Angelo getting his morning grooming
This was a long and confused stretch as we went wrong on leaving Bad Lauterberg and consequently walked for longer than intended. We were also late setting off, after 11.30, as the reporter wanted more pics - this time without rain. Apart from a light shower earlier we didn't get any rain until another downpour as we walked into Poehlde.
As we left Bad Lauterberg a voice called from a garden high above the road and a man said he had apples for Angelo and promptly began to throw them down. He then joined us and said he had read about us in the paper and gave us even more apples. About an hour after this we realized we were not on the right road so Jack got out his compass and we took an apparent Wanderweg going west. Later we got directions which we tried to follow and then Jack suddenly plunged down a rough tractor line downhill, round a field, but definitely west. I stumbled along behind hoping that we would be able to get out at the bottom as I certainly couldn't climb back up. Amazingly, just as we finally fell onto an empty tarred road a car came by. Jack quickly flagged it down to ask directions and the people inside had read all about us and even rung Barbara to offer stabling for Angelo if needed.
We decided to give up again on Wanderwegs and follow the road to Poehlde although later we did strike off across country once more and finally reach our destination in pouring rain. The walk had all been through open country and, thank goodness, mostly flat. This time there was lot of what I thought must be giant balsam around and by ditches particularly it grew to 5 or 6 feet. Poppies too appeared as well as plenty of clover and lush grass for Angelo and, strangely, lots of slugs on the tarmac. Perhaps they liked the warm surface as it was a nice day again. Mostly. There were few birds, as usual, but we could hear buzzards mewling around us so there was wildlife about. Some fields had a crop of some kind surrounded by a border of a blue flower which looked like statice but probably wasn't. What purpose this served I don't know. Pest control? Just pretty? Another crop?
As we walked through Poehlde looking for our Gasthof a man joined us and showed us the way to Gasthof Andreas, stopping at his house so that his children could admire Angelo. Again, we seemed to be the only people staying at the Gasthof and only one person looked in at the bar. We had a good meal though and crashed out, as had become usual, soon after 8pm. Jack, very bravely, went out in the rain and found that Angelo had somehow shaken loose his raincoat but as it was too dark and stormy Jack just removed it altogether and left Angelo under a tree.
When Barbara arrived the next morning it seemed she had been worried about us as Wulften had had a terrible hail storm. So bad that Barbara had had to get out the snow shovels to clear the hail stones. We were glad we had cut short the walk as something like that while lost in a North German forest would not have been much fun.
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