Bambesch hides many magical places in the thick of its forest, but none so powerful as the old spirit tree.
Legend has it that in the past century a local man with little scruples decided to cut down large swathes of the forest for selling its wood to the then rapidly developing paper industry. As he was surveying the first harvest area on a particularly dark winter evening, a fierce snow storm surged and he disappeared without leaving a trace. Lacking an investor, the logging project stopped on its tracks, and the woods slowly returned to their peaceful state.
Several decades later a forest guard going about his duties uncovered a gold watch bearing the industrial's initials in the middle of the area, where young beeches, hazels, oaks and saplings had started to re-grow.
As the years went by, the forest guard frequently returned to the spot, to observe a strange phenomenon : in the spot where the watch had been found, a large tree was now growing healthily. Healthily that is, if it wasn't for a branch at a height of about 2 meters which had stopped off its growth and was now protruding conspicuously from the trunk, like a rather large bunion.
The forrester has now retired, but you can still meet him down in cafe Bambesch, and if you care to sit at his table and buy him a drink he will be happy to tell you his own opinion about the face that you can now clearly see, indelebly imprinted as it is in the trunk of the old spirit tree.
For the rest, I leave it up to you, if you wish to come and see for yourself, and forge your own opinion...