Velbert-Nierenhof to Nordrath - early summer in NRW

Let's flash back to May, the end of the spring, or the start of the summer. Which one you choose probably depends on the weather as you step outside... Despite the relative flatness of the Düsseldorf area, I knew that my summer would feature a two week trip to the Alps for both teaching and recreatonal hiking. Given this, I thought it would be a good idea to do a small amount of training, however token.

I ended up finding a stretch of the Neanderlandsteig between Velbert-Nierenhof station and Nordrath that consisted of a gentle and continuous upwards climb from start to finish, gaining about 300m and ending with good views from the high ground north of Wuppertal. I started the hike on a glorious spring/summer day, with the temperature hovering around that just-right level it never manages at any other time of year. The sun was shining brightly but it was still just low enough in the sky to add some dramatic backlighting to the newly green leaves of the trees. I headed on slowly up and up on a constant gradient, surrounded by sparse beech forest, sandwiched between the brown leaves and the green canopy overhead.

The birds were singing loud and clear, and I spotted several interesting ones on my journey. After tracking down a blackcap singing in a dense bit of undergrowth over a stream, I entered the most beautiful part of the walk, an area of denser forest along the small stream, nestled in the fold between two hills. The mud around the stream was rich and dark, offering the perfect contrast to the glowing green of the backlit ferns standing in the babbling water.

Moving on after my lunch, things briefly became more exposed, offering wide views over glaring yellow swathes of oildseed rape set in acres of freshly ploughed fields, and then occasional fields of long, swaying grass, looking almost abstract if you zoomed in close. As the afternoon drew on, the sun continued to shine. By the time I reached my goal, the Kahlenberg (identical in name to the hill above Vienna), I had climbed enough to get a good view over the surrounding rolling landscape, passing as I did so many fields of livestock, orchards and people on large machines engaged in making hay. I very much enjoyed this hike in what felt like a somewhat quieter, more rural context! I hope you enjoy the photos, accessible by clicking this, same as always.

bis bald,

der Tom