UIt’s secret – with every step it smacks, the ground begins to gently vibrate. One suspects and feels the abyss below, the treacherous. Because the Schwingmoorrasen, a free-floating plant cover that grows from the shore out onto the lake, poses the risk of collapsing and drowning, you should only visit the Grambower Moor outside of the nature trail with an expert guide.
Because humans cannot swim in it. One thinks of the bog corpses with leather skin that lie in many a museum. It is up to eight meters deep under the Schwingmoorwiesen, which, like in other moors, contributes to the formation of peat and CO2– Contributes to storage. Peat was mined there for over 200 years, and today the Grambower Moor is one of the most valuable moors in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania due to its biodiversity.
In spring, the cotton grass bears fruit and sets white dabs, carnivorous sundew lures flies to their peril, swamp calla forms an almost exotic accent on the open water surfaces – it flowers white and the infructescence is orange-red. Researchers have documented around 870 species of butterflies and almost 30 species of dragonflies in Grambower Moor. With a wingspan of 5.5 to 6.5 centimetres, the Greater Moosjungfer is one of the large dragonfly species in Europe, which is typical of rain bogs and is under European protection.
Source: Infographic WORLD
The Grambower Moor nature reserve covers around 570 hectares. The circular hiking trail set up by the association can be used all year round. Guided hikes can be arranged from April to August via the association or the information point at Gut Grambow. There is also a permanent exhibition on flora and fauna, the history of peat extraction and the planned further renaturation. (grambower-moor.de)
The Red Moor in the Rhön
After the rain, wafts of mist rise from the moor. The wind howls over the barren, open area and brings bird calls. It is lonely this evening in the border triangle of Hesse, Thuringia and Bavaria.
The Red Moor, 50 hectares in size and a good 800 meters above sea level, is a kind of sponge that absorbs the abundant rain. At the beginning of the visitor path is a lake with unfathomably dark water, reeds swaying in the wind. The boardwalk leads through a light birch forest, the ground is covered with lush, lush moss cushions, ferns and berry bushes. Also in the wet areas of the Rhön, the paths may not be left for reasons of nature and species protection.
A boardwalk leads through the Carpathian birch forest in the Red Moor
Source: pa/Beate Schleep
Cobwebs hang in the dry birch branches, the evening haze begins to settle on them as the temperature drops. In the late light, the moor forest becomes increasingly gloomy, but also more atmospheric. Bird calls lure into the moor; they never seem to get close. It’s always mysterious.
While hikers are attracted in the other seasons, in winter cross-country skiers glide in the trail park – provided the conditions are right. The moor is one of the most popular destinations in the Rhön. A three-kilometre circular trail, 1.2 of which is on planks, runs right through the middle.
The former peat extraction areas can be seen particularly well from an observation tower. It was mined from 1809 to 1984, initially as fuel, and from 1837 also as a raw material for mud baths in the spa towns of the Rhön. Today the moor is part of the Unesco biosphere reserve Rhön. (rhoentourist.de)
The High Fens between Germany and Belgium
The Hohe Venn, the large moor in the Rhenish Slate Mountains, lies on a plateau. The high moor landscape on the plateau, 60,000 hectares in size, is the jewel of the German-Belgian High Venn Nature Park. Most of the moor areas are in the neighboring country. Lonely, barren and under the constant wind, it also seems rather borderline as a living space. But there is also a great diversity of species.
If you hike through the woods – from Kalterherberg in Monschau, for example – to the moor, you can hear the rutting calls of the deer in autumn. When the days get shorter and darker, the moor grass glows orange all the way to the horizon. If you come early in the day, in the light of the rising sun through the autumn fog you can spot ducks on the bog pools with their wooded islands.
On the paths that lead through the Hautes Fagnes you feel removed from the rest of the world
Source: pa/Jochen Tack
Here, too, boardwalks lead deep into the primeval, rough landscape. It goes past gloomy shimmering ponds and lakes. The gnarled downy birch trees or the silhouettes of the willow bushes seem like strange fantasy creations. The barren and quiet, a boundless expanse create a feeling of being removed from the rest of the world, of all places at the national border.
Two-hour guided group hikes are offered from Monschau all year round. The Botrange Nature Park Center, the administrative headquarters of the Belgian nature park area, is also informative. (monschau.de; naturpark-eifel.de; botrange.be).
The Great Moor in Lower Saxony
Blood-red leaves lie in the water, leaves gleam like brass on the trees. The rowan berries: bright orange. Wind whispers in the crowns of the few stunted birches. Then the wind gets stronger, the clouds get darker. This is the Goldenstedter Moor in Lower Saxony these days. Showers are falling, rain trails are moving across the wide, open country.
Together with other wet areas, the Goldenstedter Moor forms one of the largest raised moor landscapes in Germany
Credit: pa/imageBROKER/Willi Rolfes
Isolation from the world is the keyword here, as in the other moors in the area. The Goldenstedter Moor is only part of the Great Moor between Vechta and Diepholz, which is made up of several wet areas, such as the Steinfelder Moor or the Boller Moor. Together they form one of the largest raised moor landscapes in Germany with 640 hectares.
Sunrise at the Goldenstedter Moor in autumn
Source: pa/Zoonar/Olaf Juergens
Paths lead for miles into the parallel world of water, in which birches and oaks are reflected. If the wind gets in, it turns the images into distorted patterns. It’s lonely here, but not deserted. Near the bog information center people with lenses stand at the water’s edge. It is also the time of the cranes in the Great Moor. In the fall, thousands gather for the southward migration.
As dusk falls, the typical trumpeting of the birds can be heard, a melody full of melancholy and longing. They’re coming, hundreds, sometimes thousands. Formation after formation is approaching for landing – first in waves and extra laps, but then the birds seem to fall out of the sky in one fell swoop with a wild roar. The cranes have found their roost somewhere in the moor where nobody goes.
The Darter is one of the inhabitants of the Goldenstedter Moor
Source: pa/Zoonar/Olaf Juergens
The Goldenstedter Moor, for example, can not only be explored underground on a 900 meter long moor nature trail, but also in a moor tunnel. The starting point is the nature conservation and information center “Das Haus im Moor”. (niz-goldenstedt.de)
Zwillbrocker Venn between Münsterland and the Netherlands
The last leaves shimmer from the treetops, the view falls on open water, on moor and morass. Half sunken trees lie in the pond. Autumn is also eerily beautiful in the Zwillbrocker Venn, on the border between the Münsterland and the Netherlands.
The distant ringing of a church bell can be heard, monotonously like a death knell. A flock of black-headed gulls flies up. 10,000 specimens live here, between wet meadows, moorland and heathlands that extend over 176 hectares; it is the largest inland colony of these birds in Germany.
The moor landscape of the Zwillbrocker Venns near Vreden in Münsterland is picturesque
Source: pa/DUMONT picture archive/Jörg A. Fischer
From spring to summer, the mysteries of the Venn – which means moor in Dutch – take on an almost crazy, at least unexpected facet: then pink-colored birds fly in from their winter quarters. It is flamingos that mate here, breed and raise their offspring.
The images are bizarre: flamingos looking for food, cattle standing in front of gnarled oak trees on the nearby pastures. They have been here during their breeding season since the 1980s, but it is not entirely clear where they come from. They are probably escapees from public bird parks or private holdings.
From spring to summer you can see flamingos in the Zwillbrocker Venn; they mate, breed and raise their offspring here
Source: pa/augenklick/firo Sportphoto/J?rgen Fromme
In addition to the waders, experts have counted 140 breeding and migratory bird species in the Venn, 60 of which are said to be permanent residents here. On the five-kilometre-long circular trail, which also leads through a sparse forest at the edge of the moor and offers views of the water surface again and again, you can hear a melodic trill or an urgent call at any time of the year – this moor is a bird paradise. (muensterland.com; bszwillbrock.de)
How German moors become climate killers
More than three quarters of the German moorland has been drained for the benefit of forestry and agriculture. Scientists and the nature conservation association warn of the consequences of such drainage and advise a rethink.
Source: WELT/Katharina Kuhnert