Wednesday 6 August 2014

Hoerne to Otterndorf.. Wednesday 6 Aug.

Last night we stayed at the 'Zwei Linden' in Hoerne-Balje. It had a friendly, older style atmosphere with excellent staff in reception and in the restaurant.

Whilst we were enjoying our meal the four women, who we had seen earlier near Freiburg, turned up. We introduced ourselves and had an interesting and enjoyable chat. We thought they were heading for Cuxhaven, like us, but they were heading for Stade. We recommended the Thai restaurant, in the Fishmarkt, where we had had a 

good meal.

We set off late for Otterndorf this morning, ~9:20, and who did we pass first but the 4 women we chatted to yesterday. I just managed to catch them on my cell phone camera as they shot by.

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We were told at the hotel that the Sperrwerk bridge opened at 10:00 and we headed in that direction, initially retracing the end of yesterdays walk. Of the 3 shots below the first was a general view from the Deich. If you look carefully you can see a tanker on the Elbe. The second shot is a view of one of the many wind farms we passed on our trip. The Germans seem to have embraced wind farms much more readily than Britain or NZ. The final sot of the 3 is a view of Shiel on the Sperrwerk bridge. It opened shortly after 10:00 
am.
 The route then took a circuitous path south around a water feature near Neuhaus, which was a very scenic area, before we turned north again to the Deich and its sheep. The sheep are essential for keeping the grass at a reasonable length. This trip  the sheep have not been very vocal, but a group this morning replied vigorously to my tentative "Baa Barr?". They sounded a bit like a welcoming fan club.
When we returned to the Deich, again heading west we decided to walk along the top of the Deich. The grass was short, thanks to the sheep/cows, but about every 100 metres there was a stock gate we had to get through. Some were unlocked but many were not and had electric fences either side to add to our problems. We eventually dropped down from the Deich just before joining a very beautiful canal stretch which we  follwed into Ottrrndorf. A very new town by the look of it.

We tried a side track into Belum, to get something to eat but nothing was open so we really enjoyed our coffee and cake at a bakery in Otterdorf when we finally reached there around 3:30pm. Only 20km today and even less to Cuxhaven tomorrow.

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