From Putbus you can reach the district of Lauterbach after a 2-kilometer hike. Shortly before the port, near the Lauterbach train station, on the railway tracks in the direction of Putbus, there is the Neolithic megalithic tomb „Dolmen“, which you can visit after a walk of 350 meters in a wooded area. The dolmen (Celtic = stone table) is said to have been built as a burial chamber from erratic boulders about 4000 years ago.
The chamber was covered with stone slabs and served as a burial place for village communities. Back in the port of Lauterbach you can see the island of Vilm in the immediate vicinity, which is a valuable part of the landscape of the Greifswalder Bodden and is a nature reserve with its entire area of a good one square kilometer.
Our tour continues towards the southwest. Neuendorf seamlessly adjoins the district of Lauterbach in a picturesque fishing village idyll. At the beginning of Neuendorf, after a few new buildings, you will see a stately captain’s house painted white on the right-hand side of the street. In front of the hill, further in the village, stands the old schoolhouse. In 1932, children from the surrounding area still went to school in the flat brick building. Up to the protected willow tree avenue on Neuendorfer Strand you will also see many pretty thatched fishermen’s and farmhouses (Lauterbach – Neuendorfer Strand: 1.7 km).
Understandably, fishermen used to live in the next village near the coast. Neukamp is a 2.4 km walk through the Neuendorfer Tannen, along the Wreecher beach and over the bridge at the Wreecher See. The Wreecher See, which is connected to the Rügisches Bodden, is a nature reserve in its full size of 77 hectares, including the reed belt, and belongs as a breeding biotope to the Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve.
Neukamp consists of 2 streets that are far apart and until the turn of the century could only be reached by ferry from Wreechen. In front of the Hotel Nautilus, choose the turnoff to the right and walk/cycle approx. 1.2 km on the flagstone path to the next turnoff. Keep left here and after another 800 m you will reach a monument on a hill, which commemorates the September 1678 landing under the leadership of the Great Elector. The following inscription on the shaft of the column reminds us: „Friedrich-Wilhelm, the Great Elector, landed here on September 13, 1678 and, in alliance with Christian V, King of Denmark, triumphed over the Swedes.“ The monument was created by Wilhelm Stürmer from Berlin in 1854 .
Now walk back along the Plattenweg to the turn-off, then keep to the left in a north-westerly direction and after another 3 km you will reach the village of Altkamp. A good 1 km before Altkamp, near the junction to the bathing beach, on the so-called Temple Mountain (20 m high), surrounded by bushes, is the large stone grave „Teetsbusch“. Similar to the megalithic tomb „Hexenbusch“, it dates from the Neolithic period. At that time it was customary to build graves with huge stone packings for the deceased.
Anyone expecting a typical Rügen village after this hike needs to be consoled. Because Altkamp, which is said to be older than Neukamp by name, is now a collection of individual, scattered farmsteads. It is said to have used to be an Angerdorf, which has always been inhabited by farmers since it was first mentioned in a document in 1306. Continue hiking north-west through the village. At the very end of the village you will reach an orchard with a café, the house „Im Apfelhain“, where you can take a well-deserved break (café open daily from 2 p.m.).
You have two options for the way back: either take the same way back to Lauterbach that you came. Or you can hike along the paved road from Altkamp for a good 3.3 km via Krakvitz to Kasnevitz. In the hamlet of Kasnevitz (Slav. karsenevice as a personal name), which has been expanding since the 18th century, there is the late Gothic church of St. Jacob from the second half of the 14th century, whose tower extension dates from the 19th century. The valuable pieces of equipment include the former pulpit altar, which was made by Johann Artmer in 1746, the baptismal font (around 1860), the organ (1902) by Barnim Grüneberg from Stettin and the two galleries from the 18th century.
We leave the village on the cycle path built in the early 1990s, which begins after 800 m in the middle of the village, past the school, which is no longer used as such, the blocks of flats and the newer single-family houses. Our destination and starting point is still hidden behind the huge trees of the Gremmin Forest. But after a few strong steps we have managed the 15 km long march and end up back in Putbus.
