E11 European Long Distance Path - Geology and Biology

Geology and Biology

Most of the (original, pre-human) landscape along E11 was formed in the last 14,000 years, i.e. in the current Holocene or warmer period since the last ice age. The melting ice in Northern Europe caused huge rivers to carve out wide valleys, whilst the sea level rose significantly and flooded low land. It is known that the river Thames in England was once a tributary of the river Rhine on the continent; Britain was then not separated from the continent by the North Sea. In what is now known as the Netherlands and in the plains of (now) Northern Germany and Poland, rivers began to flow to carry the melted ice towards what became the Baltic Sea (itself also a result of the rising sea level) or the North Sea. These areas are now characterized by low lying land, marshes, sandy old dunes (now stationary hills) alternating with older layers of peat.

From the Dutch and German border to the Harz, however, E11 passes through a different and much older geological area. It consists of a range of low mountain ridges (such as the Wiehen Hills and the Wesergebirge), created almost 100 million years ago from marine sediments which started to rise. The Harz mountains themselves are even much older (about 300 million years according to academic estimates) and stem from a variety of complicated geological processes. After the Harz, E11 drops back to the estuaries of the rivers in the plains.

Large parts of the E11 cross through forests, for which sometimes considerable detours are made. Open scenery is found in small parts of The Netherlands as well as in Eastern Germany and around the Polish city of Poznań. Nevertheless, the E11 links some interesting cities, such as The Hague, Amersfoort, Deventer, Osnabruck, Goslar, Luther's Wittenberg, Berlin, Frankfurt (Oder), Poznań, Gniezno, Toruń, Olsztyn, Lidzbark Warmiński and Kętrzyn. Lakes and rivers are not uncommon along the trail. The trail can be walked at any time of year, but the Polish winter is long, with a lot of snow. The highest point of E11 is 514 meters on the slopes of the Harz Mountains, whereas the lowest point is slightly under sea level in one of the polders in the West of The Netherlands.

Apart from getting lost in the vast Polish forests, there seem to be few hazards other than the occasional wild boar or gray wolf, or even a rare Eurasian lynx. It is only at the end of a severe winter season, when the animals are hungry, that extra care must be taken. In the summer, one might tread on a poisonous adder and in any season one might be biten by a rabies infected mammal. The one really big danger, however, is the almost invisible tick as it may be infected with tick-borne diseases, especially Lyme disease and tick-borne meningoencephalitis.