Pre-travel post - Wild Bees

Today, I was scheduled to leave for my big hike, walking from Stuttgart to Nepal. But I won't start before tomorrow, maybe even on Friday. Why? I ordered a new cell phone (hopefully 'unbreakable'), which won't be delivered before tomorrow.

But I am not worried. What are a few days, when I expect to spend the next few YEARS hiking?! And maybe it is good this way, cause now I have more time to get organized, pack away my belongings, clean my apartment and eat lots of warm food ;) 

I plan to eat cold food only, for the first bit of my trip. I will carry a gas stove, but since stores are closed, I won't be able to buy fuel. And from my experience of several long trips, I don't miss warm food very much. My meals will be as followed: cereals for breakfast, chocolate, nuts, raisins etc. for lunch and cereals or some couscous or mashed potatoes (yes, cold!) and probably more nuts for dinner. Usually, I start eating 'normal' amounts for maybe a max. of 2 weeks, then everything goes crazy and I can eat the amount of a small 4 person household. It's called 'hiking hunger' and most people loose weight, despite of this mass of food. I usually do too, but I also managed to actually gain weight, walking something like 50 km every day... 

However, I used today to do a short hiking trip up to the grave chapel close to my home. It is only about 6 km one way and a common trip for me. I often do it 5 times a week. Yes, I need to walk to be happy and this is the closest place where I have at least some nature. It is mainly vineyards, but there are still things to explore and see. 

Just in front of a vineyard peach, somebody set up a nesting place for wild bees. Today, with the sun shining on it, the bees were coming and going. It is fascinating, how they can fit into the tiny holes in the wood or straws. I watched one bee crawl in head first, just crawling out a few seconds afterwards, to crawl in with its back first. Carefully pressing its wings to the body, to fit in the hole. It's also interesting, how differently they close their holes when breeding, some with mud, some use wood shavings. Wild bees are a very interesting and important topic, I just heard a podcast about. There are over 500 species of wild bees in Germany and they need wild flowers, sometimes even specific ones, to survive. Big flowers, bred to look good, do often not provide enough nectar for wild bees. In contrast to the honey bees, they live solitaire but are also important pollinators. By the way, they are pretty harmless and I'm not sure what you would have to do for them to sting. So they are ideal bees to watch even close up :) There are tons of information available and if you want to help these fascinating insects and watch them, you should set up some nesting places and get wild flowers on your balcony. 

A few impressions from today: