camp day!

After an extremely cold and windy day (and night - we barely managed to put up the group tarp in the first night at this place) everybody was happy about the warm sun and the lake in front of our camp. We spent the day bathing, washing clothes and playing games such as "Werwolf" and "der große Dalmuti" and had a wonderful time!

on the way to Morrone or Morven

Our backpacks got lighter and lighter every day; so we decided to make a detour on our way to Braemar and mount Morrone or Morven, a mountain located south of Braemar. First, Annemaries ankle began to hurt and needed treatment; then Felix stepped into a water hole and later we got the marvelous idea to practice doing handstands. In the end we were the last group that arrived at the meeting point in Braemar, but I bet that we had the most fun:)

and another group picture...

Dead of the week 26 - rabbit

stone ballet in wonderland

Imagine a landscape with rolling hills covered in green grass, weird stone sculptures, twittering birds named Mortadella and Salami and a group that finally manages to hunt down one of the many many rabbits hopping around in the glistening sunlight... welcome to Alice in magical Cairngorm-Wonderland! But no worries - we set the bunny free:)

Where is the frog princess?

Somewhere between midges, trailsnacks and the daily rainfalls: Felix´attempt to conjure up a princess...

Dead of the week 25 - red squirrel

kitschy but beautiful - Highland rainbow

one of these annoying group pictures...

From left to right: Paula, Jana, Annemarie, Felix, Falk, Luki, David, Flo, Svenja and me!

Loch Tilt

As often as we could, we took advantage of Scotland´s immense water resources, because most of us love swimming. But often the water also came from above, so all the kids had to crouch in our teamer tarp for dinner - which they didn´t find too bad - at least Falk and Annemarie didn´t seem to bother.

trailsnack at an old ruin

swimming session

This natural pool offered us the great possibility to wash the last few day´s dirt off and refresh.

Move it, move it!

Scottish summers are not the warmest on earth, so when you take a hiking-brake it get´s pretty chilly after sitting around for a couple of minutes. So I decided to warm up the kids with imitating different gaits - here you can see us moving like earthworms and ducks...:)

Dead of the week 24 - stag

Given the fact that Scotland is - unexpectedly, but to my delight - covered in dead animals, I decided to revive the "Dead of the week". So here´s the first victim - a beautiful stag!

amazing forces of nature

This is what we came for! The rough, cold, wild Scottish weather !!!!

Looks a bit like in Scandinavia, doesn´t it?

Scottish mountain life: frog and orchid

heading south

My group consists of Luki (my co-teamer), Annemarie, Flo, Falk, Jana, Svenja, Paula, Felix and David. Above: Svenja, David and Flo learn to read the map. Middle: heather. Below: little recreation brake with Annemarie & Paula.

Finally in the forest!!!

We began our tour in Aviemore, a little town located in the north of the Cairngorm mountains. I can´t wait to be in the wild again!!!!

ferry from Zeebrugge to Rosyth

The trip to Scotland took us two entire days - which was actually very helpful for us teamers because we had the chance to get to know all the kids and build the three hiking groups. On top: Katja and Flo, below: Matthias, Franzi, Anna, Flo, Lawrence, Nils, Katja, Lukas, Patrick.

Naju-Wildnistour 2008: Cairngorm National Park

This year´s hiking tour leads us to the Cairngorm National Park in Scotland - an area located roughly between Inverness and Edinburgh.
But before we departed in Wetzlar, we spent two sleepless days with planning the menue for the next 3 weeks, packaging all the food and hiking gear we would need.

kid´s painting competition at the faculty of veterinary medicine open house day

yummeee swimming birthday cake

Elisabeth prepared a delicious birthday cake, while Milli was watching her sceptically and Nele dressed up as an umpah-lumpa:)

sand castle exhibition at Berlin main station

We just had enough time to have a quick look at the enormous sand castles behind the main station before Katha´s train left.

U-hof community on the cupola of Berlin dome

The great thing in having guests is 1) that you meet friends that you haven´t seen for a longer period of time and 2) thet you finally get to see all those tourist attractions that you have always wanted to visit but never found the time to really to do so. The last time that I tried to get into the dome with Ati, they wouldn´t let us in, because they were holding re-entrance-interviews for people who left the catholic church. Unfortunately, I never resigned from that strange god-fan-association and Ati is a moslem... but anyway, this time we had more luck as you can see:)

visiting Berlin cathedral

@ surf & sushi

After we had accomplished half a marathon by visiting all the places of interests Berlin had to offer, we met Katja at our favorite Suhi restaurant: Surf&Sushi in Oranienburger Straße. We had far too much to eat and Ulli probably had a bit too much to drink:) Afterwards, we went to see the Blue Man Group - the show was not exactly our taste, but it was fun anyway and thankfully there we found a Starbucks location not far away from the theatre...