Zwischen zwei Flüssen

Unalike siblings

The twin rivers Kocher and Jagst and the Kocher-Jagst plain between them offer hikers a varied hiking area. The Kocher flows towards us, it rises in the Swabian Alb near Oberkochen, quite unspectacularly, it has covered 120 kilometers to get here and has collected a whole lot of water! Swimming against the current? Not today! Hiking is the order of the day and up (up) we go, in the truest sense of the word, up the Stelzersklinge, 150 meters above us lies the Kocher-Jagst plain.

Horse pastures and fields accompany us to Neusaß. A wonderful

ensemble, a forester's lodge with a lime tree, a 17th century pilgrimage church and fish ponds behind it, all originally created by the monks of the Cistercian monastery in Schöntal. Lingering, resting and reflecting is a must here, everyday life seems a long way off! The water that springs from the little spring house behind the chapel is said to have healing properties, especially for eye complaints.

Through the deeply incised Honigklinge, the trail descends into the Jagst valley to Schöntal Monastery. Schöhntal - Schönes Tal - Schöntal, the Cistercians knew about the quality of the surrounding area. The Jagst river (Jagende!) with its clear water, the natural abundance of fish, both in the past and today, magnificent beech forests with dozens of lakes for fish farming and, last but not least, the sage and smooth oat meadows on the south-facing slopes, left nothing to be desired!

Nothing remains of the viticulture that dominated the sunny slopes until the end of the 19th century. Phylloxera destroyed all the stocks whose grapes used to be pressed into wine in Niedernhall in a huge wine press built by Abbot Knittel.

Vine growing has been revived in Bieringen, above the monastery. It actually takes a whole day, at least, to visit the monastery! The monastery church with the tomb of Götz von Berlichingen, the baroque staircase in the archive building and a tour of the grounds - there has to be time for that, as well as coffee or a glass of wine in the monastery café or in the "Post".
The education center in the monastery (with overnight accommodation), the forest school home, the cloister, the Kreuzberg with its chapel and the stork tower and, and, and..., you just have to come back to the Hohenlohe region. We head towards Jagsthausen, leaving a huge quarry on the left, it is in operation, dangerous, therefore: "No trespassing!" Not for some endangered species that have already found a new home there in the damp ground or on the exposed cliffs.
The Götzenburg in Jagsthausen, ancestral seat of the knight with the iron fist, greets us from the other side of the Jagst, a detour is necessary, or even better, the next castle festival, always in summer, of course with the "Götz" and with a children's play, will be booked quickly!
We say goodbye to the Jagst, which rises in the foothills of the Alb near Ellwangen and flows almost parallel to the Kocher through the Hohenlohe region, and climb up to the Stolzenhof and through fields and meadows across the plain back to the Kocher valley, not without looking back at Jagsthausen. In Sindringen, it is worth taking a look from the Kocher bridge downstream into the Kocher at the huge gravel banks and upstream at the weir.
In the summer months, after 4 hours of walking, there is nothing to stop you from taking a dip; you can easily swim 1 kilometer in the weir's reservoir area. Wild ducks, geese and the odd swan spend time in the deep water, while the rare species, kingfisher, dipper and goosander, prefer the fast-flowing areas of the Kocher that are less frequented by people. Cormorants, which have settled in the nearby nature reserve near Ohrnberg, migrate in flocks high in the sky up the valley towards Ernsbach.
In general, numerous animals can be observed in rural Hohenlohe: Roe deer, hares and, if you're lucky, wild boar.</p