02.08.2010
And no, this isn’t a huge reference, more like trying to find something we all knew the words to so we could sing with the piano! :)
The last few days have been very laid back, much of which was spent playing ping pong, cards, and hiking or reading. I only brought two books with me and I’ve been good insofar. I’ve only just finished the first and have barely just started the second so I think I’m okay for at least a little while.
We made the hour and half trek down into Altensteig early on in order to get supplies for the weekend (aka mostly food items since the wonderful Ingeborg, who cooks for us, was off for the weekend). Any trip down into the valley is a day trip considering the severe changes in elevation and when you get there, you have to treat yourself to a little something (ice cream or a kebab!) before you head back up with all the extra weight on your back. Anyhow, our supplies included stuff to grill out with, which was an awesome time! We sat at the fire for at least a few hours in one sitting before we’d make it back to the Wonder Bar for other “treats” :)
Other than the hike down to Altensteig, a couple of us walked to Hornberg, another small village nearby. It's a rural little village surrounded by wheat and corn fields. There are also three sequoia trees about 250 years old in Hornberg. The story goes that the king at the time (a little fuzzy on which one) envied the large trees on America's west coast. Thinking that large trees were produced from large seeds, he ordered ten pounds of sequoia seeds to be brought from America, wanting to plant them all over his palace. Turns out, he greatly overestimated (sequoia seeds are very small) and then proclaimed that the seeds be spread all over....hence three of them now in Hornberg. Pretty neat!
Today was an awesome, even though it was spent hiking in the rain for the most part. We were given some hands-on experience today with habitat surveying and conducting browsing damage assessments. The habitat surveys were done for capercaillies, an extremely endangered ground dwelling bird. It's roughly the size of a turkey, but all black for the most part. The damage assessments were done to see how much roe deer were affecting the regeneration of silver fir, spruce, and jack pine. Silver fir are hit the hardest since the roe deer find them to be the tastiest.
This is a quick update, but there will be more. We are on our way to Freiburg tomorrow morning at 7am to visit a salmon hatchery and renweable energy plant. I still need to figure out packing...
Our next free weekend begins on Thursday and so begins the final countdown to Ireland in THREE DAYS!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment