Day 149 - Stormy

Storm clouds billow through the Enz valley

Alien nation

After a couple of weeks of fine weather, storm clouds roll in over the holiday weekend bringing rain and hail. On my way to Grüne Hütte on Monday cold drizzle meant using my umbrella much of the way and gloves would have been useful had I had a pair with me. Nature abounds and during the past fortnight on strolls through the forest my attention has been focused on the insects. There is a fascinating variety of creepy crawlies especially in areas of mixed vegetation. Typically spiders, crickets and ants are to be found in countless variations. The large ants look very alien with large shiny black heads and silvery bands around their bodies. I watched three ants moving a leaf, working perfectly together, their co-ordination frighteningly human. Scale them up to our size and you have something more daunting than Robocop and ‘The Fly’ combined. I come across an ant’s nest that is over a metre high and the millions of ants crawling through the undergrowth create a humming sound that is quite unearthly. Lets hope that they do not mutate in the future after sampling GM crops. The EARTH image above was created by merging an ant photo taken a few days ago with a parched earth photo taken back in April. The ant’s superior power to weight ratio and ability to travel very quickly over any terrain emphasises the limitations of ‘our’ wheel. Maybe the wheel is heading towards the end of its lifetime. MAGLEV travelling at 200kph is more impressive to me than Puffing Billy doing 300kph and I am sure the former is more environmentally friendly.