Germany in 4K | Backpacking, Hiking, and Camping the Palatinate Forest

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Tags: bushcraft,backpacking,hiking,camping,wilderness,survival,outdoors,travel,outdoor recreation,prepping,nature,4k,wild,survival skills,ray mears,les stroud,germany,palatinate,forest,Pfälzerwald,pfalzerwald,rhineland,Berlin,Kaiserslautern,Ramsen,Europe

Video Transcription

it was the morning of the third day for a moment we were taken aback by the distant ringing of bells but then clarity we remembered what had happened and where we were Kaiserslautern it's a small town of about a hundred thousand people with an additional fifty thousand people living in the largest US military community outside of the states themselves some locals might see it as an average place nothing particularly special or extraordinary but to us it was a charming city with beautiful architecture and vibrant people and besides old military bases set up in the decade following World War two there's a lot to see in here there are old cathedrals sunny plazas and cozy alleyways whose once a favourite hunting spot of the 12th century Emperor the Kaiser because it was an island on a small River or louder hence Kaiserslautern near the city hall are ruins of one of the Emperor's castles this castle right here is the Kaiser belts

had multiple German emperors especially Frederick first what do you think of this city Germany seems like a very livable country one of the few places I've travelled to where I was actually thinking like oh I could actually yeah there's lots of squares and plazas it's walkable but there's enough like public transportation you can actually get around great green city to it even in the city there's still lots of plants that you can look at this is Japanese knotweed and it's actually when it's younger in the spring you can eat it and it's really invasive in the US and I'm imagining it's invasive here too but what's quite pretty but even today there's more nature to explore around here beside some invasive weeds like ancient castle ruins atop wooded hills but to get there we'd have to sit at the bus stop and wait we hopped on the bus headed to hohen hagen a ward of the city to find the ruins of the castle [Music]

it was only a short ride before we were there we got off the bus check the map and then went on our way [Applause]

don't you love like German villages yeah God is so good I love how quiet is I love the architecture we hiked through town passing by the colorful array of buildings until we came to a path leading away from the streets [Music]

and so we made our way to the castle reflecting on our time in Germany all of the chance encounters that had gotten us here their circumstances that led up to today and everything we had experienced along the way our journey began the same way it ended with the kindness of strangers an arduous experience and the beauty of a foreign land [Music]

[Music]

we had stayed a few days in Berlin but we woke up on an early Saturday morning to leave the city we took a train to the Berlin central bus station

where we'd be catching a ride out of the city after getting a few snacks we got on the bus and waved goodbye to our friend taya who had shown us around the city the bus departed and we were soon surrounded by the sights of Germany's countryside the vast fields romantic towns and greenery filled us with excitement before long we'd be on our next outdoor adventure [Music]

[Music]

we arrived in Kaiserslautern in late afternoon and after settling and met up with a couple friends they wanted dinner we got can you pronounce his name for me yo yo max max Robbie Andrew we all went to grab a traditional German dinner look at these pansies drinking water real man drink that [Music]

the next morning we got together ironed out the details of our upcoming hike and explored some nearby towns [Applause]

[Music]

the whole place with its large cathedrals deep history and timber-framed buildings felt like the setting of an old fairy tale [Music]

[Music]

after exploring that we went on a short hike through the local forests the trails which Jochen frequently explored [Laughter]

[Music]

[Laughter]

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[Applause]

then it was off to another town to explore the ruins of an old castle when the ruins was a breathtaking view of the surrounding hills [Music]

[Music]

and just next to it was a small eatery where we refueled on beer and schnitzel that evening max departed back to his home and the next morning Johann had volunteered to pick us up and drive us to the start of our adventure in the Palestinian forest

[Music]

we arrived at our trailhead which was next to a reservoir called the ice vogue here there was an old train station and some old railways Jochen whose knowledge of the forest was invaluable gave us some more advice before departing and then we were on our way our plan was to follow the trail along the ice folk for a bit then hike further into the woods until we reached a designated campsite

the next day we travel northeast camp at another site before hiking out into the town of Rampton to be picked up the palette innate forest is the largest contiguous forest in Germany and before long we were in the thick of it [Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

our trail led us high up along a hill and from this vantage point we could peer past the trees and see the ice vogue reservoir below but deeper into the woods were old railroad tracks overgrown with weeds and covered in moss the old railroad I think these are some of the red sandstone cliffs that we were told about but they've got like a brick wall here too this is so cool and not far from the tracks was an abandoned Shack

there's nobody living in it there could use it as an emergency shelter [Music]

somebody's been here it looks like somebody think they have us a little fire in the corner somebody had a good time

[Music]

we continued along the trail that ran adjacent to the lake and I noticed an interesting plant this is actually a plant that I do recognize even though we're in a different country this is lily of the valley it's got these big broad leaves and like these dangling berries and earlier in the year they'll have like white sort of small bell shaped flowers and they're really pretty but it's poisonous if you eat them so lily of the valley is native to Europe and Asia and despite its toxicity its fragrant delicate flowers and love of shade make it a popular garden place the trail now led us downhill towards a road that ran through the forest though a few cars passed by it didn't distract from the scent of the conifers which used with SAP or from the site of a chrysalis delicately hanging from a shrub [Music]

we reached the bottom of the hill and cross the road onto the next section of the trail where Andrew noticed some more plants ok so I'm not exactly sure what the species is but this is some sort of a thistle you can see it's got the distinctive purple flowers and all the thorns all over it and actually with thistles you can usually peel the outer layer off and eat the tender shoots at the bottom and artichokes that you find in the supermarket are actually just basically like giant thistle flowers that you can eat so we've seen a lot of this plant too everywhere in the woods and even in the city parks it's got a nice hard stem that you can use for rope and the leaves actually are edible when you cook them but of course before they're cooked this plant is covered in these tiny Barb's that inject a chemical in you and it's really painful it's pretty much harmless but I mean don't oh yeah and the pain that wasn't too bad but the pain will last her for at least several minutes that actually wasn't too bad I just got like one barb in me turns out I got about five Barb's me but they don't do much more than leave temporary welts and an itchy sting on your skin [Music]

further along the trail once again approached the reservoir whose Shores were home to a hotel and restaurant built in the 50s but deeper in the woods beans felt more ancient and mysterious so the theory we've got these really big beautiful beech trees it's one of my favorites and on the ground we've got leaf litter but we also have just tons of old shells of beech nuts covering it at least with the species you can find in America the seeds inside are edible and of course the leaves of the trees are edible during the springtime but yeah if you just look closely it's just almost like mulch covering the ground and growing nearby or some fresh Bohle mushrooms [Music]

this looks like possibly bolita sensibility or similar species there's so many mushrooms that kind of look like this and you can usually tell the difference by the poor surface and by how fast it stains and the color of the stem the stem on this is sort of whitish red and the poor surface is a dark maroon almost and then you can see that it's just staining blue so quickly there are species that kind of look like this that are edible like boletus bicolor but generally when the color changes this quickly it's a poisonous one and you want to stay away but of course a lot of times the only way to tell is to cut it in splice it in half the trail continued past the large beech trees when we pass by some sort of old stone marker there was the path leading to the shore of the lake so we went ahead and explored it a bit swans gracefully glided across the lake surface and on the land countless tiny frogs hopped about hidden among the leaves we continued through the woods where the looming trees created a medieval atmosphere

the trail again ran along the lake whose Placid surface mirrored the peaceful calm of the woods [Applause]

we made our way up a small hill where there was exposed pink sandstone it was here that we would hike away from the ice vogue and explore further into the palette innate forest as we hiked the deciduous trees gave way to towering Pines and the leaf litter below became overgrown with an understory of ferns and shrubs here the sky opened up when we saw our new trail blazed number it feels like every single part of the trail we've been on is reminiscent of like multiple place clues and in the u.s. right now I see a cabin up there and I'm wondering if the witch is waiting to eat us [Music]

the diversity of environments from shaded woods to sunny open areas made for the growth of a variety of different plants so whatever you're in a sunny meadow area like this you find lots of interesting medicinal plants this here is self heal which is pretty much a good medicine for general ailments you've got plantain both dribbly plantain and common plantain and that's good for like any sort of rash or bug bite or some sort of skin ailment this is yarrow and I've heard you can use this to keep bugs away I'm not exactly sure how true that is but I have heard you can also dry the leaves and crush it into a powder and if you get some sort of a wound in the wilderness you can put that powder inside in at all essentially like clot they could pull all the blood and cauterize it useful stuff and back into the shady woods different wild flowers bloomed this looks like a foxglove plant at least it's in the same genus or family probably but foxglove is a flower people often plant in the gardens or in the yards but it's also really poisonous so this common foxglove digitalis purpurea grows native here but you can see why it's called that it looks like a fox apologist

[Music]

once again there was a break in the shady forest canopy and we saw signs of logging activity in the area all of our past travels and some physical ailments that each of us caught had made us tired so we decided to stop and sit for a while what's nice about this is that unlike our last international trip the Sun sets at 9:30 yeah so we have so much time there's also no tremendously steep climbs yeah this whole forest has like sort of a live didn't feeling like I don't know it somehow you get the feeling that there's a German village out of a fairy tale not too far away or something

which is probably true this is literally the type of place where fairy tales originated yeah yeah and you can see it in some of the trees like we passed through a patch of woods that had these huge beech trees felt really ancient yes once up there most family feedback all I've got here are in all bars and usually I've got a measly Nigel I'm easily Rygel I know I go this place is heaven man yeah wanting something a little more substantive than muesli I broke out some of this milk on a Crowder a sort of herbal buttery spread we found at the grocery store after eating I broke out my new adventure archiving journal and documented the trip so far while the others drifted to sleep as I looked around at my surroundings I was filled with a sense of peace we eventually got moving again and just stopped the trail we saw a strange structure a tall wooden hunting Tower although the forest has long been used for hunting and logging it was only in the last century that its value as a place of recreational and ecological importance came to the forefront [Music]

the trail bent left and right leaving us to an exposed hillside with eroding pink sandstone

[Music]

and among the foliage growing from the soil

I found a colorful treat there's some wild strawberries growing here and normally when I see this I would love to give it a taste test but our friend Johan told us that in areas like this where there's lots of foxes there's a parasite that's often transmitted - like mushrooms or berries where it's a little worm and if it gets in your system that can give you really serious diseases even like a some sort of fatal disease I think you said you can apparently go 15 years without any symptoms of this parasite so if you're gonna eat anything in the forest it's prudent to cook it to death

eventually we turned onto a two-track forest road and the ongoing shifts in the environment continued to intrigue us the way these forests look it's like you take like the eastern forests of the US and mash it together with like Yellowstone like all the trees this we've to get there it's really weird glad it's pretty flat nice and flat it's not too hot today well it's actually really hot but in the shade really nice on the side it's terrible [Music]

we came to another Street crossing and at the next trail was another strange and ancient looking stone marker so on the map it says it's a boundary style huh wonder when they put the stone here

[Music]

we hiked on and we're coming up to a small detour leading to a point of interest that yahan had told us about I think this is the offshoot of the trail that goes to that old railroad that we saw at the beginning but again we rested I was just recovering from some sort of sickness that Brian had just contracted and Andrew had occasional waves of stomach cramps the heat of the Sun didn't make us feel any better but eventually we continued on I think we can see the train track just down there when it turns just up ahead so we'll double back over here and then follow the train tracks to the tunnel shooting off of the two-track Road was a dirt path speckled with patches of tall grass although the forest felt really peaceful we decided to avoid any further ailments by preparing ourselves for ticks with our socks rolled over our pants and plenty of deep bug spray on us we hiked through the grass it wasn't long before we saw signs of an old railroad okay I think this looks like a good entry point just have to be careful getting down but the trail had taken us a bit too far and the railroad we wanted to walk along was far below us surrounded on either side by sheer brick walls so we backtracked and found our way to the tracks soon we could feel an unnatural frigid draft coming towards us we could kind of feel like cold air you can kind of smell that musty smell yeah yeah just like coming out of the tunnel I wonder how many years it's been abandoned I don't know how many years does it take for something like this to be overrun or like completely overgrown yeah there's like moss growing on the actual tracks yeah do you smell that smells like a mall or a timonium yeah yeah oh yeah it is musty just like a pure dark void like it

[Music]

trucks like these once carried passengers from villages through the forest but these ones built in 1932 had been abandoned since the late 80s all of the forest had been warm and welcoming the Dark Void residing within this abandoned tunnel filled us with an ominous unsettling sensation [Music]

we gets the Soraa beer here that is the other end of the tunnel right that's yeah like whoa look at that scary door enter this scary door okay so this is how dark it actually is right now on camera we're gonna brighten it up a little bit just so you can see inside is it figs like name there boy band or something that's definitely the other end of the tunnel we're bugs and stuff that is just wicked okay

[Music]

go on her I feel like we're gonna go out a little bit more leash 12:26 2015 i mean ironically think about it good day after christmas stuff in the grass is probably more dangerous than whatever's in here what's likely as long as nobody's living here like I wouldn't be able to handle if somebody lives here and the scariest things in life are human-made yeah Wow oh you're done I think of that I bet there's people on YouTube who have explored this whole tunnel you can always check their videos adventure archives is known for many things but bravery and then it was back into the light we couldn't help but be filled with a sense of relief as we found our way back onto the trail and further up we saw another strange landmark though one a bit less ominous this might be the like memorial for the court or something oh the judicial thing that's what Johanna was talking about yeah yeah

this monument represents a medieval court that once stood here the nine smaller stones on the outside represent the chairs of nine villages that shared the forest

[Music]

you

next to the monument was a picnic table so it's time for lunch herring cream sauce go to Appetit it's like a mustard sauce mmm this is we sour I don't know what it is but it's sausage and we've got a little German kid in lederhosen clearly that must mean it's authentic that actually is very good dog that's good

after lunch Brian went ahead to see if he could scout out our campsite he'd give us - whoops for success and three for failure we've got the whoop from Brian that's a good sign that an outhouse we'll figure that out I'll let you guys go check it out yourself the campsite had plenty of amenities including a huge communal fire pit oh my goodness dude this is like a game of Thrones campsite or something Wow oh my goodness this is nice tables made like somebody's made like a chair over yo this is fantastic man now it was time to sit down and settle in so you said that yesterday this place was full yeah because I couldn't get a reservation today it's empty yeah they must have just had a bunch of people here like cutting wood or something like these some of these benches look really fresh got an outhouse they're very much similar to a campsite in the US but just more grand we weren't used to such spacious and luxurious campsites but backpacking in Germany is pretty much unheard of and in most places the style of camping we're used to is completely prohibited even this campground I'm like we're hiking from one campground to another campground but typically I think these campgrounds are designed for just people to come in and day hike and then leave the next day or something the sign says that this is the largest contiguous forest in Germany really I like I'm beat yeah I think it's all the sunlight or something I guess I did get much sleep easy I always set up our tents and get in them

[Music]

gutentag you should be 9/10 well the other settled into their tents I put up my tarp the summer midday heat was intense and I wanted to lie out in the open

[Music]

we all dozed off in the late afternoon Sun hours pasts and we awoke once again in the evening in Germany everything called studenten boo tired that's not how you pronounce it but it means student fodder and this is from our buddy max he gave us another present which will open up later Thank You max for the student fodder student fodder nothing more more than trail mix it's unsalted it was an unsalted student fodder how all of those crunchy students made us thirsty so Robbie and I left to fill up water at a spring about half mile away yeah I can hear the bubbling water from the lake the water from the spring was clear but it had a sign saying that it was not meant for drinking as we understood it this was more just for legal reasons than anything else and is perfectly fine to drink after filtering after filling up we made our way back to camp [Music]

with a safe amount of water for the night I think it's time to drink our other gift from Max a Munich hell did he explain what that mean it's the type of beer that's all I know okay but this munchin right here or münchener that' i think means from munich it's not going to be cold unfortunately that is good that's actually really goes really well the student father

[Applause]

[Music]

you're in the German woods and that's good stuff so weird how different and similar this is at the same time yeah I think the main thing is is that the actual environment and the hiking and camping is similar but like the culture around it is very different I was actually thinking the other day like the environment is really similar just at a quick glance but there's so many subtle things that make it feel different mmm it's really weird like even I don't know anything about botany but you can tell the trees are different like all of those Yosemite looking trees yeah but you're new here almost has a chocolatey taste like every beer I've had here oh maybe I was singing to the coffee everybody has some of the coffee what my stomach doesn't write it tonight it's amazing how good we're just really thirsty probably bad idea to drink beer [Music]

it was soon nighttime and the fireflies danced about as we drifted off to sleep [Music]

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it had been a cool night but the Rising Sun quickly warmed the earth [Music]

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the heat along with each of our ailments made us pretty tired in the morning and eventually got our things packed up and broke camp but still fell out of it I mean when we got to the campsite I pretty much just crawled into my tent who laid there the whole day it doesn't feel like I got enough sleep but I'm pretty sure I did Harley were you guys that maybe I didn't get enough Simon what was it like the first time we went to Hocking Hills and you were sick is it better or worse than what it's like right now well right now like I have it's like a persistent annoyance when I was at Hocking Hills I was just basically had no energy well you had a stomach thing then too right yeah I wonder if that's why I feel like I don't have energy I mean that in the heat between that and the heat I think just makes me want to lie down for the rest of the thing fortunately we technically don't have far to hike how do you feel robbed that being said this is a beautiful forest yeah it's like in spite of all that it was a very peaceful evening last night we reviewed the map as the forest was filled with an at times confusing network of trails we hiked out and came to a section of the woods where the trail and the canopy opened up the heat of the Sun only got hotter as the day went on but soon the trail led us back into the shady forest

[Music]

we hiked buy some more guide stones which accentuated the force unique and mystical qualities regardless of how many force we go to really surprise to me how different each one can be like the old rooms we run into yeah you can feel the history it really does feel like we're in a Brothers Grimm tale yet in spite of its uniqueness the forest also felt somehow deeply familiar after just one day of being here [Music]

we continued on through the open woods and stumbled across a pile of feathers what do you think pigeon it almost looks like the colors of the crows evincing looks like something got eaten this looks like it was just like plucked out you know yeah and further into the woods we found another hunting Tower and decided to take a closer look [Music]

there was a window on the other side of the structure to look at mean is really rickety yeah down there I saw that [Music]

not too sure what this is exactly maybe a place to like dressier D or something so there's a mountain marked on the map I think we're pretty much already on the mountain it looks more like a tiny hill foot there's all this blue sky everywhere it looks like there's just nothing well there's like I think maybe the Keystone or whatever you call that stone when they put up at the top of mountain I have to say this is one of the easier mountains that I've sold me to do although it was a tiny hill the point marked by the stone apparently had an elevation of 353 meters we continued on through a quiet part of the forest where pine trees towered high and foxglove flowers bloomed it's like somebody who had one too many Wiener schnitzels trying to climb that ladder eventually we reached a large junction of trails and roads here there was a bulletin board with information about the surrounding area a geocache right here we decided to rest and have some lunch which would include goulash fresh from the can tastes just like stew which considering that's what it is it's a good thing it's about the least German flavor you get salsa picante him looks good though it's like fish taco flavored or something after that Robi suggested that we diverge from our trail and head west instead of East to explore a small pond and picnic area that was marked on the map we're hoping that the pond would be a nice place to swim and cool off from the hot Summer Sun maybe help us feel a little less sick we continued through the peaceful woods and came to a junction pointing to the direction of restaurants and towns soon we entered a section of the forest that was a nature preserve here some birch trees grew in the distance and we neared the pond I don't know if it's swimmable or not but there is some water down there and at least there's a picnic table so we can sit down okay we do not want to swim in that but we can rest here that least makes it worthwhile oh oh yeah we were pretty exhausted Robbie decided to scout ahead and see if the pond was symbol anywhere but Brian's sickness just seemed to be getting worse I think the worst thing about what I have right now is that everything's stuffy so every time I cough I can't tell if I've got like dehydration or sicknesses we continue resting waiting to hear back from Robbie Robbie said he'd whoop two three times if the lake wasn't swimmable and two if it was okay I don't know if you heard that but he just whooped three times which means we came here for now at least I can just keep sitting here [Music]

like I walk next to the water and I could feel the heat emanating on mountain streams this is a cesspool that's been baking in the Sun for a few days under normal circumstances that we had felt like this we would have just postponed a trip but since we're in Germany it's like you're damned if you do you're damned if you don't because if you don't do the trip you haven't wasted it but you feel like you haven't gotten the most out of it yeah but then if you do do the trip you feel like well I didn't even feel good so what was the how bad are you feeling right now I'm not feeling great Brian you can very easily tell how my pains come and go it's like when there's no cramps I feel great and then I say there's a hit I just like I'm at a six point seven six point eight

I'm probably out of seven at sassy - that's not a good score just in case I'm in the D range I feel like I feel people have different one to ten scales on a scale of one to ten I feel like well actually let's think about this in a minute should we go get a better breakfast is there they're not far which one's the bed-and-breakfast net restaurant mm-hm due to my condition we were debating up if we went to one about a kilometer and a half further dad see if there's a bed-and-breakfast wasn't an option the only problem with that is it would significantly change our plans tomorrow where we get picked up so in the end we decided that we would just beeline it the campsite get up kind of early tomorrow and take advantage of that cold weather yeah don't even know if it's open or anything so we'll just go straight to ramzan tomorrow morning and uh sit at a nice cafe for the entire day and my watch is registering 93 degrees just a ambien hair this is like scorching eventually we made it back to the large trail junction got our bearings had figured out which path we had to take continued on towards the town of Ramson along the way we found a small Hut which had a sign on it about preventing forest fires and then a little up the path we found even stranger artifacts there's something weird over here off the path not sure what it is that is more than a little weird like they've got these notches here and then the worms borrowed into this part of the tree and then inside there's like a candle or something maybe it's a mosquito maybe it's a pagan sacrificing pool I'm glad we're not here at night nearby there was another hunting Tower maybe this was just a campsite not a sacrificial site along the trail we saw signs of logging and timber harvesting but humans weren't the only industrious creatures in the woods stop some of these are there's that big mound is a wood ants nest it's basically like a bunch of pine needles all clumped up and inside is a the ants lair and I think we haven't seen one of these since like our very first episode at Dolly Sods if you were in a survival situation you could put a tarp out fold the edges over so that there's like sort of a shady area and just start scooping this onto the tarp like dumping the whole thing and what'll happen is all the ants will carry their maggots into the dark areas to hide them and once they're done doing that you can just collect all the maggots and eat them although they might be a tasty survival snack these ants can spray foul-smelling formic acid to deter threatening predators further up was a heavily logged area with stacks of timber on either side of the trail we're supposed to be near our campsite but we didn't see any signs of it anywhere a campsite is supposed to be just up ahead on the right then all I'm seeing are a bunch of logs so either we got the place wrong or it's further up ahead than I realized this right here yeah wait no Junction right there we stopped before we hikes too far to check the map and scat around

[Music]

we decided to split up and explore the different trails leading in opposite directions to see if anyone could find anything the good news is that down there there's civilization in the road somewhere where we think we should be but there's no sign or map that shows where the camping place is so Brian just went that way to see there's an entrance to the campsite from the other side but I actually think we thought trail shooting off to the right from where we came from that sort of like went to a hunter's Tower but I think that actually might lead to the campsite and then it was my turn to split off and scout around for the campsite wherever there's like a two-track road where the equipment has been driving and stuff they spray-painted the trees of two lines so maybe we just take one of those in to use the GPS to find our way through the campsite you went to that building and it was just like a water drainage thing or something and it was locked you can Robi again went to scout out a trail if you found anything promising he'd give - whoops - let us know three if there was nothing and he just gave the to loop signal which means that he found it camp says right there we just can't get to it from this side this was a really steep hill I saw like a red sign at the campsite that said like no fire way back up that way oh it's a really steep hill well I mean if we go on this side we'd be climbing like you know maybe that's what I ain't seen the campsite from the opposite side of its entrance that still doesn't explain why we didn't see any path leading to it originally now that we knew the campsite existed we decided to head back on our original path and search for a way to get to it I think this path will take us to the campsite at least if these GPS coordinates are right and what my own eyeballs saw from the other side I think this should be good I can see it right there and there's stuff over there I'm sure that's the campsite but this doesn't look like the entrance I'm sure you're not supposed to enter from here see if we can reverse engineer the entrance by just finding it why is it here where is the entrance this dangerous my suspicion that we have just had to take one of these logging roads that are marked with - spray paint lines what's correct we would have never known that if you were just hiking on your own okay well first problem solved

found the campsite how on earth were we supposed to get in here what if I was just down there I saw this red sign over here weird

you know I guess it's possible that these logging people they didn't know about the campsite so they put up all these logs and just block the entrance that definitely seems to be the case it would have all been much more easy to deal with

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yeah well the other problem is that we're down to a little over a liter of water for the three of us so we're gonna have to find a place to fill up at some point well luckily the city's just right now yeah today has been a scorcher yeah I guess the ambient air feels so hot was the entrance not even marked oh if it was it was blocked by all those logs I expected something like the last one we're a bike like ten campsites this looks like one that literally you just have to put a GPS coordinate in and the fun part is finding where I was actually really close to here when you start moving huh oh I was like right over there yeah so the town is literally 20 minutes of a walk that way what are our options well all three of us have some sort of discomfort we are very short on water we can't even have a fire here this is a pretty disappointing campsite like what is going on and I think it's more of an adventure to go into town and do this yeah like we didn't fly across the world to Germany hahaha this is at this campsite yeah let's do it we're going into town put on your lederhosen it was time to take things into our own hands we left the campsite and hiked out of the woods determined to get to the town of Ramzan [Music]

and so our time in the palate innate forest ended we hiked off into the open meadows and made our way towards Ranson [Music]

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we arrived in the town of Ramson where we hope to find some food in a hotel room to rest and recuperate let's hotel hopefully they speak English and hopefully they have vacancies I will take one of those two preferably the vacancies

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so the hotel didn't have any vacancies unfortunately but hopefully this other place still has something to eat hopefully yo hem can come pick us up if not we can always go to the campfire the restaurants right there let's go there let's get some food and then we can decide we stopped at a pizza place which according to Google was run entirely by one guy named Mario and got some beer currant juice and pizzas despite the circumstances it's moments like these that really make the memories and make the trip now you get to sit around with your friends family and just enjoy this so things didn't go quite according to plan but as we looked around and felt the evening air we decided things were just fine

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before long johann arrived and picked us up and took us back to Kaiserslautern we relaxed as we sat in the car watching his evening set in we drove off into the Setting Sun

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you

our journey ended the same way it began with the kindness of friends an unforgettable experience in the beauty of a home away from home we had come to Germany after a chance encounter with a stranger at a hostel in Japan that stranger quickly became a close friend everybody we had met during our time here showered us with a kindness usually reserved for friends and family [Music]

taya graciously showed us around Berlin Matthias shared currywurst with us over conversation late into the night max with his creative beer joined us on hikes around the town and Johan with his intimate knowledge of the forest helped us plan our trip and brought us back to safety when things turned sour now Bryan was back in town getting some much-needed rest

although we started our trip dealing with a whole host of physical ailments when we looked back on our time in the forest we only felt fondness that's the way life goes when you spend a long enough time in a different place and make an effort to get to know people you start to understand them sometimes times get tough and things don't go according to plan whether it's something small like a camping trip gone awry or something larger it's in these moments that were presented with a choice do we push away the unfamiliar cast our blame on people who are different from us focus on ourselves or do we get to know one another to learn about our differences and find solidarity with each other we were glad that we chose to learn more about Germany and after a week here in this foreign land we started to feel much more like we were locals right at home Isuzu shot that Bryan cut into his Einar yeah

wounds Tomas

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Gillan is off and work and we're gonna go to dinner right now it's about seven o'clock this is so-called troika stein stamping stone this is part of the world's largest distributed monument these stones are mounted on the pavement in front of houses where people lived that got somehow harmed by the Nazi regime mmm so this is last home they want to really choose to stay and this is there to remind [Music]

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today is Andrews birthday and since Brian and Andhra are both robots they didn't say anything about it or celebrated at all so happy birthday and [Music]

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characteristic masks stay upright there are several lights in a role of each other

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the sense poneglyphs only very very very very fine [Music]

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you know we've been on the road for literally 14 hours to in the morning right now finally taking a 20-minute break at a gas station those longest traffic jam I've ever experienced in my life this is probably the worst experience I've ever had in my life bus is 800 degrees death would be preferable right now

plus side in forgot the MU pocket I almost don't think it's real and we're actually off the bus right now what a nightmare dude what is that that's the rift into hell open like I don't even understand what's happening right now it's 2:00 in the morning and the sky looks like it's evening what I'm gonna sleep with the flat tire this trip has been a rocky road ice cream they say the lazy test of our resolve last day in Berlin a very good trip put a surprisingly unsmooth trip it's gonna be good to be back home thanks so much to all our patrons we've got a list here because we have terrible memory so first off thanks to Cindy Ann Wong and his two kids August and everyone shout out to John and Lisa Truitt thank you for hosting us during the solar eclipse shout out to keep choice and then shout out to Jacob Millican shout out to trails we hike keep on making those YouTube videos and also my hikes org shout out to expedition research LLC shout out to Bruce Phillips who would like to give a shout out to Elise Eliot and Graham and also shout out to Eric Asli and Paul Chandler see the Gators thanks charlie Joe thank you very much and hold on Greg crib and T Bryce Ryan we said it before I'll say it again keep on sharing and caring and finally Jim Potts you're the crockpot of this operation thank you very much thank you [Music]

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guys thought how we were meeting in Austria

is Austria right