ラインガースの天然記念物・トップ18

Question: Can the route also be done by mountain bike?

View of the northernmost tip of Austria. Somehow unimportant but then again not, the longer you stay there 🤔

The path leads through a jungle-like area into the wild and romantic Dachsengraben to the bottom of the ditch. According to legend, the notorious robber chief Grasel lived in a cave hidden in a group of granite along the path. He was certainly no noble fellow and no Robin Hood, as he liked to commit his robberies in simpler houses. By the time he died, Grasel had committed around 200 crimes in the Waldviertel. A wooden club path leads through a small swamp to the isolated Richterteich.

Nupsi the field hamster

The heart of the nature park is the raised moor near the town of Heidenreichstein in the northwestern Waldviertel. The open moor areas and the forest on the edge of the Winkelauer Pond bear witness to a vegetation history that goes back more than 10,000 years. Areas of peat moss, sundew and cotton grass give an idea of the original moorland landscape.

In the nature park, the preservation of the “moor” habitat has the highest priority alongside climate protection. Moors are not characterized by a very large variety of plants and animals, but by relatively few but extremely specialists, such as the northern moss damsel (a type of dragonfly) and the moor frog.

The footbridge allows visitors to immerse themselves deeply in the vegetation of the raised moor. Hikers in Heidenreichstein have more than 10,000 years of vegetation history stored in the peat at their feet. Peatlands formed in wet hollows and depressions after the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago. They consist of plant residues that accumulate in the wet body of the moor in the absence of air. Therefore, bogs are, in a sense, nature's long-term memory.

This hiking trail impresses with its beauty and the extensive information on moorland. You should take your time here and enjoy the exciting tour through this impressive landscape.