Bokkie's Travels: Germany at last

Wednesday 05/06/24

Happily set up in Odenwald campsite

We had made a booking for a campsite on the Neckar river, so when we became aware of the flooding in Southern Germany I sent them an e-mail to find out the status but never got a reply. Undaunted, we headed out of France and into Germany, the roads getting busier as we progressed.

Our planned route took us through Heidelberg, but as soon as we got into the centre of town our route was blocked because the roads along the river had flooded. The re-routed traffic caused a massive jam back through the old town - it was a bit stressful trying to tow the caravan through the chaos. We managed to get through eventually but were then met with another blockage when trying to get to the campsite.

Hirschorn

Workmen clearing up after the flood. Luckily these houses are high enough to escape damage but
not everyone was so lucky.

Our calls to the campsite went unanswered, so we needed to make another plan. Murphy's Law, however dictated that mobile signal was very weak in the area we were stuck in, but eventually we managed to find a campsite on Google Maps away from the river (most others were along the bank and we were concerned with the flood situation at this stage).

We phoned but were disappointed to find the lady answering did not speak any English, however Toni suddenly jumped in with fluent school German and arranged for us to go this new location - we were saved by Frau Schmidt, Toni's high school German teacher of long ago!

The campsite is huge, it must have been quite something in it's heyday.

We can imagine this meadow filed with tents in the summer.

We managed to negotiate further road closures and are now happily camping in a wooded area in a valley near Hirschorn. We took a walk into town this afternoon and, although the worst of the flooding has passed (for now) the clean-up operation shows just how serious it was. We're happy to be on higher ground.