The edge of a biosphere reserve is not a line on the ground, it is a change in mood. Somewhere around here the farmland of western Mecklenburg stops being merely quiet and starts being protected, and you notice it in small ways: hedgerows left wild, meadows cut late, ponds with frogs in them, and the sight of cranes stalking across a stubble field as if they owned it. Which, for part of the year, they do.
The land was shaped by the last ice age, which dropped a ridge of rubble, the terminal moraine, across the region and left behind a basin that became the Schaalsee. The soil around it is a rich mix of clay and gravel, and the pattern of low, rounded hills and hollows runs for kilometres. The lake lies just out of sight to the west, and the road traces a looping course around the farmland to the east, dipping into villages with brick churches and thatched barns, then out again into wide fields.
The road itself is one of the pleasures of this part of Mecklenburg. Many of the country roads here are lined with old avenue trees, mostly lime, oak and maple, planted generations ago, and riding down one on a bright day is like riding down a long green corridor with the sun strobing through. The tarmac is patchy, some of it narrow and with broken edges, so it rewards a measured pace, and in damp weather the shade holds moisture on the bends. In autumn, when leaves lie on the road, extra care pays off.
Birdwatching is the main reason people linger. In October and November cranes gather in the evening in large numbers before roosting, and the sound of their calling carries over the fields. White-tailed eagles hunt over the lake, and on a clear winter morning with frost on the grass a rider might see two or three in the sky. Bring binoculars if you have room in the luggage.
There is nothing in the way of fuel or shops at the road edge itself. Zarrentin, six kilometres off, has a few small shops and a place for a coffee, and Wittenburg, about eleven kilometres, has the proper supermarkets and petrol stations. Carry water, and keep to the roads that look as though people use them.