NATURA Tip 14 - Harly, Ecker and Okertal near Vienenburg - Route 1

We hike from station to station and simply take the train back to the starting point! Stapelburg is recommended as the starting point, where a parking lot is located a few steps from the platform. First, we head into the village, then turn left at the first opportunity, then westward into Schützenstraße, continue opposite the Ilsenburg forestry office on Am Anger Street. After the fire station depot, keep left! We carefully cross road L 85. An asphalted path branches off on the right. It leads to the Jungborn grounds, a formerly extensive spa facility. Once, the writer Franz Kafka and the actress Marika Rökk also recuperated here. Where until 1964 the buildings of the legendary Eckerkrug stood nearby, the southeasternmost extension of the FFH area Harly, Ecker, and Okertal is reached. On the Harz Border Path, which here is also the Harz Monastery Hiking Trail, we follow the course of the Ecker downstream. Along the way, the Jungborn Harz support association has rebuilt two light air pavilions of the spa. They are openly accessible and invite a first rest. Leisurely, we then engage in nature observation, delighting for example in a dipper, for which nesting aids have been attached at the discharge structure of the Stimmecke. It is a feeling of utmost happiness to walk now this side, now that side of the once insurmountable border! Only the remains of a reinforced concrete border post remaining at the original location remind us of it.

To the Border Memorial Point

That we are traveling along the Ecker on a border river is rather reminded by stones set in 1846. They mark the former border between the Duchy of Brunswick and the Kingdom of Prussia. The letter B points toward Brunswick, the large P toward Prussia. Today, this is the border between the federal states of Lower Saxony (B) and Saxony-Anhalt (P). Naturally, the valley is covered in beech forest. The birches to the east bear witness to once clear-cut areas on the former GDR side. There, where we cross the L 85 again, a large brown information board recalls the border opening on November 11, 1989. 4.6 km have already been covered. Those satisfied can return through Stapelburg to the starting point (1.7 km). It is still another 12 km from here to Vienenburg Station via the Harz Monastery Hiking Trail! Onwards: we keep left, along the Ecker through the Schimmerwald. This forest has a sad history as the site of an air munitions depot. In 137 bunkers of the MUNA, the Wehrmacht's ammunition for the Goslar Airbase was stored. Despite demolition in April 1945, final clearance took 32 years. 14 people lost their lives, including 12 women who were engaged in reforestation. At the former Astfelder Krug we reach our first Angel Bench on the Monastery Hiking Trail. Shortly after, we do not continue toward Abbenrode but leave the Harz Border Path and Mill Trail simply to the right. Instead, we continue straight ahead on the Lower Saxony side, even where from a junction the path is asphalted. We stay directly on the state border. Only when we get a view of Lochtum does this run parallel to the field path leading NNE to the Border Memorial Point.

To the destination: Vienenburg Train Station or Wöltingerode Monastery

Arriving at the Border Memorial Point, an information board from the Abbenrode local heritage association on the "Iron Curtain" and the second Angel Bench await us. After that, it is time for brisk hiking. We are again on the Harz Monastery Hiking Trail, with the FFH area and the old Degenmühle to our right. With some luck, we hear an oriole whistling from the floodplain forest there. We go under the motorway bridge and cross the FFH area once more in a few steps. We continue straight to the Hasenwinkel junction, then past two farms, parallel to the tracks toward Wiedelah, passing under the railway bridge with the Ecker, and then to the excursion restaurant "Am Finkenherd" (Steak House). After a rest, there are more railway bridges to go under towards Wiedelah. We reach the place where Ecker and Oker flow together at the water castle. From Zollweg, we turn left into Amtstraße, at its end left into Wülperoder Straße. Before the latter passes under the motorway, we keep right because the Monastery Hiking Trail goes under the A 36 only 150 m further north. Along the course of the Oker floodplain, the Monastery Hiking Trail then crosses the access road to the Schacht I residential area. On the left, it goes along the access to the station. Straight ahead, the Monastery Hiking Trail leads directly to Wöltingerode Monastery. Those who still have strength and courage follow the route plan to the Harly Mountain (256 m above sea level) to the northern border of the FFH area. The tower there was built by Israel Jakobson at the beginning of the 19th century. The observation tower is open on Sundays from 10 am to 5 pm during the summer half-year. Beautiful forest views await us also on the descent to the former forestry office not far from the monastery dissolved in 1809, whose buildings today house, among other things, a hotel.

Parking available at each train station.

See description text.