Der Elberadweg

Yesterday we packed the bikes into the trailer and drove to Dömitz in Mecklenburg-Vorpommen, another "state". It's just across the Elbe River, which was the East/West German border, so it's in the old East Germany. From there we rode along the Elberadweg, the bike path along the Elbe, which runs from the Czech Republic to the North Sea, some 1220 kilometres. We only did a small section.

Unloading the bikes

The Elbe has a wide floodplain.  The river is quite low at the moment

Lots of people stopped at this cafe

Heike, Sally and Bence rode reclining bikes. Zsuzska and I were on normal, upright bikes.

Getting started on a recliner can be challenging

Left to right: Heike, Sally and Zsuzska

I love the self-timer!

Note the stork's nest on top of the thatched roof in the centre

We stopped for a picnic lunch on a river beach.  Warm sand to sit on; lots of birds flying over.  I saw Red Kites, Black Kites, Common Buzzards, a Rough-legged Buzzard and an unidentified falcon, as well as a couple of small flocks of Greylag Geese, some gulls and some passerines.

Bence and Zsuzska sat at the river's edge most of the time

Sunbathing - although not much sun, thank goodness

The loop we rode involved heading inland from the river a little

We took up the whole width of the road where we could

Selfie on a bike!!

This was colourful, though not very attractive

The final part of the circuit was on top of a dyke. It was flat, but the wind was a really strong headwind, and I found it tough going. The others were far ahead for most of this part of the ride. The whole circuit that we rode was about 30 kilometres.

Germany's largest inland sand dune

This is a canal, not the Elbe, but it was lovely scenery

There's a whole ridge of sand dunes behind the canal

Farmland on the left, canal on the right

My obsession with storks continues. The Elbe is a great place to find them. Along the river there are many houses with stork nests on their roofs. Some are empty, but most contain chicks, which at this time of year are almost the same size as the adults. There are also nests built atop high poles which are erected for that purpose. Stork nests can weigh up to a tonne as the birds add to them year after year.

Storks lay up to five eggs, but generally raise two to four youngsters. The storks in this part of Europe migrate to Africa during the winter, then back to Europe in summer (once they are three years old).  Most only migrate to southern Sudan, but some fly as far as South Africa. That's 10,000 kilometres!

This nest is on a pole, and contains four chicks.  The adults are off hunting

This nest also has four chicks.  Note the band on the leg of the chick standing

When we got to the dyke, there were tractors working in the paddock. They are stork magnets. There’s almost always a stork when there’s a tractor working, as the machines disturb all the prey, so the storks have an easier time hunting. They eat worms, slugs, snails, grasshoppers, frogs, mice, young rabbits – whatever they can catch. The adults eat around 500 grams each per day; each young stork needs up to 1.2 kilos per day! That’s a lot of hunting!

A huge paddock containing these two machines and a dozen storks

Checking out the prey after the tractor has passed

They can live for 30 years in the wild

They stand over a metre tall, with a wingspan of around 2.2 metres

Such stunning birds!

I'm also convinced that I saw three Black Storks, which are rare. Bence, as leader of our little peloton, scared them into flight a long way ahead of me. By the time I thought: hey - they're different, and stopped and got out my binocs, they were even further away. However, I got a clear view of them in flight, looking quite like Straw-necked Ibis - but there are no ibis here. Heike says Black Storks are not uncommon around the Elbe and even around the Schnega area, but they are forest dwellers and are rarely spotted.