A couple of days worth of rain and a broken metal detector have caused me to set out on an adventure in search of new places to go metal detecting (once I have a new one) or foraging for mushrooms.

I did not eat any mushrooms today!

After reading this, you will probably think otherwise.

There was a few hours to spare this morning so for the first time since living here, I decided to head off into the mountains. Here on the very Northern Tip, the strawberry stem is what I call it, of Germany. Here there are few hills, the landscape is very flat due to the fact that it is situated between the North and the Baltic Sea.

Well, it just so happens that a 20 minutes drive brings me to the only “mountains” for miles and miles. Since coming to Germany two years ago, I have wanted to go and explore that entire area. To me, if they are the only hills around I am sure they had significance to my ancestors in this once Viking occupied landscape formally controlled by Denmark.

An interesting fact is if you have any European blood, any at all, and you go back far enough there is a high probability somewhere in your lineage you once occupied this land.

As soon as I pulled up to the parking lot and looked out at the hills before me, I got the feeling that a location like this, with such strategic importance, must have seen battles in ancient times. Surely people sheltered here in the safety of the forested hills.

This is now considered a "Naturschutz", nature preserve, and I can see why. There will be no mushroom picking or metal detecting here, unfortunately; however, there are signs of human activity from longtime passed, all you have to do is look.

Don't you find it peculiar they way these stones are laid out? I never found complete stone circles out there, but these stones form an arching line. Maybe it is just my imaginative eye or maybe they are signs of a distant past, maybe they were put there 10 years ago, I don't know for sure.

On top of one hill stood these earthen mounds. It's hard to think that they are a natural occurrence, maybe the final resting place of my ancestors and another cycle of time had been completed by my returning here to this spot, on this day, just visiting by happenstance. Or is it simply old tree stumps covered in mud?

The presence of mushrooms all over the hillside is telling me otherwise. I know the fungi would not allow such a valuable commodity of fresh and moist wood to disappear under the earth without being consumed with the symbiotic relationship with macroscopic invertebrates.

Here we see that the mushrooms have already begun breaking down the wooden material before it is even dead.

The forest has much to say, you only need to listen.

What I set out to find was a place to metal detect and find new mushrooms but instead, I found a sanctuary for the soul. I found a shelter in the wooded hills away from everything else. A place that allowed me to travel through time, connect with nature, connect with my ancestors, and most importantly, connect with myself. But that's what I am. I am nature. I am my ancestors. I am me!

-@balticbadger