Trip to North Sea

Stats

General

• 22.03.25 (Saturday)
  • sunny - cloudy, 12C .. 13C, 25-40kn E’ly
  • during night still windy, 3C-5C
• 23.03.25 (Sunday)
  • cloudy - overcast, 10C .. 11C, 20-30kn, NE’ly

Saturday

The weekend before I wanted to go to Plön but due to a cold forecasted night I postponed it to this weekend. As you can see, again this trip was not towards Plön but in the opposite direction. What was the excuse this time?

Again, the weather. Not the weather in the night but rather the weather at daytime. Strong winds were forecasted from easterly directions, even a wind warning was posted by the german met office. As Plön is to the east of Kiel, that would have meant having beautiful gusts of 40kn directly in my face.

I am not quite there yet to “weather” such situations by simply going, but I also wanted to go out. So I did, but rather in the other direction, which also meant having those winds to my favour now. At least Saturday…

So I went westward. After 2.5km I already decided to turn around, as I forgot some equipment that was essential for the night. That mistake handsomely increased my planned distance by about 7km. But as it was early in the day I simply went back and proceeded after getting my stuff.

The first part was through rural Kiel, then the more natural paths began near Westensee. Almost the whole way to the beautiful wild moor south of Rendsburg was in nature. After that, Passing through Jevenstedt, I reached the Kiel Canal (is it still called like that in English, even near Rendsburg?), which led me 10km westwards. With the wind in my back that was one hell of a ride, the speed making up for the less interesting nature compared to before.

The last part leading to Albersdorf was again dominated by agricultural planes, just until right before the sleeping spot, which was on the edge of a forest.

I checked the spot, planned for the night, bought some rations at Lidl in the town of Albersdorf and started to set up the tent.

At some point another hiker came along, an interesting guy from Passau who was just five days into hiking the German part of E1 from Flensburg to Konstanz. What a trip! We talked a bit about his tour, his gear, his life and his plans. He had some interesting and inspiring things to tell.

Sleeping Spot

• The sleeping spot was okay
• One tent can have a good spot, the others have to live with more slopy parts
• No table or bench available
• Lidl and Edeka available in town
• Toilets available in stone age museum, open from tuesdays to sundays

Night

• A bit windy but not too cold
• Took some time to get warm feet but in the end everything was snuggly
• Had to turn around in the tent, which i set up in the direction of the wind (but not in the direction of the slope…)

Sunday

Lying in the tent I checked out where I could go to take the train back to Kiel. Before departing, I though about going to Büsum. But after the exhausting but fulfilling day I decided that I could make some more way on this Sunday. So in the end I decided going to Husum, which is to the North of Albersdorf.

The wind has turned a bit in northerly directions, which meant that I had the wind from a less favourable direction than yesterday. Anyway, the trip was really nice, mainly through agricultural areas in the beginning but later on more the classical north sea marsh lands. It was quite cool to see how the landscape changes, even if you only go 100km from Kiel to the West.

Arrived in Husum I took the chance to see the north sea, but when I arrived it was the time where the moon decided to retreat the north sea. So only intertidal mudflat¹ and tidal creeks¹ as far as you could see, but that’s also what makes this part special!

Notes to self/Stuff for nerds

Gear

Almost same as the previous overnighter, only that

• Vans shoes
• Thermal shirt instead of the trekking shirt

and I did not forget anything important (after going back once, haha).

To be improved

• Down jacket was used throughout Sunday, as the wind was really chilly; so maybe a wind breaker would be nice to have
• next time take some tissues for the runny nose