two months, we were not in the Eifel and right now the second weekend in a row. It could get used smooth. But the next weekend was I stand and the next we are on our way. This time is no snow, but there is crisp cold. Minus five degrees on Saturday morning, minus ten Sunday. The sun shines from a cloudless sky. The deep blue by day and starry at night, yet so infinite.
us, it always gets back to the door, his coat collar beaten up, his cap pulled down over the face and pushed their gloved hands in his pockets. The breath is immediately fog. In the warm light of the sun, it is well to bear, bitter cold in the shadow of it. Everything is frozen deep, the tire tracks of the tractor and the hoofprints of horses, the grass of the meadows under a thick layer of frost and the decaying autumn leaves in the forest. With each step, crackles and knurspelt, crack and crash it under our feet.
foxes and deer, we see again from a distance, wood mice and squirrels right on the roadside. The meadows are dotted with labyrinthine corridors, which were dug by mice of the recently melted snow away. A relief of ravines, which is engraved into the ground. Times reminiscent it meanders in and opening out into each other, dry river valleys fallen from great heights, at times enigmatic characters of a foreign language. Nature's way. lack snow, we can discover no new animal tracks, just a collection of wild boar hairs on the edge. On Dachsbau last weekend we found a second output and a nearby shelter, which is hopefully not hunters, but only an observer of camouflage. A second badger - as we suspect, because no traces are visible - with numerous inputs and outputs we see the other side of the village.
addition to the usual suspects (Cameroon sheep, Border Collie), we visit as a special attraction of the weekend the Wolf Pack in Kasselburg Park. Wolves are in the Eifel only in captivity. "Welcome, Wolf!" called NABU his website of actions and projects to wild wolves in Germany. For a decade, are wolves again in small numbers (about 60 animals) in eastern Germany at home. However, individual animals are falling back to the road and illegal hunting for victims. That it also in the Eifel again be at home, is despite the many forests as unlikely. to urban sprawl and to many roads is passed through the land. That was a different way. At least it was in the 19th Century so many wolves in the Eifel, that they were systematically exterminated. From 1817 to 1888 registered to the 1672 killing of wolves. The last was shot in 1888 near Gerolstein.
Also near Gerolstein does not live in freedom, but at least in a large enclosure of eagle and wolf park Kasselburg pack of fifteen (North American) Timber wolves. On our visit in the summer we had in the vast and dense, get with rocks and undergrowth interspersed forest hardly any of them to face. This time we arrive in time to feed and pay ten euros extra for entry into the interior of the enclosure, where we are separated during feeding only by a low electric fence of the animals and can shoot better (some of the photos is from R.). The keeper, who knows the wolves for three years and is fed to the visitors in front of the pack with his ranking. She falls from a cart with pieces of meat (this time an animal carcass at a time). The previously overlooked, though very quietly closer to wolves (This approach alone is a spectacle in itself), the eyeing closely. However, they wait and see from shy and cautious. Hold as long distance, until it is withdrawn behind the electric fence. Then they throw themselves individually or in small groups on the pile of meat to take a bite out of his teeth and take away from. That's all silent and furious faster, a single back and forth
account shall Animals most attention, pause in their movements, are reluctant to respond immediately to sounds and movements of the audience, let us not one second from the eye. This alert eyes light up orange, surrounded by a shaggy, black, sometimes dark brown or gray fur, only the socks and belly are lighter. Sometimes, also flash their fangs and white. Although the Timberwolves are smaller than gray wolves, yet they inspire respect. These are not dogs, but wild hunters. Fear spread the beautiful animals but none so much because of the fence, but because they seem so afraid of people, although they are raised in captivity. Than fifteen minutes takes the whole spectacle, then also the last major chunk of meat that are left over or were lost when running away, found a buyer. The rest will get the jackdaws.
Deeply impressed, we left the enclosure and still look over at the wild boar. are flight demonstrations of birds of prey in winter does not, so the park is accessible (only a voluntary donation of two euros is requested). But at least my elder siblings, the vultures and owls, we have paid before the wolf feeding a visit. From the castle tower we have a view of the surrounding hills and the Kylltal thrown. Here, too, that size and mix of wooded and open areas that we like so much of the Eifel.
we get the offer on Sunday morning during our walk, despite a slight mist in the valleys and hills in the hazy distance as well. We do it the same jackdaws who besiege the church tower in the village, and look for the highest point for miles around, the egg mountain. The village at our feet, blurred and in cotton packed. Silhouettes of walkers on Calvary over. A lone dog walker on our site. Hoar frost spell the pasture fences. The reddish brown of the plowed fields. First buds on the book. Street trees, dreaming of spring. But still the winter has everything under control. Cold and defiant. And beautiful.
