Black Forest - Day 6 : From the campsite to Teufelsmühle and back

Finally we had a day off after all those hard days of cycling. First we registered at the campsite, with a guy who was pretty grumpy. Later we had breakfast and bought shower tokens. Then we went to the nearest village to buy food and postcards to send home. Bram bought a completely black card saying "Black Forest by night".

 

At the Penny store we bought a lot of food, because we were very hungry. Everything seemed tasty. We got a frozen plum pie, a watermelon, 2 breads, a few liters of juice, and other things. We wanted to sit in the park to eat the pie, then go to the campsite to eat the watermelons, and then have the potatoes for dinner.
 

It turned out a bit different. The plum pie had to defrost for 5 hours, so we couldn't eat it yet. We didn't had anything else for lunch that we could eat without cooking. Therefore we went to the local baker to buy some fancy buns for the ride back. We bought so much we couldn't carry it all. I had to go back to the store just to buy a plastic bag. It took the women in the store 10 seconds to figure out that was all I needed. It was 9 cents. 

When we arrived at the campsite we started eating the melon while defrosting the pie in the sun. We also took out our towels so they could dry. While eating, which took quite some time, we analyzed the other visitors. There was one guy walking around with a huge smile and his pants pulled up high. He also walked as if he needed to go to the bathroom badly and needed to... well you figure it out. There also was a guy whose wife was clearly in it for the money. A bit later they were reading a book, together. We ate the entire melon, even though it weighted 4,5 kg. Then it was time for the plum pie, which was an anticlimax after looking forward to it for 5 hours. I ate enough to notice its effect though..

 

The sun was shining the entire day and we didn't have anything to do. We decided to cycle a little. Without luggage this time. We would ride to a look out point a few kilometers away. It was 500 higher than the campsite. Cycling without luggage was a strange experience. You could just start and cycle 20 km/h right away, without needing to accelerate for a while first. Steering was tricky. With luggage we need to really push our handlebars to change direction. It took 2 km before I wasn't swaying all across the street.

First we needed to climb, then we descended again before climbing to Teufelsmühle, which was 890 meters high. It was very steep and even without luggage we didn't go up fast. There were people with brand new mountain bikes, but they had driven up  by car and only went down hill. After climbing for 6 km we arrived at the summit. The last part was really steep, it might have been 20%. On top you could parasail and there was a lookout tower. There was also a great view over the Black Forest, you could clearly see where it ended because the landscape suddenly became flat. The tower was about 30 meter high. When walking down the stairs we got a weird pudding feeling in our legs and knees because of all the cycling.
 

The descent that followed was the hardest thus far. The road wasn't very wide and could barely fit two cars. It was very steep as well, within a few seconds we reached more than 40 km/h. We had to break hard for the first corner, as there were no railings and a steep drop. The corners were all razor sharp, but I still reached 68.2 km/h. After a while I started braking just in case, which was a good thing because there was an unexpected turn which I only barely made. When you go that fast it takes quite a while to decelerate. I approached the last turn way too fast. I could have braked as hard as possible, but then I would likely have fallen. Instead I decided to just drive straight into the grass. When I turned around to look for Bram I saw there was another cyclist who probably was surprised to see me fly by.

Back at the campsite we had dinner which included an entire liter of pudding. We baked potatoes and burned the cooking pan. It took 15 minutes of scrubbing to clean it. In the evening we went to the village to drink some beer. The next morning we planned to cycle a big loop through the Black Forest.

​

Distance cycled : 20 km