Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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Black Forest - Day 3 : From Freilingen to somewhere near Kappel
Well rested, we left the tent and started breakfast. The campsite had a small store where we got fresh bread. Today we needed to cycle a long way through the mountains. We directly need to go uphill, which isn't the nicest thing to start the day with. Afterward, we mainly went downhill over nice and remote cycling paths. The small roads were a detour compared to the larger ones, but definitely worth it. It was really hilly again, and I broke my speed record: 62.5 km/h.
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Later we arrived at the Moezel, a big river in Germany. We had a beautiful descent towards Cochem. It was on a wide road with gentle turns that didn't require breaking and was around 10 km long. Unfortunately, we weren't supposed to get to Cochem at all but had taken a wrong exit. Yes, exit. There are so few cycling paths in Germany that you either have to ride over super small back roads or take the semi-highways with cars racing by at 70 km/h. Which type of route we picked simply depended on what was shorter. At the Moselle river were suddenly loads of cycling-holiday-people, but they were all fake. Most of them only cycled downstream and seemed to have taken the car there. After our descent, we of course had to directly start climbing again.
Here you can nicely see the other side of the Moselle. There it was just as steep as on our side. The road you can see behind my back is only one turn away.
Bram with his fully packed bike, it was tough cycling for both of us.
A small tractor overtook us right before the summit, but we passed in the descent. It was getting time for dinner. On a small dirt road, we prepared our pasta, which, unfortunately, was still frozen, so everything got burned and mushy. It still tasted well, although the inside was made of cheap fake meat.
The Moselle area had plenty of campsites, 30 km later, there were none. The next one was still 50 km away, so it would be difficult to reach as we had already cycled 90 km today, and it was getting late. We decided just to follow the route and hope to find a campsite that wasn't on the map. After asking around, it became clear there really weren't any.
That was why it became time for a mission. Mission 1: get water. We didn't have any water left and needed to get through the night and tomorrow's mountains. We only passed through a few more villages, which were all deserted. We did find a small bar and decided to enter with our water bottles in our jackets. Then we would order a drink and take turns going to the bathroom to fill them, or so we planned. It turned out a bit different. We entered, but nothing was happening there. The man behind the bar wasn't the owner but just cleaning. It took quite some effort from his side to make clear they were closed and from us to make clear we just wanted to fill our water bottles. That was OK. Bram also carried a backpack that could hold a liter of water, but we decided not to confuse the man even more.
The man also told us there was a small temporal campsite at a nearby festival. I wanted to go, but Bram thought there would be too much noise. It also was 8 km in the wrong direction. It turned out to be a good idea not to go. We later heard the music from 8 km away, and it lasted until 4:00 at night and started again at 7:00. It was impossible to find an actual campsite, so we rode into a small dirt road and pitched our tent in a sheltered place in the forest. It wasn't really a road because everything was completely overgrown. Still, I could tell someone had driven through it recently. Bram thought no one ever came there and said I watched too much 'Ray Mears extreme survival'.
It rained more at night. We ate part of our emergency ration, a couple of Isostar bars. My sleeping bag got wet at the foot end, so I needed to sleep on top of it to prevent myself from getting completely soaked. I heard the hammering music until late at night until we both fell asleep.
Cochem was a lovely touristic town with a very nice descent. That was also our first real descent, where we could go
50 km/h for a long time. Today's last 3 km are not on the map, you can view those on the map of day 4.
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Distance cycled : 106 km.