This weekend we planned to do a walk with Julian to a place called the Teufel Tisch (devil’s table), a strange rock formation in the forest. Julian had a late night last night and so we had the morning to ourselves and caught up with some reading and writing whilst he caught up on sleep. When Julian got up, we had lunch together before heading to the forest. It was about an hour’s drive to get to the car park and 5pm by the time we started the walk! But the weather was so hot, we were glad to be past the heat of the afternoon.

We set off gently uphill through the forest, chatting about the lynx’s return and what it would mean for people and wildlife. Then the path wound up some steep switchbacks and we sweated our way to the top. From there, it was gently undulating all the way to the devil’s table. It was quite a sight to behold! The stone here is sandstone and the erosion at this location happens to have left a rather large piece of rock standing on quite a skinny plinth. There’s even a tree growing on top, which is lovely.

Nice bit of climbing

Cool formations

It really is a spectacular rock

After a water break and a few piccies, we headed back down to the car park, talking about the local landscape, people and history.  The evening light was beautiful, the orange sunlight glowing through the leaves on the beech trees and bringing out the red bark of the Scot’s pine.

Beautiful evening

Scot’s pine in the evening sun

Then we zoomed back to Trippstadt in time for last orders at Julian’s local Italian. It felt good to have a hearty meal after a hot hike!

On Sunday, I went for another walk with Lea and Caro and their dogs whilst Dave submitted a job application for some winter work, which is exciting.

Tomorrow is our last day at the lynx project, then we’re on our way home!! Can hardly believe it.

-Anna