the last day
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This post is about a 11km walk from Kreuzbuche to Bad Nenndorf. I walk through the Deister forest, and I finally make it home.
I wake up in my last camping spot on The Longest Way. It is located at an intersection in the middle of the forest called Kreuzbuche (beech of the cross). There used to be a few big beech trees there, but they all died a long time ago. There also used to be a rare dwarf beech, one of the most beautiful types of trees that I know, but it got destroyed during a bout of Father’s Day vandalism some years earlier..
present tense
Luckily, I have the forest to myself at this time. I can hear a bird calling from somewhere in the trees, and I can see a thin curtain of rain outside of the hut where I have pitched the tent.
I do my exercises just like I have always been doing them since the time when I was down with a herniated disc in Budapest. I eat two bananas, and I drink a little bit of the tea that I have left over from the day before. I still have a chocolate croissant for the walk from Kreuzbuche to Bad Nenndorf. Good.
Home is just a few hours of walking away. I find it hard to believe, and yet here we are.
mudlings
I follow the gravel road through the forest for a while. One time I run into a group of little kids. They might be four or five years old, there is mud all over their bodies and their little faces, and some of them have twigs and leaves in their hair. I am convinced that I have never seen a more adorable sight in my life. They are a forest kindergarten, and their teacher looks at me with wide eyes.
“Are you Christoph Rehage?” she asks me.
I mumble something between a yes and an excuse. I cannot talk. I have to go.
the tower
Then, just like that, I begin to recognize the trees and the shape of the ground, and I know exactly where I am. There is a tower close by. It’s called Belvedere Tower, and it was built in the middle of the 19th century as a viewing platform overlooking the trees. The trees have since grown much higher than the tower, and there isn’t really much to see at the top anymore. But that doesn’t matter to someone who just wants to be in the trees.
I have been up there countless times, sometimes feeling happy, sometimes feeling sad. There is a video that I posted to my Youtube channel 10 years earlier that I filmed on the top of the tower. It shows nothing but the trees in the wind.
And now I’m back. Walking. With the Caboose.
tears
I climb the stairs up the tower. Round and round they go, up and up until I am between the treetops. Bad Nenndorf is somewhere behind them. The place that I used to call home in China is in the opposite direction, somewhere behind the curvature of the Earth. I look down at the Caboose. She is down there between the trees, and she looks very small and vulnerable like that.
Hey Boosy, I say.
Then I start crying.
bread
The rest of the way is quiet. I walk the same ways that I have walked before so many times, and it somehow feels like I have already arrived.
I don’t take the direct way home. Instead I walk through the cemetery, and then I go to a bakery and buy a loaf of Gersterbrot, the bread that we eat in this region. I put it on the Caboose, and I walk up the street, through the pedestrian zone and through the spa park, and then down to the last traffic light that I will ever cross on The Longest Way.
I know this particular traffic light by heart. I can anticipate the amount of time it takes for it to jump to green after you’ve pressed the button. How many times have I crossed here with our family dog Puki, and how many times was our family cat Nase following us?
witches
The street down to my home isn’t long. My father is waiting, and my sister is there, too. I pass the church where I once got a laughing fit during a Christmas service. I pass the feminist graffito that appeared out of nowhere a few years earlier and has never been removed.
I’m glad it’s still there.
And then, just like that, seemingly in an instant, as if the whole day hadn’t happened, as if the years on the road were mere glitches in a video, as if I had never walked through the deserts and the mountains and along the seas, as if I didn’t have the beard and the hair and the scars to prove it, as if I hadn’t cried and laughed and screamed my heart out, as if I hadn’t seen the blackness of the Black Sea and the lights of the galaxy, as if I hadn’t left my soul somewhere behind me in the forest, as if none of these things were even remotely real, as if I had just gone out to buy a loaf of bread – I was home.
pictures
the walk from Kreuzbuche to Bad Nenndorf
last camp on The Longest Way at Kreuzbuche in the Deister
one tree in the light
the Caboose on her last day on The Longest Way
Boosy from the back
I knew the way to walk from Kreuzbuche to Bad Nenndorf
on the Belvedere Tower in the Deister
it got a bit emotional
the forest near my home
I carved in my Chinese name 雷克 here once
memorial to Heinrich Lehmann, “friend of the Deister”
the last highway crossing on The Longest Way
bridge over the Erlengrund lake
the loaf of Gersterbrot that I bought on my way home
this graffito has been there for some years now
and here it is: the picture of the moment when I arrived, after trying as always to walk home from China to my home in Germany
SteffiJ
Jetzt musste ich auch ein bisschen weinen mit einem Kloß im Hals. Diese Geschichte deines Lebens ist nun beendet. Erst jetzt mit dem Lesen wird es auch für mich richtig real,das die Kabutze nun im Keller steht und du jeden Tag in einem Bett aufwachst 😉 . Christoph, ich denke,wir alle hoffen,dass wir bald wieder von dir lesen können und deinen Abenteuern folgen können. Bis dahin,bis du etwas gefunden hast, was dir neue Freude macht ,dich begeistert, dich herausfordert, bis dahin wünsche ich dir alles Gute. Und dass dir die Liebe begegnen möge! Heute zum Silvestertag sende ich herzlichste Grüße aus Dresden und sage Danke . SteffiJ
Chris
Hi Christoph, Glückwunsch, dass du es geschafft hast. Und vielen Dank für die Jahre in diesem Blog. Für mich und sicher für viele andere ein spannender Blick in die Welt da draußen. Ich hoffe es folgen noch ein paar Bücher (kein Druck, Ruh dich erstmal aus 😉). Grüße aus Nenndorf, Chris
benjamin k.
Congratulations! What a journey! Thank you for the phantastic blog!
Doris
Glückliches Ende einer verrückten Idee! Glückwunsch und Danke fürs Miterleben-lassen!
Gibt es noch ein Foto nach dem Friseurbesuch?
Emil D.
Es ist lange her dass ich etwas gelesen habe, was mich so berührt hat, lieber Christoph.
Seit sehr langer Zeit lese ich regelmäßig die Blog-Einträge und freue mich, wenn meine Sehnsucht nach der Ferne und Abenteuern durch jeden Text ein bisschen geweckt wird. Ich habe es immer genossen, die kleinen Details der Tage und Orte zu lesen, die dir beim Gehen aufgefallen sind. Danke, dass du uns an diesem längsten Weg hast teilhaben lassen. Ich wünsche dir viel Glück für deinen nächsten Lebensabschnitt.
Guten Rutsch & Liebe Grüße aus Innsbruck,
Emil.
Tiago
Magnificent journey, Christoph! I have been following you for years, always delighted to read your updates. You filled me with so much joy all this time… Congratulations from Portugal!
Hilde
Danke, lieber Christoph, für Deine tollen Blogeinträge, die ich immer sehr gerne gelesen habe. Und herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Vollendung Deines verrückten, aber spannenden Plans! Unfälle, seelische Tiefs, Corona, MS, Bandscheibenvorfall, … haben Dich in diesen all Jahren nicht stoppen können. Mit welcher Zähigkeit Du Dich immer wieder zurückgekämpft hast, finde ich absolut bewundernswert.
Alles Gute für das nächste Jahr und jetzt erstmal viel Spaß beim Füße hochlegen und Nichtstun 🙂
Hilde
Nicole Lehmann
Herzlichen Glückwunsch lieber Chris. Aber bitte trotzdem weiterschreiben ich habe sonst morgens nichts zum lesen. Alles Gute aus Köln
Vincent H. Turgeon
Congratulation! It’s been amazing to follow you during all those years. You’ve been a source of inspiration. Thank you!
Kevin Chambers
Wow. Congratulations. You actually did it! I was living in China when you started your walk and I’ve followed you all the years since. Thanks for bringing us all along. I even retraced part of your route in Kazakhstan. Thanks for showing us that 99% of people are good, everywhere. Thanks for your insights and your keen mind. Your reasonableness. Your vegetarianism. Your caring. All the good you have done along the way.
What an education you have gained! I look forward to your books (in English) and your photographs and your observations on social media. I hope I get a chance to meet you someday. Say hi to the caboose.
Kai
Vielen herzlichen Dank, dass Du uns mit auf den Weg genommen und durch die schwierigen letzten Jahre begleitet hast! Noch vor dem täglichen Nachrichten-Check hieß es für mich seit Deinen Weibo-Zeiten stets zuerst nachschauen, ob Leike etwas zur Erbauung gepostet hat… während China – zumindest politisch – langsam den Bach runterging…
Ich freue mich aber auch schon sehr auf das, was da zu gegebener Zeit noch von Dir kommen wird!
Dir und allen Mitlesenden alles Gute für 2024!
Eric
Now rest. I have checked in on you for what feels like forever, I’m happy you finally did it and spent Christmas among family.
FWIW I think Brad was trying to say something to you with all the Before Sunset touring in Vienna. You should follow that up.
Nepomuk
Sehr stark. Ich finde es echt toll, dass du den Lauf noch durchgezogen hast, ich freue mich auf die Videos und Bücher.
Guten Rutsch!
Jordi
Congratulations, Chris!
Not everybody decides to do beautiful, memorable things in life, and this is one such things. In your late years you’ll look back and think “I did that”.
It’s good to be aware that we can do big things one step at a time.
I look forward to reading the book.
Now enjoy the moment and let us know about what you do!
zft
Congratulations! I discovered your blog last year and have been following your long walk from China to Germany ever since. I just wanted to let you know how much I’ve enjoyed reading about your adventures.
Your blog has taught me a lot and it’s been amazing to read about all the places you’ve seen and the experiences you’ve had.
Well done on completing your incredible journey! It’s a huge accomplishment and I’m so impressed by what you’ve done.
Phoenix
congradulations Chirs!
Happy 2024!
Mallory
Yes it is hard to believe you finished it
Mat
welcome home Christoph! trying as always to walk home, and succeeding!
Florian
Ich habe deinen Blog, deine Videos und damit deine Reise über all die Jahre verfolgt. Danke für die vielen tollen Fotos und Berichte aus Ländern, die ich vermutlich nie zu sehen bekomme. Wenn es sich schon für mich komisch an fühlt, dass “The Longest Way” nun zuende ist, wie muss es sich dann erst für dich anfühlen? Ich bin gespannt was als nächstes kommt und freue mich weiter von dir zu hören. wenn es wieder ein Buch gibt, landet es mit Sicherheit in meinem Regal…
Erik
Herzlichen Glückwunsch Chris. Amazing and unreal. I’ve been following your journey since 2011 after I discovered the hair video 🙂 Your determination to keep going (even if your body and a pandemic is not making it easy) is truly inspiring.
Now that you reached your goal I find myself kind of lost. Fundamentally changing my reality, Chris is not walking home anymore. He is home.
All best to you. Have a great, loving 2024.
Pingback:Chris is thuis
Peter
Thank You Chris for letting us accompany you on your journey.
Enjoyed every bit all through these years. Special thanks for fueling my love for China and being part of the inspiration in me becoming vegetarian.
Enjoy every moment of being home – it’s where you wanted to be arrive through all these years!
He Did It
$hit! Now what? 😃 Congratulations.
Steven
Welcome Home !
Grant Steadman
Overwhelmed. You have lived more then most people on this good Earth. All the best to you mate. Thank you for taking us with you on your incredible spiritual journey.
Ray
Wow can’t believe it’s over, after living in China myself from 2009 – 2012 was recommended your original video 1.0, and been following the blog since the Lets Walk series in Kazakhstan. Still remember the joy when you got that Turkmenistan visa, The Longest Party, love the music choices. Ha your hair is much longer now. Congratulations on completing your incredible journey.
Anand.AV
I don’t know what to say and how to start. Love from India. Even though we are 1981 born, your way of life is something i miss feels like you are living my dream. Following you video from Kazakhstan i remember, before Let’s walk and talk series. I’ll miss you my friend.
Sarevan
congratulations Christoph! How was your trip? 😄
I walked with you since 2018 through your videos. One of my regrets in life is that I couldn’t meet you in Istanbul because of Coronavirus circumstances.
What’s your next plan? What about trying again to walk back from your home in Germany to China?
Tamsin
Congrats!!
E. A. J.
:’) welcome back, Christoph.