Hunte, Heath, and Burial Mounds Trail

Along the Hunte River, across the unique heathland of the Pestrup burial ground to the historic town center of Wildeshausen: There's plenty of variety on this hike around the venerable Wittekind town. A possible starting point is the Pestrup burial ground. The vastness of this almost 40-hectare, heather-covered burial ground from the late Bronze and early Iron Ages is breathtaking in every season. From here, the hike leads along idyllic forest paths into the Lehmkuhle municipal forest at the southern edge of Wildeshausen. The forest nature trail there is complemented by the nearby arboretum on the Südring. This tree garden, planted around 20 years ago, now includes well over 100 trees and more than 3,000 shrubs. Above the railway line, a path leads toward the town center, which offers not only numerous cafés and restaurants but also many historical sights. The trail leads over the gloriously green city wall, the city's medieval defense system, past the Printing Museum to St. Alexander's Church, the only basilica in the Oldenburg region. A detour to the historic town hall with its High Gothic stepped gable is also worthwhile before the hike continues along the Hunte River to the "Burgwiese" city park. The view from the castle hill over the Hunte lowlands is a feast for the eyes. The next stage continues along the river to the Pioneer Bridge and then continues, past lush marsh meadows, to the Pestrup Moor.

We started a little earlier this morning; after today's hike, I have to go back to work in the evening. I also wanted to celebrate with asparagus for lunch. I chose https://www.amtshaus-wildeshausen.com/home.html for this...it was delicious. After lunch, we walked directly along the Hunte River to the Pestrup Moor. This hike is also extremely varied...as the name suggests. Now, just a coffee and then I'm off. My sister is staying another day 🥰👋🏼👋🏼

...we didn't see any in the small town on the Hunte, on the contrary, there were some really pretty old houses. Mo only came a little way with us, she looked at the town centre and experienced other things: for example, a fun run that took place today, a delicious cappuccino and a bee that was enjoying a buttercup. You can see it in the video here: https://www.samaipata.de/video/biene_butterblume.mp4 You can also hear the fun runners in the background... Keks wasn't that interested in the town centre (although it really is quite pretty), so we did the big nature loop. It really was a great tour, very varied. There was a walking path along the Hunte that led into a park, the beautifully overgrown old city wall, a green path along the railway, the arboretum (a tree education park), forest, rapeseed fields, more forest with a xylophone and wood species display, the Pestrup burial ground (a heath area), the Pestrup moor and....

Part two of the trilogy "January hikes with Marco" As we were going to Wildeshausen today, we wanted to behave like savages in keeping with the name so as not to attract attention as tourists. We planned to put on some cool war paint and we had already practiced a few primal screams. But then I decided to google it again and found that the name of the beautiful little town has little to do with savages. Rather, it probably goes back (nothing is known for sure) to a certain Wigald, who was fed up of living in a wigwam in the 8th century and then promptly founded this town. It was apparently initially called "Wigaldinghus", which was later translated somewhat clumsily from Low German into High German as "Wildeshausen". It is possible that I made up part of this story, but some of it is true... After we had been enlightened in this way, we dropped the original plan and resolved to behave properly. Which worked out to a certain extent. Our hike started at the car park at the Pestrup burial ground, and from there we went straight into the heath. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't in bloom at the time, but it was still beautiful. Behind the heath we walked through a large forest and after crossing a road we came to the Lehmkuhle forest nature trail. In addition to a few other interesting exhibits, there was a really animal-friendly second use (in contrast to the original use) of a former hunting blind (picture 15). It now served as an owl house and offered several pairs of owls breeding opportunities. Other birds that were not afraid of these neighbors were also allowed to settle there. Behind the nature trail was the arboretum, a kind of tree exhibition with a wide variety of plantings, an orchard, floodplain polders and a large biological diversity (it says something similar on www.wildeshausen.de). We only touched on it briefly, with the plan to come back when it was green and blooming and buzzing and humming. Now we continued on a green path along the railway that led us into the town center. We had to walk a short distance along busy roads, then we reached the town wall. This was built as a fortification around 1540 and was converted into a green area with a promenade at the end of the 18th century. From there - between beech trees - you can see some beautiful old (and some less attractive new) buildings. We soon reached the Hunte, on whose bank we left the town again upstream. Since we had set off late (we had practiced the primal scream for too long, which we now had no use for), the darkness managed to do something today that it had not managed yesterday: it caught up with us. For the last stretch we had just enough light to see our path, but unfortunately not enough to enjoy the scenic beauty of the Pestrup Moor. We'll have to come back again. It was a beautiful, very varied route that I expressly recommend hiking. It can be found on the Komoot planning page under the title "Hunte, Heide, Hügelgräber". A hiker ran into the owl house And got a few big bumps. Then he immediately said: "That only hurt a little. That's why I'm not going to start crying.

A beautiful and varied route in great weather that does what the name promises: Hunte, heath and burial mounds. Wildeshausen is also surprisingly nice in parts with older buildings and the ring wall. We discover cute goslings on the Hunte and interesting beetles in the heath that are unknown to us. We also really like the Lehmkuhlen path, where an incredible number of wood anemones are blooming. Now we can sit outside on the motorhome parking space, the start and finish of the hike. Wonderful!

The weather forecast this morning actually looked pretty good for Wildeshausen 🏘️ in the Oldenburg district – no rain and even a bit of sun ⛅! Of course, I still had a hike left in the Wild Geest 😀. So I drove there. When I arrived, I got out of the car 🚗 and... it started raining 😂! Of course, that wasn't a problem; it soon stopped. I first visited the Pestrup burial ground 🪦. With over 530 large and small burial mounds, it is the largest Bronze and Iron Age necropolis in northern Central Europe. Next came the Lehmkuhle forest nature trail with the adjoining arboretum of the Rotary Club of Wildeshausen. There are several tree species to admire here 🌲🌳🌴🎄🎋. Finally, I took a look at the town of Wildeshausen 🏘️ itself before continuing along the Hunteweg 🏞️ and finally reaching the Pestrup Moor, which I crossed via an adventurous path. Baby frogs 🐸 were jumping around everywhere (they fled from me, of course 🤫🤭). Overall, it was a beautiful walk with varied landscapes. 🤠

This tour is beautiful and varied. I've changed the original route a bit, but it's not really noticeable. In Wildeshausen, there's a large beer garden near the old town hall, which is highly recommended. The short detour near the end isn't recommended; I thought you could visit the ponds here, but unfortunately, that's not possible; everything is fenced in.

Home game 🥳 This very varied tour starts almost on your own doorstep. We modified some sections to suit our taste. We really enjoyed the coolness and peace of the morning. I like the play of light at sunrise in the marsh meadows. For evening hikes, I would do the tour to the Pestrup burial ground at sunset; that can be breathtaking 🥰Wildeshausen offers hikers from outside plenty to see and eat.