FAIRYTALE
were told wolves had been released into the forest, but were unlikely to see one. We were also told by locals that almost as fast as the government released the wolves, they were shot by farmers wanting to protect their livestock. This didn’t surprise us, as the number of timber hunting towers we passed convinced us that the farmers and townsfolk in the region liked a spot of hunting. Large squirrels were plentiful. You would see their bushy upright tails moving comically to and fro above the weeds and grass as the animal it was attached to zig-zagged its way across the forest floor, collecting acorns for its winter larder. The squirrels would dart up the nearest tree at the slightest noise.
As it turned out my worries about the weather and markers were unfounded. Once the fog lifted the sun peeped through a skinny layer of grey cloud. The markers were as they should be and the detailed, written trail instructions, which included photos, were excellent. There are hundreds of trails in the Black Forest, which meant we constantly had to check and crosscheck we were heading in the right direction. The longest day for us was 22km. This was the fourth and last day, which finished in the fabulous town of Gengenbach (pop 11,000). The three previous days covered distances of between 16 and 18km. The terrain can be steep. Most days offer plenty of uphill work.
There are huts where people caught out in bad weather can shelter. The Germans have a fixation for providing benches. You can be in some remote place in steep and unfriendly terrain and there will be a bench. These are ideal places to rest, eat lunch and take in the views.
There are firewood stacks along logging tracks and on narrow trails above the towns and the isolated farms. These stacks are works of art and there is evidence that individuals have their own idiosyncratic ideas on how firewood should be arranged in the stacking order. Indeed, some people take so much pride in their stacking that their firewood piles sometimes feature deliberately designed shapes and even windowpanes.
On the third day we came across two vertical, three-metre-deep, stone-lined wolf traps. The deep pits are no longer used, but there was a time when they would be covered with thin branches upon which a meat bait would be placed. The wolf would be lured in by the meat and crash through to the bottom of the pit when the branches gave way. The stones are now covered with moss. The traps date back to a time when the farmers, cut off from the outside world by snowstorms, supplemented their income by making cuckoo clocks. The Black Forest is the home of the cuckoo clock.
The villages and towns with their colourful buildings festooned with flower baskets, are themselves pictures from fairytales. They sit in the valleys, surrounded by the silent and dark forest. The same forest which inspired the Brothers Grimm to pen the fairytales designed not just to entertain, but to warn children of the dangerous predators out there in the big, bad world. Sadly, with the world we live in, these tales now are just as pertinent and cautionary to children as they were to Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood 200 years ago.