The Wild Hunt (part 2): The Aftermath of the Ghostly Night

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When I was a kid, I used to dream of life full of mystery and adventure. I had a quite a bit of an imagination back then and used to love horror and fantasy novels. However, I remember often feeling so disappointed when my actual life never really seemed to match with my imaginative mind. Coming to a grown-age now, I still have that same hunger and passion to experience exciting, adventurous and even mysterious things in life. And this, to my mind, is the best reason for traveling, because traveling can open up so many new lanes in life to unimaginable things, to a world that you never even knew was out there!

Early in the next morning, after the ghost hunt.

We were a group of three: Andy, Aahnix and me. It all started up as my crazy-funny idea to explore a haunted place in Germany, most likely somewhere here in Lower-Saxony, since the transportation is free for us with the student ID. After dismissing an option at the Kirchlengern forest, we ended up choosing the Karlsteine in Osnabrück, since it was listed as one of the most haunted places in Germany and there were reports of haunted activity and other paranormal phenomena at the megalithic structure.

Andy was the first to join our group of hunters. Andy is from Canada and since he studies forestry and is an experienced "woodsman", I asked him first, if he had an interest for a trip like this. Happily, the answer was a categorical yes.

The second hunter for our team was Aahnix from the USA. I knew Aahnix's brave American fortitude, so I asked him too. He agreed to join us as well and made a great addition to our squad with his fearless mind and certified fire making skills.

We asked a few other people to join us as well, but despite stirring up their interests, they couldn't match their schedules with our hunting plans however. So we were cut down to three, which in the end probably was the best for the type of small forest area around the Karlsteine we were about to explore.

The ghost group from left to right: Me, Aahnix and Andy. Behind us is the short road to Karlsteine.

Aahnix also told that he had been staring at this sticker all semester. It was definitely a fate for him to leave to Osnabrück with us for a ghost hunt.

We left on a Friday evening around 5 PM and took a regional train first to Hanover, where we needed to switch. However, problems were awaiting us at the very doorstep: the train did not start off at first for some reason (ghosts?). There was an announcement that an unknown problem has occurred and that they are fixing it without giving any estimated timetable for the repair. "Isn't this just ironic", I thought to myself. Luckily, after a few minutes the train was able to move again and we were up and running towards our intermediate destiny in Hanover.

We stopped by in Hanover, grabbed some foodstuffs and went to our next train that would take us to Osnabrück. I probably ate the worst salad in my life (with onions and mushrooms), but at least I ate something healthy. We finally got off at the Osnabrück Altstadt train station and the weather was the most beautiful with peculiar clouds, a prismatic sunset and a remnant of a rainbow overhead.

A very beautiful and mysterious evening sky was awaiting for us at Osnabrück Altstadt. We were so amazed by the small Regenbogen (rainbow) on the left and the strange cloud forms that we almost forgot to leave the train at our stop!

There was still a one hour walk to Karlsteine from our spot, so with our luggage we thought it would be the best to take a bus. To our luck and surprise, we were able to hop into the bus free of charge with our student cards, which actually shouldn't be possible anywhere else than in Göttingen (correct me if I'm wrong). Regardless of whether we managed to fool the bus driver or not, we arrived smoothly to the bus station just a few minutes away from Karlsteine anymore.

Karlsteine. The first look at this megalithic structure. A loving young couple (I assume) just left as we arrived there, but they were really the only people we encountered during the whole hunt.

So we settled down by the rocks before 22 PM and started to explore the surroundings a bit while the sun was still up in the horizon. We found some German countryside with fences and creepy houses that seemed occupied but were silent as a night. It was hard to figure out who would really want to live in such a peculiar places. Probably poor farmers.

The Ghost Village. The rural area around the Karlsteine was spooky and silent as a graveyard. It was like nobody really wanted to spend a night anywhere near the haunted forest.

The darkness of the night began to quickly descend after 22 PM. We gathered some firewood and started making a campfire just next to the Charlemagne's stones. That's when I went to take a leak into the deep dark forest, until...

Feuer gemacht! Sometimes all you need is a string and a bow to make a campfire. And that's exactly what we did it. True story.

So, there I was all alone in the dark wilderness with a flashlight as my only friend and doing my business next to this large oak tree, maybe 50 meters away from the camp. I spend maybe a few minutes walking around looking for ghosts, but never losing my eyes on the campfire. Finally, when I had enough and started walking back to the guys, I noticed that something was different. They were not there by the campfire anymore!

"Aahnix?", "Andy?" No answer. My cries echoed only through the deaf ears of the forest.

"We're the hell would they go?", I questioned the situation at hand by myself.

In hell they certainly would go, if they kept playing with me like this. And so it quickly turned out that they we're both hiding underneath the rock. Even though their hiding attempts didn't really surprise me, it made me feel a tiny bit of fear. If I didn't find them hiding underneath the stone structure, that might have made the situation a lot more scarier. But those scary moments were yet to come when we approached the midnight and beyond...

Warming up by the fire. Making an open fire in Germany like this is actually illegal, but luckily we did not get punished neither by the Polizei or Charlemagne's ghost army.

At 11 PM I left together with Aahnix to explore one side of the forest. Right next to the forest there is both the highway and a railroad, so you would constantly hear traffic noises which is a little disturbance. The screeching noise coming from the railway each time a train passed by resembled a lot like real howling noise. We could also hear some dogs howling and barking on the other side of the highway.

There was one quirky moment however, when we heard a howling noise that didn't really resemble a screeching rail nor a dog. The sound was captured on the video below and remained as one of the most ghostly sounds we heard during the dark. However, we deciphered that they all came from the railways. You can hear the sounds from this video and decide for yourself what you want to believe:

Right during the midnight 12 PM, I went to explore another side of the forest this time with Andy, while Aahnix stood by the campfire. We got spooked by a bird that noisily flew off one of the nearby trees and laughed about it. After this however, we found some strange glitter marks from few of the trees. Andy, who studies forestry and has experienced knowledge on trees, said that he had no clue what it might be. The glitter remained to us as a mystery unsolved.

Ghost's ectoplasm? The glitter honestly looked like something that was growing out of the tree rather than something that was stuck down to it from the outside. We found these marks on multiple trees on the way and had no explanation for this strange phenomena.

After this, there was a moment during 1 AM when I left to examine the forest and the nearby areas all by myself. I have to tell that these moments were the most bone-chilling experiences I've ever had and they really got my imagination flow. Many times I honestly felt scared and almost freaked myself out a couple times.

Kreuz im Hone. A memorial landmark just the other side of the road about 100 meters away from the camp.

I walked already about 350 meters away from the camp at Osnabrücker Street and stopped at the crossroads of Im Quellengrund. Suddenly, I heard some small and quick foot steps just nearby the asphalt road that lead to Im Quellengrund. I immediately turned my flashlight on but couldn't see anything on the ground. It gave me huge goosebumps. I had no idea what it was, but I thought it was some small animal like a mouse.

The bus station we jumped out when we came. The streetlight was strangely blinking behind it like in a real horror movie. It gave me some chills.

Finally, we went to sleep around 3 AM. Aahnix had a tent for himself while Andy and I slept under the open sky. We thought the party was over but it certainly wasn't. Right after we put our eyes closed, I heard some rustles from the woods. Someone was walking there!

I immediately stood up and woke up Andy by whispering: "Can you hear that? Someone is there." He confirmed he was hearing the same. Aahnix on the other hand was already fast asleep in his tent and couldn't hear a thing.

The steps continued and sounded like they were rushing a bit closer this time. We stood up again with Andy but couldn't see anything. Unfortunately, we didn't have any strong flashlights to scan the horizon. Neither did we have any strength left to explore the direction of the sound any closer.

So we went back to sleep. No rustles were heard from the woods again during that night. But that night I only slept with a one eye closed...

I slept maybe for an hour or so until I got cold and started warming up by the embers of the campfire. The sun had also started rising already. I went for a walk through the countryside, when it became bright enough to not need a flashlight anymore. I captured some memories of the eerie beauty that morning...

During my early morning walk between 4-5 PM, I might have found the answer for the footsteps we heard in the woods at night. I spotted a small deer just nearby the farms. Most likely the rustles were caused by this exact animal. In the morning Andy also told me that the footsteps sounded like something bigger than a mouse or a cat but smaller than a human. The deer I saw at the farm fitted perfectly for this description.

So in conclusion, we can state that we encountered no ghosts in the forest during this excursion. However, this was only a single night and a single experience. Besides, the Wild Hunt is rumored to only appear during the summer and winter solstices. So nothing can be said with complete certainty, but for now the myth is busted.

Nevertheless, it was a hell of good experience and I'm looking forward to another possibly similar hunting trip again in the near future. Yet, I hope you had fun reading this as much as I had fun making this.

And as always, take care and happy hunting!