Archaeologists named a whole Neolithic culture after Egolzwil, a small village in the canton of Lucerne, because the settlements found in the Wauwiler Moos, a former lake turned into peat bog, revealed a way of life older than anything else known in the region at the time. Egolzwil 3, one of these sites, was a village of farmers who lived on the shore of a small lake over six thousand years ago, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake was drained in the nineteenth century to create farmland, and the remains were preserved in the wet peat.
Today the Wauwiler Moos is a flat expanse of fields and meadows, with drainage ditches, a few patches of reeds and wetland, and the small villages of Egolzwil, Wauwil and Schötz around its edge. Bird life is rich, especially in spring and autumn. The rolling hills of the Lucerne countryside rise around the plain, with farms, orchards and forests. Sursee, a pretty small town with a fine town hall, lies to the east, and Lake Sempach, a little further on, was the scene of the battle in 1386 in which the Swiss confederates defeated the Habsburgs.
The riding here is relaxed. The roads across the plain are flat and straight, but the hills around offer curves, and to the west, the Napf region has some of the twistiest small roads in Switzerland, climbing through steep valleys and over ridges with views of the Alps on clear days. The surface is excellent, as everywhere in Switzerland, and traffic is light on minor roads. Speed limits are strictly enforced, with heavy fines, so stay alert. Weather can be foggy in autumn and winter.
Sursee, about seven kilometres away, has a filling station and somewhere to eat, and Nebikon, closer by, also has services. Swiss food here means rösti, sausages, cheese and, in the Lucerne region, the Luzerner Chügelipastete, a puff pastry filled with veal and mushrooms. A stop at a farmhouse café for cake and coffee is a pleasant break. There is nothing to see of the Neolithic village itself, but standing on the edge of the old lake, you can imagine the smoke rising from the huts and the dugout canoes on the water.