Day 49 – to Hinsbourg

Am I being haunted by school groups? Well if so, it’s not a bad thing. I can sit back and watch the teachers getting stressed, it’s actually quite amusing. It’s also good to see the kids out of the classroom in the outdoors again after two years.

This morning the campground was taken over by 6 class groups from the local Primary School, doing various collections and observations from the forest. The campground is a community asset first and foremost, a concept we don’t really have in the UK. The reception, which has kitchen, sitting area and toilets, serves as a base.

The weather is getting noticeably hotter also. Spring has morphed into summer it seems. 28C today, and into 30s next few days. Overnight lows in the early 20s. The dog struggles in the van at those temperatures at night, he takes a while to get used to it, a Cumbria dog after all. A reminder to me that it’s almost time to head home. I don’t plan to be in Central Europe in the summer these days, when I don’t have to. It’s too hot for me. I’ll head home early next week, hunker down for June and July, before heading up to the far north, Scandinavia.

Under the canopy of the forest things remain cool, and I experimented with a few tracks that weren’t tracks, and duly got myself lost. Or at least in situations were the bush was too thick to continue. I’d only wanted 90 minutes or so out anyway, as I was moving on.

I drove about 50 kilometres south, crossing the E25 motorway that runs between Metz and Strasbourg, and into the third section of National Park in Vosges, Parc Naturel Regional des Vosges Nord. The hills are less high here, the tops at about 400 – 500 metres, but still very few people live here, and the expanses of forest stretch to the horizon in all directions.

After a supermarket stock up, I was settled at another municipal campground, at Hinsbourg, even quieter than Saint-Quirin, with just one other van there. By the time I arrived, the afternoon was properly hot, and it was necessary to find shade and stay cool.

It’s markedly lighter later also. I watched the Premiership Cup Final, which went to extra time, and didn’t finish until 11:15 pm, from outside the van.