Tag: Großensee

Großensee to Lankau (28 km)


From Großensee I headed eastward along the L93 main road, and bought some breakfast at a gas station on the outskirts of the small town of Trittau. I continued east through the Hahnheide national forest, with nice wide paths.

A wide path in the Hahnheide national forest
The 18th century cobblestone road in Hahnheide national forest

I chose to take some smaller paths through the woods, but those turned out to be completely messed up by large forestry machinery, which made them very hard walk – and the paths were not correctly mapped either.

At the end I had to pull out my compass, and I finally found the small forest road I was looking for. On one hand, it is annoying when you loose your bearing, but on the other hand, those are also the parts you remember and puts you to test.

There is a lookout tower on the one of the hilltops in the forest, and I must have been very near it, but never saw it.

Field of rapeseed

From then on, no further troubles, and I exited the forest north west and continued through farmland and the small villages of Koberg and Nusse. It was a long stretch, more or less straight ahead, only with a small patch of forest and the blossoming rapeseed fields for variation.

After a while, it went downhill, and I reached the Elbe – Lübeck channel which also happened to have a lock close to the bridge.

The bridge over the Elbe – Lübeck channel at Lankau
A barge is waiting to continue its journey

The lock

I was almost at the camping ground at Lankau now, but since I was in good time, I chose to turn right and approach the camping ground from south of Lankauer See.

There was no reception to check in, so I couldn’t just put my tent up and call it a day, but had to call the manager. There was no cellular signal down by the lake, so it was another tour uphill to the village of Lankau, where I finally met the manager.

She was very friendly though, and asked whether it was okay for me to share a parcel with another camper, who came in earlier that they. It was a regular, who didn’t know that the space was occupied. It is a rather small camping ground, and I believe it is mostly regular campers that stay for the entire season. Of course I didn’t mind and I had some good talks with my neighbour.

My spot under the blooming (apple?) tree
A view of the camping ground

The facilities at the Campingplatz Schmidt are not too clean and rather old, but you can take a shower and it has the basics. Note that the website hasn’t been updated for a long time, but you can still contact them via it.

Just outside of the camping ground and to the right, one walks down to a small public swimming area at the lake. There’s was a few families having a break, and my feet enjoyed being dipped in the still spring cool lake water. I cooked some dinner on my Trangia, and had a good nights sleep.

Hamburg (Poppenbüttel) to Großensee (27 km)


This was the first leg of the hiking tour between Hamburg and Schwerin in 2018. We were living in north eastern Hamburg at the time, so the starting point is from Poppenbüttel.

The first thought I had when leaving the small driveway was: This is going to be heavy! Of course one always try to pack as light as possible, but as I was carrying both tent, cooking ware, clothes, water and supplies for at least a couple of day, things quickly add up.

I was lucky with the weather, quite warm, which would turn to hold for the complete tour.

The first part of the leg was nothing special, I walked through the northeastern suburbs of Hamburg, trying to find some green spots on the map.

Between Volksdorf and Ahrensburg I finally got out of the urban areas, and I spotted a deer and her baby deer in the area of Neuer Teich. Immediately afterwards I had a lunch stop at the bakeries on Hamburger Straße, on the southern edge of Ahrensburg. The mood was good, finally being underway.

After lunch, I followed the path next to the U1 subway, which is basically a commuter train in this area. Being a train enthusiast as well, this was also interesting. Leaving Ahrensburg, I cornered the small Manhagenteich, and walked through the most lovely bright green beech wood.

Bright green beeches in early May…

… and a beautiful green ceiling!

After crossing the A1 highway by a small walking bridge, I had to make a detour, as my planned path didn’t seem public. Until now, all paths were wide and very well maintained, and you could easily bring your kid in a stroller.

View from the walking bridge of highway A1

Passing through some small farming villages, I joined the the Glinde – Trittau old railroad track (German) path towards Lütjensee.

When reaching Lütjensee I had my other bad – and worse! – moment of the day: For some reason I had planned with Lütjensee as my destination for the day – but the camping ground was at Großensee around 4 km. to the south. 4 km is not a lot, but when you think you have overcome the day’s efforts, then it is quite discouraging.

The Glinde – Trittau path just before Lütjensee, eastbound

View from western bank of Großensee

Anyway, there was nothing to do about it, and I turned south and followed the western bank of Großensee. There’s was a nice view, but as the Germans like to do fence their properties, the path was fenced throughout the stretch, making it slightly less pleasurable to walk.

I reached the small village of Großensee, and turned on some of the small streets, before heading for the camping ground. The northern part of the village is the old part, and you can really get an impression of the typical North German farm village.

Idyllic small cobblestone streets
Typical North German village farm

I had a nice reception at the camping ground, which also have rather nice and clean facilities. I had dinner at one of the restaurants with view over the lake, even though I’ve got a voucher from the camping ground manager for a free aperitif a the local inn, Alter Dorfkrug, which I have to admit also looked quite cosy.

Path from the village behind the camping ground
A small family of Canada geese heading for land and getting ready for the night