We captured foxes galore overnight last night on the trail cam, and were able to spot one again first thing this morning through the binoculars, as well as a few red-backed shrike.
Today's mainly been about covering ground so we've mostly gravitated towards the dull-but-efficient (when not congested: and it frequently is) autobahn network. That said, we've also done a few bumbling back roads, too, just to break things up a bit.
The back road vistas, villages and smaller towns have been pleasant enough, if never quite achieving chocolate box status. I confess that the most engaging built-environment sights of the day for me were far more industrial. I particularly enjoyed spotting more of the still-working winding towers and spoil heaps of the deep shaft mines of the former GDR. It's perhaps a childhood regression thing.
The same engaged-by-industrial-scenes theme has continued at tonight's intended overnighting spot (coordinates). It was picked from the mapping software for its natural features but what we hadn't expected to find here was a windfarm development in progress.
Being a Sunday night, there's no one at work here so it's been possible to fully embrace our inner umarell and dawdle around the entire sprawling development to try to absorb some of the processes and engineering. Forgive the obvious, but these turbines are absolutely enormous. Only when it's possible to stand right next to a set of blades lying on the ground awaiting craning does the magnitude of the operation strike home. It turns out, then, that windfarms don't just appear by magic overnight simply to irritate NIMBYs.
Interestingly, there were many local people biking and walking around the tracks that serve the development and none of the site was secured or seemingly monitored in any way. There were shiny trucks, dozens of cranes, and tons of other plant and equipment left completely to their own devices, yet none of the people wondering around seemed to be even slightly interested in swiping anything or perpetrating mindless acts of vandalism. It seems our home nation is waaay ahead of Germany in this regard.
Whilst pootling in the area we also chanced upon a wayside seating area and information panel (pic) that - thanks again to the incredibly unsettling marvel that is Google Lens - revealed a fascinating glimpse of a microscopic bit of human history. Grubbing out stuff like this once again brings home the realisation that it would be entirely possible to live an entire lifetime in one small locality, yet only ever amass a desperately superficial knowledge of it.
For completeness: Emma-the-Undiagnosed - having complained for most of the day about being physically, mentally and emotionally drained by our 'holiday' - did the logical thing and went for a windfarm-themed run. I predict yet another cycle of total exhaustion and overuse injury is nigh.
Post composed at 22:05 on Sunday 24th August from our intended overnighting spot N 51.45693°, E 08.22798° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:51.45693%2C08.22798