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.
BramTeunissen.com
Black Forest - Day 9 : No cycling
The lady from the campsite asked if we had been cold and wanted blankets for next night. That was sweet, but for now we would be ok without them. It had been raining all night and continued to do so in the morning. This day we started the 'breakfast in the tent' routine were we planned everything the night before so that we could stay in the tent as long as possible. Unfortunately, tent wasn't pitched right and had started leaking. Because of the heavy storm the water dripped in quickly and puddles started to form on Bram's mattress. We used our 'friends of nature' mugs to catch as much water as possible.
An impression of the mess in the tent and the puddles of water on Bram's mattress.
The mugs came in handy to catch water.
I was fortunate my side of the tent wasn't leaking. Fortunately, Bram had a water resistant sleeping bag, so he could avoid some of the wetness. We wanted to wash our clothes, but everything was too wet for them to dry except a public room at the campsite. However, if we left our tent we might come back to a large puddle of water.
When the weather cleared up we went for a walk in the forest. There was a signed route with all sorts of assignments and information about the area. One of the assignment was to estimate the height of a tree. Bram thought 35 meters, me 45. Fortunately the right answer was 40 meters, otherwise one of us would be more right. Further along was a big ant hill. The sun was shining and it was swarming with ants. Bram thought it was very interesting and wanted to have an ant walk over his hands. I thought they were red ants, but Bram disagreed. It turned out not to be red ones. Nonetheless, Bram was surprised when the ant suddenly raised his head, spread its jaws, and bit his hand. Bram suddenly got very fast. We also tried to make a match from tree resin and a stick, but it was too wet to burn properly. When we were almost back at the campsite I felt something biting my neck. It turned out to be an ant hitching along. Back on the campsite we decided to gather nettles to make tea. We had to walk for 2 kilometers to find good plants. Back on the campsite we made the tea in the pouring rain. I poured some in my mugs and tasted it. Meanwhile Bram threw the leaves on the ground. I didn't think the tea was strong enough so Bram picked the leafs from the ground and put them pack in the pan. The people across from us looked very confused.
Because the sun had come out we also quickly washed our clothes. It took awhile to figure out how the washing machine worked. After it finished we tried to open the door, which didn't work. We then started another program hoping it would open automatically afterwards. Fortunately, that was the case. Bram thought the clothes were still too wet, so he wanted to centrifuge again. Of course the weather got worse and this time the door didn't open after centrifuging. After a lot of trying I learned that if we pressed two buttons at once the door opened, at least we thought this was how it worked. We put in my socks which hadn't fit the first time and started it again.
Meanwhile we were invited by our neighbors to sit in their party tent and be dry. They were cycling people, but more car-cycling-people, people who go cycling somewhere by car. The man told us he once went 108 km/h on his bike, which made Bram jealous. Back at the socks the door didn't open again. The washing machine really didn't make sense.
Dinner was again potatoes, this time with peas and beans. Those came in a can. My pocket knife had a can opener, but it didn't work because it was blunt. Bram kept hitting the knife with a rock until the can had a tear big enough for the carrots to come out. My cheap pocket knife was ready for the garbage after that but at least we had something to eat. We stayed in the tv room for a while before going to bed.
Distance cycled : 0 km