Dobel, Black Forest: Relaxing on a Hilltop

At our parish community I had often heard the elderly people talking about going for a walk “on the Dobel”. This sounded like a suitable destination for someone with a bad physical condition, to go for a walk in fresh forest air and enjoying a view.

Dobel is a village at the northernmost end of the Black Forest, located rather high up on an open plateau that allows views over the Rhine plain and the surrounding hills. It is about the closest place to Karlsruhe with a view, and a popular destination for a quick side trip. My friend Ella offered to take me in her campervan. With me taking the back seat, in this car we are able to keep the distance that corona restrictions require.

The idea was finding a place with a nice, not too steep trail to go for a little walk first, then setting up chairs (the advantage of a campervan is having everything on board!) in a place with a view and relax for a while, and later going somewhere else further in the forest for another walk. But we had no real plan where exactly to go. After cruising some narrow roads, we found a parking lot behind the football grounds that did not look too promising at first, but we gave it a try.

A path between some old fruit trees lead into the meadows, and soon the view opened up. We followed the path downhill towards the edge of the forest. Unfortunately I was in rather bad shape that morning, and the uneven downhill path proved too much of a challenge. We did not get very far but decided we’d rather turn around. Walking uphill worked better for my sore legs. Nevertheless I was looking forward to sitting down.

This day it was Billy Joe’s turn to accompany me. To a little wombat these meadows full of fresh grass, tasty herbs and wildflowers must be heaven.

We did not get further than this. Billy Joe was not too happy with his Mommy!

Ella got the chairs from the van, and we settled down in the meadow. At first we sat in the shade of a big spruce tree, but after a while we found it too chilly and moved to a sunnier spot.

Up there the air is far cooler than down in Karlsruhe, another reason why this place is so popular in summer.

Seat with a view

If you asked me what we did for the rest of the day, the answer would be: nothing. We just sat there, felt the cooling breeze and the sunshine, enjoyed the view, chatted, took photos, sorted out the tangled yarn of Ella’s knitting, watched the clouds, the animals and plants, listened to the sounds of the wind in the trees and the voices of the birds…

The meadow had many different wildflowers, which were visited by bees and bumblebees and various species of small butterflies. Next time I’ll take a nature guidebook to look up what they are!

When I was small, we used to do many nature walks and there was always a guidebook on wildflowers or trees or birds or insects or mushrooms or fossils in Daddy’s backpack, depending on destination and season and current interest. We’d look up every species we didn’t know. I still remember a lot, but not everything.

Originally we had planned to move on to another place down in a forest valley that Ella knew. But time moved on and we both agreed to stay, and leave the valley for next time.

Knee with a view

It felt so good to just sit and “be”. There were so many little things to watch and observe. We spent hours in this meadow – much to the annoyance of a jaybird who flew from tree to tree squawking and warning the rest of the world of these human intruders. It has been simply ages since I last saw a view as wide as this. Sad but true, I don’t even remember when and where.

Bluebells - can you hear them ringing?

Billy Joe poses with a bluebell

For the lovers of German poetry among us: