Bluesky Tour - Episode 11 - Winkel France (another walking day)

(continued from Episode 10)

The rich and dense forest that surrounds this little French village of Winkel next to Germany and Switzerland takes more than the few days I have available to explore so I try to make the most out of it as the weather will take a good chunk of my theoretically available time. It might be 1st of August but it insists behaving like winter in Athens. Worse actually as we get much less rain than they do here right now. Basically here's no dry day so I'm wearing my hiking boots and hit the road.

First guy I meet is this unlucky one:

Makes me think that leaving the windows of my studio semi open wasn't such a good idea but hey, it's a village, what do you expect...

I pass the places I did yesterday in the previous Episode and continue uphill South:

 Looks like they just had a race here but no idea of what kind:

The sun cannot penetrate the dense vegetation so I walk in the shade the whole time:

You know you're in France when...

I hear a slow car struggling to climb this road behind me and when it gets closer I take a look to see if I'm safe or not like I always do. It's an old FIAT Panda with a much older guy in it who tells me something which I guess means "need a ride?". I thank him and tell him with my zero French "no I'm OK, merci". He is so slow that he didn't even have to stop to tell me so. If I was running I could catch him:

French warning sing🙂

As I am out also looking for WWII relics I'm more than happy to see the first one on my left:

Takes some effort to climb this short but wet, slippery and steep cliff,

but definitely worth it. See how nature has camouflaged this thing:

Unsurprisingly not much to see inside:

I get back on the road again almost sliding down that bank and as I continue uphill I meet a series of bunkers:

The largest and best one is this though:

Nature really made impressive art on it:

Here's a short video:

It's too dark inside for a full stabilised video hence the darkness but didn't miss anything, it's just bare empty.

Luckily for the animals this tank is always full:

Unsurprisingly, the water resources of the area are infinite. And the local water is fantastic by the way.

Looks like a good deal to me:

I wonder how many people today make a connection with what's happening now 80+ years after WWII and whether they get prepared due to the similarities. I'm afraid not enough despite the bits around that are here to teach a lesson:

I'm 100m away from the end of the race that I'm clueless about so I guess it took place on foot:

Lucky campers enjoy the morning sun in this lovely camping spot:

In case you wonder it is located here and there's signs informing visitors about the local natural wealth and the WWII relics:

A walk around is is simply priceless:

Your only problem might be which way to go but either way you won't go wrong:

I take the right one:

Which leads me to this:

Built in 1940 it served as an observation post:

Tiny entrance but a) that's how these things are built and b) people where shorter 8 decades ago:

Inside view:

Outside view:

A few steps away is some sort of grill hut which is the most beautiful I've ever seen:

Look at the diameter of those poles:

That door handle!

Balcony view is top:

I guess that's the toilet:

Wood art:

As I make my way back down North to the village I take a different route this time:

Which brings me into the heart of this dense forest:

This give an idea about how wet and shady hence greener than green things are here:

I hope this also helps you understand how tall the trees are her. This branch alone that's fallen is longer than 5 SUVs combined:

I hope you enjoyed it cause I surely did.

See you on Episode 12!