For our first extended trip with the camper van we decided to visit the Vulkaneifel in the upper West of Germany.
Wikipedia mentions that it is the least densely populated district in that state and the fourth most sparsely populated district in Germany, and yes Wikipedia, this is in deed a perceptible fact.
The chosen campsite was Camping Dockweiler Mühle – a pittoresque place right next to 2 small lakes.
The campsite
The campsite is a great spot to relax in the middle of nature.
There is quite an amount of ducks and geese living round the lakeside, being well-fed by the camping poulation and leaving a lot of poop – so this is to be considered if your space is right beside the lake and not on the terrace.
The lavatories are getting old but are kept pretty clean.
One thing to keep in mind is that the next option to shop groceries is around 8 km from the campsite – but there is a bakery very close (6 min walk) that also sells milk, eggs, cheese and sausage at least.
4G and WLAN are a catastrophe.
The next restaurant is a 25 minutes walk from the campsite.
The following tables summarizes my personal rating of the location (1-5 smileys).
| Recovery factor | ☺☺☺☺☺ |
| Parking space size | ☺☺☺☺ |
| Lavatory / Washrooms | ☺☺ |
| Price vs Service | ☺☺☺ |
| Activity factor | ☺☺☺☺ |
| Shopping / Restaurants | ☺ |
| 4G | – |
| WLAN | ☺ |
Lesson Learned – Do not trust MTB Komoot tracks
We took our mountainbikes and were keen on surfing some trails in the famous MTB area Vulkaneifel (well this is what I at least read ;-)), for that purpose we downloaded a track from Komoot that covered some promising single trails.
The ride ended in carrying the bikes again and again over fallen trees in acrobatic movements, pants full of resin, legs burning from nettles and a little bit of frustration.
We even had to turn around once and do all the carrying action once again.
Hence I will not link the Komoot track here, as I do not want anyone else to go through the same trouble. I was even not in the mood to take many pictures of that failed trail tour.
Hiking
We started our trip on Thursday, planning to leave again by Sunday morning. So we were thinking if we’d better go hiking instead of cycling on Saturday to end the short vacation with a positive activity in the beautiful nature around Dockweiler. In addition the weather condition was perfect – 23°C and a blue sky.
This time I created my own route using Outdooractive.com which was much more successfull than following the MTB trail tour 🙂 – the tour is available here.
As you can see in the photos the area is really lovely, bland hilly terrain, green vast meadows – and really almost deserted – and people who know me will know that this is what I enjoy most.
Definitetively an area worth the visit and where we will come back to, probably not picking the same spot though.
jelisu 