Palatine Wood Gnome

There are many that spread over a much larger territory; that host a wider range of peculiar plants or give shelter to much more interesting wildlife species.
But the Palatine Forest is the largest coherent wood in Germany and, most of all: It's my home.
Why "Wood Gnome"?
Well, I have been named thus because I turn into Rumpelstiltskin kind of regularly when "visitors" come over from the other side of the Rhine Plains (where they have lots of forest as well...) with their huge cars, jamming the streets of my village, drive up to a forester's lodge, have lunch there, return home after a final cup of coffee and then claim "Oh, we have been to the WOODS this weekend"

That's why.

Saturday 1 March 2008

On the road again, Tuesday

We have a long drive to look forward to. 500km + from Katoomba to Eden. At least that is plan A; plan C would be to reach some point between Ulladulla and Merimbula (and no, I'm not making these names up) . I didn't like plan B right from the start so we abandoned it rather quickly.

Driving...driving...driving ...
Oh my god , it already took us this long to just reach Prince's Highway again and we are just south of Sydney!
Another small country town..... ok, traffic is thinning at last, now we are making progress.
As beautiful as the Southwestern National Park is, driving through the forest with light and shadow alternating on the street all the time makes you kind of drowsy. I don't think we'll get to Eden today.
I'm so tired. For a split second I'm tempted to stay for the night in Bega .... but that vanishes as fast as the village itself. Just for the record, I needed to blink 24 times to pass Main Street.

That's it, we are staying for the night in Merimbula. We are both so exhausted that we just throw some Spaghetti in one pot and a handful of prawns, some tomatoes and garlic in another, have dinner and call it a day.
Has any bed ever felt this comfortable?

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