Scouts in Sihlwald

Those of you who read our blog for more than 3 years might recall that in 2012 we have visited the Wildnis Park in Zurich, where wild animals live (almost) free. Wildnis Park is a part of the Sihlwald, a large forest covering hills on the East side of the Zurich Lake. Today, I will take you to another part of the woods. We will take the train until the Sihlwald station.

Sihlwald means literally "Sihl-wood" where "Sihl" is the name of a river that runs through the forest.

We will take the Forest Nature Trail.

The wood is not too dense but still - mind your steps as it is easy to slip on the leaves.

The trail is packed with opportunities to learn about the life in the forest. Do you know how to find out how old a tree is?

Well, you need to count the rings on the cross section of the tree. Each ring stands for one year of growth.

On many of the trees you can find cards with interesting information about the way it grows and some peculiarities of a given species. This one is silver fir. Its needles have white stripes.

The locals believe that this part of Sihlwald is enchanted.

Honestly, I am not sure why. It looks rather spooky in some parts. At least, they have created a nice path that is horseshoe-friendly.

Do you hear these noises? Look, there are boy scouts coming. They are getting ready for a bonfire.

They have made it!

The scouts were kind enough to offer me one of their sausages.

I would not like to hurt their feeling by saying openly that horses are generally vegetarians. I will sneak out silently to this nice glade and look for some tasty grass. You can keep the sausage.