http://www.kuriositas.com/2012/12/the-longest-tree-top-walk-in-world.html
The Longest Tree Top Walk in the World 

Friday, December 07, 2012

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a 
big surprise – a very big surprise! Nestled in the 
Bavarian forest just outside the small town of 
Neuschönau, the longest tree top walk is an 
unexpected but spectacular sight. It is as if 
the fantasy of a young child with perhaps too 
much imagination has suddenly come to life.

The statistics certainly stagger the imagination. 
The walk way is over 1300 meters long, and at its 
greatest height takes the visitor to over 25 meters 
above the trees. Yet what really captures the eye 
is the oval shaped dome at walk way’s end. At 44 
meters high it spirals around a massive pine tree, 
allowing for startling views of the canopy of this 
beautiful German forest and beyond to the Alps.

Perhaps it is not so much of a surprise to discover 
that the walk is situated in a portion of the biggest 
protected forest area not only in Germany but in 
Central Europe – the Bavarian Forest National Park. 
It became Germany’s first national park in 1970 and 
was expanded in the 1970s. It borders the Czech 
Republic’s Bohemian Forest.

It looks as if the tree top walk is only for the 
physically fit and steady of foot yet there are 
amenities to enable people of all abilities to visit 
and get up high among the trees. To begin with there 
is no need to climb at all – the start of the walk 
(Baumwipfelpfad in German) is accessed via a lift. As 
long as 1300 meters is not daunting, then neither 
is the walk. As you make your way the path slowly 
inclines and before you know it you are above the trees.

There were some concerns that the walk way might 
disturb or even destroy the local ecology. Although 
building the walk way necessitated some intrusion 
among the pines, its situation above the earth ensures 
the ground is never walked upon, so allowing the 
local flora and fauna to flourish.

For those with a little more ambition there are some 
‘adventure stations’ along the walk way. There you 
can balance on beams with the ground far below you 
(with a safety net of course!). While the kids (big 
and small) are playing there are learning stations 
spaced along the walkway with translations available 
in English and Czech. Besides it isn't as if there 
isn't plenty to look at while you wait. Ready to go large?

Yet the real treasure is at the end of the walk way. 
The egg shaped observation dome allows visitors to 
circle forever upwards, ascend a lazy spiral and, at 
its top, wonderful views of the national park, the 
untouched wilderness and the ocean of trees in the 
Bavarian and Bohemian forests.

All pictures (bar the Wikimedia one) by Flickr User Frank Hamm.