Lost Place in the Odenwald: The Abandoned “Fischhäusl” Campsite
March 22, 2026, was one of those perfect spring days – bright sunshine and ideal riding weather. So I hopped on my bike and took a nice loop through the Odenwald. My destination: a spot I had been wanting to visit for a while – the former “Fischhäusl” campsite between Oberzent and Gammelsbach.
Once a lively place where families and seasonal campers spent their summers, it was closed at the end of 2021. Many caravan owners have since passed away or simply never came back to collect their trailers. What’s left are the caravans with all their original interiors still inside – some even surrounded by quirky wooden extensions and sheds. A real window into the past.
The site is tucked away a bit hidden at the edge of the forest. I had to spend quite a while searching on Google Earth before I finally pinpointed the exact location.
Once there, however, the sight is rather sobering.
Unfortunately, not much of the original atmosphere remains. Sure, I can totally understand that some teenagers might have thrown a party there at some point – that’s fair enough. But the mindless destruction that has taken place is beyond me. Why on earth does anyone feel the need to smash everything to pieces? It’s a real shame. It would have been so much more fascinating to see the caravans exactly as they were left behind. That way you could really get a sense of how people used to live there – with all their little everyday items and personal touches.
Still, it was an interesting photographic outing. All the shots were taken with my new Ricoh GR IV – and I’m genuinely impressed by this camera. Extremely compact, superbly built, and equipped with a excellent 26 megapixel APS-C sensor paired with a 28mm fixed lens (full-frame equivalent). The image quality is outstanding, and the image stabilization is so good that I was able to shoot handheld exposures of over one second – and the images still came out sharp!
Most of the interior shots were taken at ISO 1600, and the noise is remarkably well controlled – it’s practically invisible.
I developed all the black-and-white images from the RAW files using Nik Silver Efex. For many shots I adjusted contrast and exposure a little and added a subtle vignette here and there to create the desired mood. In my opinion, the images wouldn’t have had nearly the same impact in color – the raw, abandoned feeling simply comes across much more powerfully in black and white.
I’ve divided the galleries into three categories for you:
Exterior Views
Interior Views
Chaos
Enjoy browsing through them! And if you ever head there yourself: please leave everything exactly as you found it. Lost places live from what remains, not from what gets destroyed. Just follow the “Lost Place Code of Honor”: explore, photograph, don’t change anything – and leave nothing behind but your footprints.
Exterior Views
Interior Views
Chaos
