mosquitoes
By loading the map, you agree to Google's privacy policy.
Learn more
This post is about a 15km walk from Gambsheim to Drusenheim. We wake up around mosquitoes and go to sleep around mosquitoes.
We had spent the night on a campground next to a lake in Gambsheim. There were a lot of municipal campgrounds in France, which was a good thing, but many of them were about to close for the season, so we were lucky to have found this one.
the seasoning
As we were having dinner by the light of our head torches, a cloud of mosquitoes descended upon us. I frantically sprayed us from a bottle of organic mosquito-repellent that I carried, but it didn’t seem to work very well.
“The only thing you’re doing,” said the weirdo, “is seasoning us for them!” And it was true. The mosquitoes did not seem to care about my spray, no matter how lemony it smelled.
walk along the Rhine
And with the night came the wetness. When we woke up, a dense layer of morning dew had covered everything. And the tent, the new tent that was supposed to be better than the old one, didn’t seem to be ventilated very well, causing the inside to be wet with condensation, too. Or maybe I just sucked at pitching it.
We ended up waiting for a few hours until everything was dry, and then, when we finally started walking, our steps felt listless and tired. I did get excited, however, when I saw a helicopter carrying a huge bucket over the river. It kept going back and forth with the bucket. What was it doing? Was it an exercise in fetching river water for fire fighting?
Later I learned that the bucket contained some sort of stuff which they were spraying on the marshes next to the river. In order to kill the mosquitoes.
the pavilions
It took a few hours until we reached a group of pavilions next to the river. The municipality of Drusenheim had put them there “for everyone to enjoy”. There were a few mobile homes and cars parked next to them, and people were having barbecues in the afternoon sun.
We decided to set up our tent in one of the pavilions. Then I walked over to a nearby supermarket and came back with some bread, bell peppers, spread, canned beans, and a bottle of exquisite French vodka.
And even though there were still a lot of mosquitoes, it was somehow all good.
pictures
the walk from Gambsheim to Drusenheim:
church in Gambsheim
reminded me of some cement factories in Kazakhstan
reminded me of pueblos
fields near Gambsheim
the path along the Rhine
bunker
EuroVelo 15
helicopter spraying anti-mosquito stuff
pavilions near Drusenheim
Orage vodka
moon over the Rhine
camp in the pavilions