Discovering the Swabian Jura - Part 2, The Little Lauter Valley

in #photography6 years ago

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Greetings Steemians!

Welcome to the continuation of my tour along the Swabian Jura. In case you missed it, I invite you to check the previous part ->here.

After a good night's rest I left Ulm and headed towards Herrlingen, the entry point for today's hike. My first stage goal was to reach the nature-sanctuary of the Small Lauter Valley and to follow the Lauter upriver all the way to it's spring.

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To reach the valley I had to climb the Jura's first hill range through light forrest on a gentle, sunlit path.

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Unerring signs of spring's arrival all along the way.

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Arriving in the Lauter valley. I roused a duck which acknowledged my intrusion with angry chattering. Sorry brother duck!

Some say, if you have seen the Little Lauter Valley you have seen all of the Swabian Jura. Certainly an exaggeration and yet it is true that this valley represents many biotopes that are typical for the entire region: juniper buckwheat, karstifyed limestone, hill forrests and creeks.

The Lauter carved it's way 200 m deep through the Jura's limestone resulting in a valley with steep hillsides and a plethora of ecological niches. To preserve the valley's precious biodiversity it was declared a nature-sanctuary in 1995.

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Most typical for the Swabian Jura maybe the weathered limstone that surfaces on the eroded hillsides. It's the compacted sediment of the former jurrassic ocean which covered large parts of Europe until around 150 million years ago. The erosion of the porous material resulted in countless caves which provided shelter for our glacial predecessors. Several world-renowned artefacts have been found in these caves, witnessing the arrival of the modern man around 40,000 years ago. I'll come to that in a subsequent post.

What can be seen as caves on the surface are myriads of chambers and cisterns underground. These underground cavities gave farmers of the Swabian Jura a hard time for centuries, since it drained most of the rain water leaving only little left in the soil.

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Close to the spring of the river Lauter an old Inn with an inviting beer garden. Seemed like a great spot for a first little rest.

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Thanks for watching and 'til next time!

Shaka


All photos were recorded by myself with an EOS 7D / Tamron 18-270 mm in April 2018

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I have to applaud your blogging style, you're giving away fine details of your trek while making it sound personal. I can easily relate to it and enjoy ;)
Your photos of nature look fantastic with that morning sun light.
And one thing that got me is that sumptuous meal after your long trek. Thanks, I had great time watching your travel to Jura. Cant wait for the next episode :)

Teil 2 steht dem 1. in nichts nach.
Mir gefällt übrigens auch Deine Aufmachung der Beiträge mit den nebeneinander, untereinander zu größeren symmetrischen Vierecken angeordneten Bildern.
Das habe ich jetzt wohl kompliziert formuliert. Aber ich glaube, man kann nachvollziehen, was ich meine... ;-)

Danke, das freut mich zu hören.

Das Layout der Bildkompositionen ich mit PicFrame gemacht. Es gibt dafür aber auch sicher kostenfreie Alternativen. Gerade für die hochformatigen Bilder finde ich das sehr praktisch, da ein einzelnes sonst auf die maximale Breite skaliert wird und dadurch auf den meisten Displays nicht mehr in ganzer Länge dargestellt wird.

Super Fotografien.
Die Fotos strahlen eine unglaubliche Ruhe auf mich aus.
Es gibt in meinen Augen einfach kaum was besseres, als bei schönem Wetter die Schönheit und Ruhe der Natur zu genießen.
(Das am besten nicht vorm Bildschirm, sondern draußen :D )

Absolut, der Mensch ist dazu gemacht, draussen zu sein und sich zu bewegen.

Hmm. A lot of things in Europe look like they're straight out of a fairy tale. I wonder if it's because traditions in archetecture go much further back than, say, the States.

Anyway, gorgeous photos. Wish I were there.

Wunderschöne Bilder! Ich sehne mich nach dem geologischen Post, damit wir bisschen fachsimpeln können ;)

Ganz toller Schreibstil und Aufbau.

Danke, das freut mich zu hören!

Sehr schöner Bericht und sehr angenehm auzuschauendes/lesendes Layout. Danke Dir für Deine Mühe.

Wir gehen dann gleich auch mal auf Tour wenn auch eher im Schwäbisch Fränkischen Wald...

Danke! Viel Vergnügen auf Eurer Tour!

Großartige Fotos! Ich empfehle "Rechtsklick > Bild kopieren" und in einem neuen Tab einfügen für die Großversion - Es lohnt!

Danke Dir! In der Großversion wird dann unweigerlich auffallen, dass ich die wegfliegende Ente nicht scharf bekommen hatte - war einfach zu plötzlich ;)

Sie wird dir die Unschärfe nicht übel nehmen, denke ich ;)

Sie nicht, nein. Sie hatte sich schon genug über mich geärgert ;)

Hab sie dir mal scharf gestellt :D :D

hahaha, sehr gut!

hey @shaka you are great man. Because your every post provide to most valuable information. just love you.

Hi, my friend @shaka, how are you? How are you doing? Wow awesome these pictures, today you bring us part two of this wonderful catalog of photos, when you published part one that the photos were beautiful, I knew you would come proto with part two and this is just as beautiful. Truly, this tour of yours by Jura de Suabia was fantastic, I love how nature looks in every photo, really that our beautiful nature always has beautiful things to show us and this is a sample of it. The radiant, the blue sky, the floriados trees and their leaves, is something really beautiful. I congratulate you my friend, you captured very good photos, thank you for sharing it with us and I hope you keep going very well for your journey. I hope soon you bring us more beautiful pictures as you are. Blessings for you from Venezuela.

Thanks a lot for your comment. I'm happy to hear that you seem to enjoy following my tour! Best wishes!

That's right, my friend, we practically feel in this journey with you since you show us those wonderful pictures, I will be aware of your next publication. Thank you very much and I hope you have an excellent closing day. Greetings.

Winter ade! Scheiden tut weh.
Aber dein Scheiden macht,
dass mir das Herze lacht.
Winter ade! Scheiden tut weh.

Hey Shaka, hast schön den Frühling eingefangen. Iss für mich die schönste Jahreszeit. Hochsommer und Winter ist echt nicht so meins. Na ja die alten Männer wie ich mögen es halt frühlingshaft :) Gruß from Greece Holger

Geht mir ganz genauso. Suche immer noch nach dem Breitengrad auf dem sich das Klima ganzjährig nach Frühling anfühlt ;)

Grüsse!

Awww it’s awsome to see how much adventuring you like to do. Have you ever seen sequoia trees? They are a site to see.

No, unfortunately not. Just from books and TV. I assume the largest ones are in North America and Canada, right? Must be incredibly impressive to stand in front of one of these giants.

Actually there are a ton in California where I am from! Groves of them. You should make a trip to California! Lots of cool nature things to do here 😆

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