When the dear Lord created Dummersdorf Bank, he took a lot of trouble over it. This wonderful corner of the world simply has to be seen! This nature conservation area is a paradise for many rare species of plants in Schleswig-Holstein.
If you follow the course of the Trave from Travemünde to Lübeck, you will reach the Dummersdorf Bank south of the Scandinavia Quay ferry port. This 5 kilometre stretch of the bank was designated a conservation area in 1958. Since 1991, Dummersdorf Feld has also been part of the conservation area. Many endangered and highly sensitive species of plants and animals are to be found in this 340 hectare area, and to them the steep coast and undulating countryside offer many tiny biotopes. Please make sure when walking that you always stay on the marked paths so as not to disturb plants and animals.
The gentle hills were created in the course of the Ice Ages when glaciers moved over the land and then melted again. When the level of the Baltic Sea rose, salt water penetrated the meltwater gully cut by the Trave and created the high cliffs we see to this day. The steep banks are largely dominated by woodlands used for centuries by farmers for firewood.
Extended areas of dry grassland are still to be found around Stülper Huk, a peninsula jutting into the Trave opposite Pötenitzer Wiek, and these areas offer a niche to rare species of plants. Thyme, maiden pink and gentian, for example, are well adapted to sunny soil low in nutrients – sheep have to regularly graze on the dry grassland to ensure that faster-growing competitors do not take the light from these delicate, colourful “specialists”. The Countryside Trust keeps two herds of sheep and a few goats for this very purpose, and with a bit of luck, you may see them on Dummersdorf Bank. A narrow bead of beach runs along the foot of the cliff.
Stülper Huk rises some 16 m above the Trave and was probably once used by Count Adolf II as a strategic location for a castle to monitor shipping and trade on the Trave. A stone serves as a reminder of the location where old Travemünde once stood. In those days, the facility was protected by ditches and walls which can still be recognised today. Explore Stülper Huk on five hiking trails and climb up to the observation platform for a fantastic view!
The Silkteich coastal pond is also to be found near Dummersdorf Bank, a refuge for many waterfowl and amphibians – here we are making up for what was once thoughtlessly destroyed. The original Silkteich coastal pond disappeared at the beginning of the 1930s when material excavated from the Trave was dumped in it. Brackish water reeds, little grebe, dragonfly and frogs have already found a home in the new Silkteich pond. It will be some time before this pond is as full of life as the original one was.
The last section in the course of the Trave is the most varied: A great number of waterfowl are to be found here and northern nature shows a beautiful yet at the same time wild side. In some places along the 24 kilometre stretch of the Lower Trave, the river lies between steep cliffs as in a fjord and widens out to the width of a lake beyond Stülper Huk. As an almost self-contained side bay, Dassow Lake also forms part of the Trave estuary which is bordered entirely by the coast of Mecklenburg apart from a narrow entrance. And in the middle of the lake are the islands Buchhorst and Graswerder on which a wide variety of endangered plant species are to be found – for example, the marsh sowthistle, quaking grass, wild oregano and adder’s tongue. The expansive bay of the River Trave, along with the Priwall peninsula and Dassow Lake, the third nature conservation area in the region, serves as a resting place and winter quarters to tens of thousands of divers. Cormorants seek their prey here and there are even sea eagles again on the Trave. One pair has settled there permanently for the last few years and in winter, several of them spend this time of slim pickings by the banks of the Lower Trave where there are plenty of fish.
