Travels with Rustyplough: Black Forest to the Black Sea ... now you see it, now you ...er still see it!

Well I guess you could say the trip starts properly today...I'm saying goodbye to Hotel Waldblick where they let me put my bike in their garage so no one taking the micky out of me for covering my beloved bike in a tarpaulin ... and setting off along the Danube at last.

Remember yesterday when I gazed pensively at the water flowing from the spring at the source of the Breg and I said it was amazing to think that some of this water will end up in the Black Sea ... or even the Rhine ....well here's the explanation.

Some 20 miles from Donaueschingen just after the Danube has sorted itself out and is heading for the Black Sea it disappears .. or it does for an average of 200 days a year ... and leaves a dry riverbed. This is know as the Danube Seepage. The young river flows over karsified rock ... my Civil Engineering friend will know what this is, I didn't ... and is full of sink holes, caves and the like and so down the water goes.

Then it reappears at different points, some rising the continue on as the Danube BUT some goes into Lake Constance and eventually flows into the North Sea via the Rhine.

This then explains this sign near the source of the Breg

and starts me thinking of next years trip!

Now, I didn't know all this and so was looking forward to walking along the seepage like these children shown on a sign near the seepage site..... unfortunately today was not one of the 200 days so the Danube was in full flow.....

there are going to be a lot of pics of water in this blog ... the warning is in the title ... but I promise I won't post a picture every time the river comes into sight.

So moving away from the river I'm finding the churches fascinating...I think most in the area I'm passing through today are Catholic ... I'm sure I'll be told if I'm wrong ... but the contrast on the skyline when they are based on Orthodox architecture with the globes is wonderful.