We walked away from our farm homestay and quickly left the booms of the artillery fire behind.
 |
| Looking back to our night's stay. |
As we stayed 2 or 3 kilometres outside of Wietzendorf we decided to make our own route from where we were, rather than walk back into the village to rejoin the VRG. This worked well and we chose our own route a couple of other times during today's walk, shortening it somewhat. Our own routes certainly took us through some pretty parts.
It is May Day, the 1st of May - a public holiday in Germany. We expected to see some May Day celebrations but we didn't. Maybe it was because we walked through only two small settlements during the day. The first, Klein Amerika - Small America - wasn't long after we set off.
The biggest part of our walk today was through the Beckinger Moor.
 |
| The Beckinger Moor. |
The moor resulted from a 15 kilometre wide drainage channel which was formed about 125,000 years ago during the Ice Age, and over the years, developed an impermeable base in the channel which gradually filled in and formed a peat soil. One of the wild berries growing in the moor is the heidelbeere, a type of blueberry.
This information board explains the formation of the moor more clearly than I can - but it is in German.
Now the moor is an area of forests - wet and dry heaths with dwarf shrubs and pine areas - which gives protection to many wild flora and fauna. One of the birds we hoped to see was the goshawk but apparently they are very shy - they certainly kept themselves hidden from us.
We did see many dragonflies and butterflies and think they must have been these ones:
 |
Walking through the moor.
|
Once out of the moor we sat in a Bushaltestelle - a bus stop - for our lunch break. By midday the temperature had risen 26°, far hotter than we expected to be walking in this early in spring, so the shelter was very welcome.
A big surprise for us today was a hill. Not much of a hill, more a wrinkle in the landscape, but after a week of very flat walking it caused great excitement.
 |
| A hill! |
Then we enjoyed a cooling breeze as we walked along the top of the ridge for while.
 |
| I'm wearing sunsleeves which helped in the heat. |
The second of the two small communities we walked through today Hagen, 3 or 4 kilometres before Bergen.
There was a small kiosk selling wines, juices and potatoes, among other things. The sign for the kiosk says since 1587!
 |
| Some of the goods in the kiosk. |
 |
| The first plastic houses we have seen. They went on for a long way. |
Then we were walking into Bergen.
Our first stop was at a cafe for an ice cream. The shade was as welcome as the ice creams were.
Once we had checked in at our accommodation and had completed the usual end of day chores we had a cooling drink.
 |
| Köstritzer Schwartzbier - the brewery was first mentioned in 1543. |
A quick walk around the town centre followed but others was still too hot to go far.
 |
| St-Lamberti Kirche - it was locked. |
While we were walking around the town we spotted a raccoon, also out on a walk. A poor photo but it's all I managed to get in my surprise.
Also seen today were several slowworms. They look very snake-like!
Bergen is a town in the north of Celle district on the Lüneburg Heath, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Administratively it acts as a municipal borough divided into 12 subordinate parishes based on the town and its surrounding villages: Becklingen, Belsen, Bergen, Bleckmar, Diesten, Dohnsen, Eversen, Hagen, Hassel, Offen, Sülze and Wardböhmen.
Population 13,520
Source: Wikipedia
