Today we walked from Bad Bellingen (sung to the tune of Bad Medicine) to Efringen-Kirchen.

On our way, we walked round the Bad Bellingen ‘barfußpark’. Apparently, Germany has a few barefoot parks but it’s not alone. It looks like the UK is representing too with one in Stoke-on-Trent.

The idea of the parks is that you walk on loads of different surfaces to stimulate different areas of your feet. It’s supposed to work a bit like reflexology.

diagram outside the park showing which bits of the feet you can poke to get reactions in different parts of the body

It’s also meant to be a good way to encourage people to get some exercise.

The one in Bad Bellingen was free and looked like it was loads of fun so we left our boots behind and gave it a go.

our walking boots on wooden shelves in front of some trees

It started off innocently enough.

roz's feet on small woodchips

a path changing from logs to big stones to logs then big stones again

roz's foot at the beginning of a series of concrete logs

roz's foot balancing on a log

But that was the calm before the storm.

This one was very undignified.

a series of big wooden discs each sitting on a solitary red spring

All attempts to stay upright resulted in looking like a 90s raver being electrocuted.

roz's foot on the first of a series of treacherous wooden discs on red springs

This was sweet relief.

roz's foot half-submerged in small round stones

This was hard.

a barrel made of thin planks of wood suspended between a blue metal frame

This was not fun.

a path made up of lots of pointy stones

But overall it was excellent. And nice to feel the ground while we were walking for a change. When it was over, it felt like our feet and bodies were much happier with us.

triumphant tom at the end

Such a good idea.