fit and has a good pace, but would also like to have more breaks; more enjoyment than discipline. On September 17th, when the majority wanted to cross the city of Lyon, he finally sent a farewell greeting, turned towards the train station and drove back.
Can stop
Sven was the sixth ... With this route, it is advisable not to regard the destination of southern Spain as an obligation, but to hike along as long as it is fun. Three months of hiking fun – but that was only for me. The main reason I suspect is that my companions' luggage was too heavy. A lot of what was dragged along for many hundreds of kilometers was just in the backpack the whole time; it was not used. Others were used, but brought little benefit. I've learned over the years to keep my luggage light. So from the 16th of October I continued to run on my own – and I liked doing it that way. But Wiltrud was forced to stop, although she would have liked to continue hiking: all of a sudden she could only crawl on all fours! Severe knee pain made it impossible for her to continue walking. A driver took her to the hospital. After an X-ray, she went straight on to Valentina's home by train. In the train stations, she simply sat on a luggage trolley and let Valentina or Elvira push her, who stopped walking at the same time. It took about 3 weeks before she was able to walk normally again. The treatment consisted solely of leeches. We don't know exactly what happened to the knee, because after the X-ray she refused any further examination - rightly so; we don't even want to know! Does anyone here ask why? Because we trust nature alone!
An adventure follows here; it can be described more beautifully in a few words.
Continuous rain - and the consequences
13 Oct 2005, 2 p.m.: Volkhart, Armin and I are sitting in a large hall. Outside it's raining incessantly with heavy showers. We decide to go our separate ways for half a day. Because after 2 days of continuous rain, Armin and Volkhart are tired of hiking trails and choose roads that are heavily trafficked according to the map. But I hate them even when it's raining; I walk the long-distance hiking trail GR 92, which we have walked several times; it is mostly well marked. The rain is gradually easing. The consequences remain: floods!
5 p.m., the water is up to my knees when I see a torrential current across the path in front of me. I try another spot where trees are overhanging the stream - impossible to get through. A bridge is under construction - doesn't help. I walk several kilometers across fields to the next bridge.
7 p.m. - it's getting dark. I try again a small way, but soon walk in the water again. But now finally highway! For its size, it has surprisingly little traffic. I wonder why? The road is closed due to flooding. A policeman sends me on a path to the village of Palau-Sator. Once there I ask a couple the way to Pals, our meeting point. The woman answers in German - she comes from Freiburg! She knows several paths, but none that is not flooded. We start talking. The two warm to our hike and persuade me to get into their jeep. They want to try a way with me.
9pm - the car is in the water. "It's impossible for me to turn around here; now we're driving through somehow!" says the driver. We drive, it gets deeper, the car light dims - it's under water! Nevertheless we get through. "It was life-threatening," a farmer attested to us on the other side. In Pals at the church I can no longer find Armin and Volkhart, but 2 branches as a sign that they were here. The next day I hike on alone and meet the two again on October 15th in Lloret de Mar, our agreed alternative meeting point. They stay there for 2 more days and then take a bus back to Germany. I walk on alone to Andalusia.
The food We regularly bought fruit, vegetables and nuts, but mainly ate what we had collected ourselves. Depending on the region, the fruits that we found changed: from fruits known from Germany such as apples, pears, plums, cornel cherries, sloes, tomatoes and corn to peaches, grapes, figs and strawberry tree fruits to prickly pears, carob pods, pomegranates and dates in Spain. We also ate some fruits that we didn't know. B. egg-shaped, orange fruits with a soft skin and a passion fruit-like pulp inside. The plant climbs fences. Wild herbs became a bit sparser from around Lyon due to the drought. At some point I started collecting them in plastic bags to always have some ready. Throughout Spain we found the wild mallow, the orchard, the fennel and the dandelion, others like the stinging nettle only rarely. I only got to know some edible plants in Spain, especially those with thick leaves (succulents); also a tasty type of seaweed I found on the beach.
The nights We always slept outside, mostly under our tarps. These are fabric-reinforced plastic tarpaulins that we stretched over the sleeping places with cords. Nobody had a tent with them to save weight. However, I found some tarps to be oversized; the largest measured 4 by 6 m. It would have been enough for a whole family. My tarp was quite tight: 1.5 by 2.2 m. Nevertheless, I survived quite a few heavy rains under it. When it rained continuously, we looked for a canopy from a larger building or another larger roof.