The best traffic-free bike rides around Bark

It's not exactly pretty, the new bridge… but of course helpful, and good that it exists at all

The bench offers a wonderful view.

Construction of the new bridge began in November 2025.

Here in Großenaspe, the Osterau becomes particularly picturesque: clear banks, wooden bridges, birdsong – the perfect place for photos, a picnic or a break in nature.

The Osterau is a tributary of the Stör and originates south of Bad Bramstedt. It winds its way for about 25 km through meadows, fields, and small forests—a true northern German natural idyll.

The Nienwohlder Moor lies on the watershed between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.[2] It drains to the west into the Lankau, to the south into the Alte Alster, and to the north into the Norderbeste. The nature reserve, which is managed by the Schleswig-Holstein State Hunting Association with the exception of the areas owned by the State Forestry Administration[5],[6] can be almost completely circumnavigated on hiking trails, along which information boards are posted at several locations. In the west, a hiking trail runs through the protected area in the area of the Lunden, a towering moraine ridge.

Today, typical raised moor vegetation can once again be found in the nature reserve, including round-leaved sundew, narrow-leaved cottongrass, bladderwort, white beak sedge, sedge cottongrass, cranberry, as well as cross-leaved heather, rosemary, and common heather. The nature reserve also represents an important habitat for birds. Various wading birds such as the curlew and the common snipe, as well as ducks such as the shoveler, teal, tufted duck, and garganey, as well as meadow pipits, whinchats, and stonechats, are native here. Marsh harriers and short-eared owls can also be found here. The undisturbed moorland is a refuge for cranes, which are now breeding here again. Various woodpecker species, red-backed shrikes, and songbirds are native to the wooded moorland areas. The nature reserve also provides a habitat for various amphibians and reptiles, as well as insects such as dragonflies and butterflies.

The moor was renaturalized in the 1980s through rewetting measures.[2][3] Today, in the area of former industrial use, it is an open raised bog with numerous water-filled peat pits, surrounded by a bog forest. The farmer's hand-cut peat pits at the edge of the moor are often water-filled. Sphagnum moss quaking grassland grows here, and the peat pits are slowly silting up. Further areas are occupied by grassland and forest. Some of the grassland is extensively grazed by robust cattle.[4] Some areas are still intensively used for agriculture, including one arable area.