ピンネベルクでののおすすめグラベルライド

Even a four- or five-meter-high hill, built for visitors, offers a much better overview of the landscape left behind by decades of peat extraction.

5,810 meters of track remain from the Himmelmoor Peat Railway. Built in 1900, it was used to transport peat from the mining area to the peat works on the eastern edge of the moor, operating on constantly changing routes. Small diesel locomotives, some of which were built in-house, pulled the trains carrying the peat floes until mining ended in 2018. Since 2015, the Himmelmoor Peat Railway Association has offered tours on the remaining line. The association maintains the railway and the industrial facilities. Trains are also regularly used for renaturation work.

Peat cutting, i.e., the above-ground extraction of peat, is no longer economically viable today. Peat as a fuel has largely been replaced by other high-energy fossil fuels. Many large-scale peatlands suitable for industrial extraction have now been drained. New peat cutting areas are only permitted under strict conditions. Raised bogs have an important regulatory effect on the water balance due to the large amounts of precipitation they can absorb. The preservation of the original habitats serves landscape conservation and species protection, as most species of peatland flora and fauna are considered threatened or critically endangered. Bogs grow extremely slowly; an intact peat body increases in thickness by only one millimeter per year. It therefore takes a thousand years for a one-meter-high layer of peat to form. Thus, bog areas recover very slowly during restoration attempts.

A quiet stretch of road with lots of nature

take a deep breath and move on.

In the middle of the moor - sometimes not even recognizable

I passed through here on August 30, 1925, on my tour "Steindammwiesen, Krückau Park, and Rantzauer Forst." I enjoyed my own tour. The sun is shining, and the temperature is rising from +15°C at the beginning.

Funny trail. Not technical. Right in the middle, you have a specific turn with some fallen trees that forces you to go down and carry the bike (or try it with some nice features). But the overall trail is defenitely worth the tour. Not technical.