Schwarzwald

The Covid is messing with our travel plans. It is messing with everyone’s plans, not just travel plans. I am not complaining. The problem for us is about deciding where to go. We have been camped in the field at Unicat for way too long. Christmas is going to bring a surge of new outbreaks and the evolution of a new, more infectious strain makes things even worse. We are hoping that patience is the key. This will be over soon. There will be an effective vaccine program and then life will get much easier. In the meantime, we have to stay safe and follow the rules. International travel is possible.  but problematic in a motor home. We are clearly not travelling on business or going back home. We would need to pay for Covid tests at every border. The situation could change with very little notice and we might end up stuck again. For a while, we are going to stay in Germany, explore the hills and forests, avoid people.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Black Forest is a large, forested area of mountains in the bottom, left hand corner of Germany just to the south of the Unicat workshop. It is roughly 160km NS by 50km. To the South is Switzerland and to the West is France. Tourism is important. There are many attractions and pretty villages. There are also numerous hiking trails and large tracts of forest and hills. We can park in lay-bys and designated parking areas for a night or two, do a walk in the local area and then move on. Some places were very busy. I guess nobody has gone away on holiday. No one had gone to visit friends or relatives. The cinemas, hotels, leisure centres, bars and tourist attractions are all closed. One of the few activities left is to drive out to the hills and go for a walk. Fortunately, we could still find some quiet places and usually, a kilometre or so away from the car park there was nobody at all.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The snow came. A great big overnight dump that transformed the scenery. Me and the dog got very excited about it. There are a few ski areas in the Black Forest. Typically, they have one draglift and one piste. All closed because of the Covid but after the snow came they were packed with visitors. The car parks were full to bursting and overflowing. The slopes were thick with people, sledges, skis, children and the occasional dog. We did our best to stay well clear but even so were caught up in a traffic jam caused by excessive roadside parking.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

By New Year’s Eve, we were pushing the limits in terms of finding quiet places and found ourselves on a very narrow road deep in the woods. The road climbed up and the snow was falling. Just after we reached the highest point, the truck started sliding. We were only going slowly. Not much more than walking pace. However, Baloo was inexorably slipping sideways. The soft fresh snow compressed to wet ice under the tyres and gave us no grip at all. I stuck the front left wheel into the ditch to stop us. To the right was a steep, wooded slope that I really did not want to get involved with. We eased the truck forward to straighten it up on the road and dropped the rear wheels into the ditch to get everything stable and safe.

Several deep breaths later, we set about getting the snow chains out. These were stowed inside the spare wheels for summer storage and it took us over an hour just to get them ready. Baloo has work lights front and back. These proved to be very effective in the gathering darkness, reflecting off the snow on the floor and in the trees to illuminate the whole area. Normally snow chains are fitted by laying them out on the road and driving the vehicle to pull them onto the tyres. We had to modify this approach because one wheel was in a ditch. I managed to get very wet and muddy. Eventually, the chains were in place and we set about getting out of the ditch. With diff-locks fully engaged this worked really well but we needed to be very careful about the rear wheels. We only have one pair of chains, fitted at the front, so there is nothing to stop the rear wheels sliding sideways. This had never been a problem in our previous ice travels but now it was a serious worry. The road was treacherously slippery with quite a steep camber towards a very steep slope into the forest. The dark made this look especially ominous. We reversed back up the hill. The camber was less this way and pushing the vehicle carefully uphill we could make sure that rear wheels did not drift sideways. A few hundreds of meters later, we reached a level patch where we could park off the road and finally relax. The champagne to celebrate the New Year was particularly enjoyable.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Next morning, not a single vehicle had passed in the night. The snowplough came past about 8 am dropping grit behind it. We had a slow start and by the time we left, just before midday, the road was completely clear of ice and snow.

Over the next few days, we completed our exploration of the Schwarz Wald (Black Forest). Found a few more delightful places to walk and some quiet corners to park. Eventually we turned back towards the Unicat workshop. Time, yet again, to reappraise our travel plans. Also we might think about getting a second pair of snow chains.  

• 

• 

• 

• 

•