Vantastic Lukas: Visiting friends

Off to neighboring Thuringia

After a somewhat difficult farewell to family and friends, as always, we headed towards Thuringia. My buddy Clemens had gotten a used banana boat through eBay classifieds that wanted to change hands. We also wanted to spend a few days fishing together on one of his local waters. His colleague Simon was there too. So it should be a sociable gathering.

The conviviality continued throughout the week; the only “better” fish honored me on the night before last. Even without much contact with fish, the time flew by. At the same time, we gave “El Banano” a new look, grilled almost every evening and had a good time.

Social fishing

With a freshly wrapped “EL-Banano” on the roof, we went on to the next planned stop: to see Christoph in Dortmund. My long-time friend Martin met us at a dam near his home. The three of us spent a long weekend at the lake to celebrate, among other things, Christoph's birthday. With many visitors from Christoph's circles, this session also became a real “social event”. I wasn't at all upset about that before I went abroad and enjoyed the days we spent together to the fullest.

Martin and Christoph were actually able to catch the only two carp of the four days in the last few hours. Christoph was blessed with the birthday fish!! After leaving the lake I still had to repair my flat tire, which I had collected from Clemens am See. In a small tire shop I had two new shoes put on. After one last evening in Christoph's four walls, I start the next morning.

Towards the French sun

After a small detour via Belgium, I drove purposefully towards “Central France”. On the way there I was supposed to meet “Wilko” and Anaka the next day. The two were on their way home from their week-long honeymoon trip through the south of France. Our reunion was long overdue and so we managed to cross paths at a beautiful lake. The lake gave us an absolute holiday feeling: we parked the vans right on the shore between shady trees where we could hang out in our hammocks and enjoy the French sun. That felt so good!!

We had three nights until the two of them went back to cold Germany. During this time, Wilko caught countless carp, and I managed consistently (with two or three exceptions) to keep the penetrating, completely starving “piranhas” off the hook.

As our little paradise became increasingly crowded at the start of the weekend, it was fittingly time to leave.

Alone on the road

From there my journey continued alone. I headed even deeper into the central mountain region. I hadn't spent enough time there so far, but I always felt very comfortable there. The landscape and vegetation are completely different from that in the south and the temperatures there were more bearable at the moment.

Over the next few days I sat in the car a lot, drove to various new lakes and looked for places that were more or less easily accessible. Thanks to my mobile home, I currently have more desire to be out and about in it and fish “out of the sliding door”. It's just stupid that the locals know these places very well. With the holiday season just beginning in France, it was difficult to even find a quiet spot. So, quite often and slightly frustrated, I turned my 3.5 ton truck and dragged it to the next spot...

The fishing fever is back

I caught the fishing bug again at an easily navigable reservoir with over 200 hectares. The narrow inlet of the lake looked very interesting due to the bushes hanging in the water when the water level was still high. So I got El-Banano from the roof and distributed my four rods...

After a long stay in Germany with many hours spent together in company, it took some getting used to going on tour alone again. I was looking forward to a time when I would have more time for myself again, but I still felt lonely again and again. A feeling that was familiar to me from my travels in the past and that one gets to know better how to deal with from time to time. What I would like to say is that a “free life” like the one I have been leading for two years now is not always the dream I have lived. Here, too, there are ups and downs that have to be experienced.