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 5 : Roskopf
The night again lasted forever. Around 8:00 it was finally light enough to get out. It was -3 degrees. The bottom of Bart's jeans had gotten wet and was frozen solid. After bending it in the right shape he could wear them. I had a different problem, my shoes were frozen. While I started bending my shoes in shape Bart tried turning on the stove. It didn't work likely because of the cold. We tried making soup using our Esbit blocks, but because of the high wind it took half a package of matches to light them. Later we took a wrong turn because the road we were on wasn't on our map, but we eventually found the right way. We saw lots more people than before, likely because the terrain was flat and there wasn't any snow. One lady got scared when she turned around and saw us. We were not sure why, definitely not because we were walking around in camo-pants on Christmas day.
The landscape became flat again and there was no snow
We passed a playground with a wooden hut and a fountain. It would have been nice if those would also have been present in the forest. At least we could refill our water bottles and make some warm meal. Bart suggested cooking the granola into a warm porridge. Lighting my stove requires first pressurising its petrol tank. Because of the low temperatures we had to pump a lot to get any kind of flame. Just when we finally managed to light it the pressure became too high, so fuel started leaking out of the overpressure valve. Now the stove was ablaze in the middle of the playground. Fortunately it went out by itself and it worked fine from then on. The porridge was ready soon after and smelled quite good, before it got burned. I still liked it, but also was pretty hungry. Bart nearly threw up and said he wouldn't eat it no matter how hungry he was.
We returned to the forest. Many trees had been blown over during the night and we were happy we hadn't camped there. It was only 5 more kilometers to Freiburg where we planned to catch a train back home. I was out of food and had blisters. Bart's feet were in better shape but he had been cold most of the time and hadn't slept or eaten well. We didn't mind that the hike was almost over.
Nonetheless we took a 1,6 km detour to visit a view tower. Walking one and a half kilometer didn't seem like much, but we soon discovered the tower was also 400 meters higher. We walked up the steep path while mountain bikers cycled downhill. They were wearing a kind of armour with shin guards and another plate in front of their chest. To our great surprise one of them was a girl. So there is still hope.
The view tower on top of the Roskopf was pretty high, at least 20 meters. It was cold on top but we had a nice view during sunset.
View from the Roskopf
Freiburg
Because of our detour it was still a 5 km walk to Freiburg. We planned to get as close as possible before it got dark. After a few kilometers we searched for a well-hidden spot to sleep, because there were many people walking in the area. It again was a long, cold night. There was a badger or something similar walking around our tents. A while later we heard a wild boar roaring loudly. Even later a deer ran passed us only a few meters away. Luckily it didn't step on us.
