Black Forest

Woke up early wednesday to catch a flight to Basle. Had about five hours sleep due to a night out so was already feeling shattered. Needed a break and a hiking/camping trip with two friends in the Black Forest sounded like a wonderful plan.

Left London Luton airport with C and T and we were Basle bound. Arriving at the airport - strange affair, it has three exits: Swiss, Germany and France as the airport is close (indeed straddles) the three borders. We left via the German exit and after exchanging 48 euros were Frieburg bound. It was 11:00am when we left the airport. Plan was to get to Frieburg, get some food and supplies and head towards the Black Forest and the famous Wutach Gorge.

Frieburg is a beautiful city and a university town I believe. We went to the tourist information bureau for maps and information and were served by a delightfully camp German staff member. We imagined him to be German's answer to Graham Norton.

A plan was set and we had a hunt around for white spirits for our cooking stoves and some quality German bread, cheese and salami.

OK so we are now off. Quality train system (ruthless German Efficiency) and we were at the start of the hike. Consulting the map and the compass and we were off. The first days hike was tiring for me as I had an alarmingly lack of sleep. The camp site was basically a caravan park. The first load of family members we met there were Irish.