Discovering the Swabian Jura - Part 2, The Little Lauter Valley

Greetings Steemians!

Welcome to the continuation of my tour along the Swabian Jura. In case you missed it, I invite you to check the previous part ->here.

After a good night's rest I left Ulm and headed towards Herrlingen, the entry point for today's hike. My first stage goal was to reach the nature-sanctuary of the Small Lauter Valley and to follow the Lauter upriver all the way to it's spring.

To reach the valley I had to climb the Jura's first hill range through light forrest on a gentle, sunlit path.

Unerring signs of spring's arrival all along the way.

Arriving in the Lauter valley. I roused a duck which acknowledged my intrusion with angry chattering. Sorry brother duck!

Some say, if you have seen the Little Lauter Valley you have seen all of the Swabian Jura. Certainly an exaggeration and yet it is true that this valley represents many biotopes that are typical for the entire region: juniper buckwheat, karstifyed limestone, hill forrests and creeks.

The Lauter carved it's way 200 m deep through the Jura's limestone resulting in a valley with steep hillsides and a plethora of ecological niches. To preserve the valley's precious biodiversity it was declared a nature-sanctuary in 1995.

Most typical for the Swabian Jura maybe the weathered limstone that surfaces on the eroded hillsides. It's the compacted sediment of the former jurrassic ocean which covered large parts of Europe until around 150 million years ago. The erosion of the porous material resulted in countless caves which provided shelter for our glacial predecessors. Several world-renowned artefacts have been found in these caves, witnessing the arrival of the modern man around 40,000 years ago. I'll come to that in a subsequent post.

What can be seen as caves on the surface are myriads of chambers and cisterns underground. These underground cavities gave farmers of the Swabian Jura a hard time for centuries, since it drained most of the rain water leaving only little left in the soil.

Close to the spring of the river Lauter an old Inn with an inviting beer garden. Seemed like a great spot for a first little rest.

Thanks for watching and 'til next time!

Shaka

---

All photos were recorded by myself with an EOS 7D / Tamron 18-270 mm in April 2018