Werra Water Hiking 6: Berka/Werra - Hörschel

Anyone who likes can also start this section 2 km earlier in Dankmarshausen. The NSG Dankmarshäuser Rhäden between Dankmarshausen and Obersuhl is a mecca for birds that love wading in the water, one of the most important resting areas for wading, water and meadow birds.

After an overnight stay, the start is more comfortable after the Rasenmühlenweir on the outskirts of Berka/Werra on the grounds of the Freizeitcamp Werra (campsite, Werra tours, boat rental, snack bar). Berka/Werra is a very old hostel town on the medieval trade route "Short Hessian" from Frankfurt am Main to Leipzig with some beautiful half-timbered houses in Franconian style and a church fortress.

After about 3.5 km of quiet Werra section through the bright, open Werra floodplain of the Berka Basin, the town of Gerstungen is reached at a boat landing behind the Werra bridge on the left (in the direction of flow) right next to the town centre. Gerstungen, with the stork as a coat of arms animal, is worth seeing with half-timbered architecture at the market, castle (Werra valley museum) and church. The Werra still swings for a while on the outskirts of Gerstungen through the Werra floodplain until after about 2.5 km a landing on the meadow next to the Werra invites you to the Gerstungen outdoor pool. The outdoor pool is idyllically located in the nature reserve of the Werra meadows, offers swimming/non-swimming pools, wide wave slide, volleyball court, sunbathing lawn, snack bar and the best water quality. Speaking of water quality: in this regard, one cannot ignore that the municipality of Gerstungen (and others) have massive groundwater problems due to the potash brine dumping of the K+S salt mines in the area: more information: Water in distress!

North of Gerstungen, the Werra meanders in small and larger bends through the valley below the eastern forest heights until after about 4.5 km at Sallmannshausen it reaches the valley gap between Böller (Thuringia) and Richelsdorf Mountains (Hesse). Just over 100 m after the Werra bridge, you have to head for a boat landing on the left bank because the Werra is cut off 100 m further by a weir for the former power mill. The portage meadow path follows the fish ladder channel for about 120 m to the launch site behind the weir opposite the mill. 150 m further, but on the other, right Werra side, there is another landing and launch site on the riverbank meadow of the idyllic half-timbered village of Sallmannshausen, where you can enjoy regional cuisine in the guesthouse "Zum Schiff".

After Sallmannshausen, the Werra flows in a wide curve in the again broad valley eastwards towards the Thuringian Forest. For about 8 km the river marks the border between Thuringia and Hesse. Therefore, the Steinmühle hydropower plant after about 2.5 km of the large Werra loop on the left bank belongs to the Hessian Wommen, but the boat portage sites on the right bank to Thuringia.

The Werra then winds for another 4 km in a large counter curve to Lauchröden, a quiet village with some pretty half-timbered houses. At the end of the village, there is a boat landing on the right before the Werra bridge. From here, you can hike about 1.2 km to the distinctive ruins of the Brandenburg, a double castle from the 13th century in a commanding spur location above the Werra valley. From the window openings of the former palace, you have a good view of the next section of the water hiking stage: in pronounced loops called Kuchenbrett or Kuschenschieber, the Werra meanders through the flat agricultural landscape between Lauchröden in Thuringia and Herleshausen in Hesse. The Brandenburg ruin thus greets once from port and then again from starboard, although it actually always remains on the right side.

The Werra loops ensure that you can paddle almost 6 river km through the Werra plain below Brandenburg to Göringen, about 2.5 road km away. At the idyllic landing on the right Werra bank at the edge of the village, you officially have already reached Eisenach because all subsequent places up to the stage destination Hörschel have been incorporated into the Wartburg city. Like the small village Wartha (1 km further) with a landing about 150 m left after the Werra bridge, the pretty village image is shaped by half-timbered houses, stone gate entrances and worth-seeing small village churches.

About 700 m further downstream there is already the next landing at the romantic only Werra riverside park (created by Eduard Petzold, a student of park prince Pückler-Muskau) of Neuenhof Castle (not publicly accessible). The village Neuenhof developed as a knight's village around a castle, on whose site later the castle and church were built.

Near Neuenhof, the Werra turns again in a loop to the north around the foothills of the Thuringian Forest and after about 1 km reaches Hörschel, the best-known hiking trail in Thuringia, the Rennsteig, over the ridge of the Thuringian Forest, which begins here on the Werra bank. Our Werra water hiking stage ends about 250 m before the village at the boat landing of the Rennsteig Canoe Club Hörschel (on the right Werra bank) or 250 m at the landing on the grounds of the guesthouse & pension "Tor zum Rennsteig", where Thuringia's best-known hiking trail begins: the Rennsteig. Hiking birds from all over the world start their Rennsteig tour here with a pebble from the Werra in their pocket, to sink it in Blankenstein into the Selbitz.

The Rennsteig closes a circle for the Werra water hikers in Hörschel, because the Werra, which here is a fully grown, wide river, rises about 100 hiking kilometres southeast on the ridge of the Thuringian Forest very close to the Rennsteig at the Fehrenbacher Werra source as a water jet from a lion's mouth.