Yesterday’s plan was to arrive at Winterberg – it was at the end of this particular stretch I’m doing and the distance seemed doable, despite all the uphill being at the end. The previous night I’d had a rubbish sleep though – I was really cold in the tent and didn’t get a decent sleep – another good reason to get to Winterberg – there were at least 2 hostels and a nice cosy bed would be nice. But neither my head or legs were game for it and I wasn’t convinced I would get there and I didn’t – and apart from the cosy bed at the end that wasn’t a bad thing in the end.

Beautiful, if chilly, day from the start. This section wasn’t so well signposted so a bit more route checking required but nothing major. Route was much more varied – lots of nice countryside, wee villages, bigger towns and some industrial areas. The route was a bit more undulating as well but the only hard bits were a couple of wee bridges with sudden sharp inclines that took me by surprise and I had to push the bike up.

Today was a stop start kind of day – either to nibble on food and / or take photos.

I wasn’t sure if this church in Frondenberg felt that cyclists needed more help or not but there was certainly a cycling theme to their signage.

One of the nicest sections was a wee bit of trail in the trees with the river to one side and a busy road hidden away on the other.

Abandoned Bertie in the old part of Arnsbergs and went for a wee wander and got a bit trigger happy with the camera but it was so nice it was difficult not to.

There was a nice stretch round about a place called Oeventrop, where I watched some gliders taking off – they weren’t being towed by a plane but were using the bungee method to be launched – Peter if you are reading this you might have a better technical explanation of this. And there was some lovely art work along the route – some cycling related, some planetary and a fence with lots of lovely painted chairs hanging from it.

When I decided to jack it in for the day there was a 9 mile detour to the nearest campsite – I thought about pitching up next to the 2 campervans parked for the night – campervan owners didn’t mind but technically I was breaking the rules so I thought I’d better move on. I cycled passed a lovely big lake to get to the campsite at Hennesee but despite being on the doorstep of the lake you couldn’t actually see it from the campsite – the bit for the tents was a bit of an afterthought I think – bit of space they had left over but the showers were good.

So it had rained a wee bit overnight and there was frozen raindrops on the tent. I wasn’t just so cold last night though thanks to wrapping my feet in my duvet jacket and then getting into my sleeping bag. Left not long after 8am ONLY 30k to get to Winterberg and hopefully into a nice warm hostel – only 30k but took a heck of a long time. 3° and grey but dry when I left the campsite and route going well – I didn’t back track to the route I was originally on to save time – but then new route took me on a nice quiet road, which was good because for a short section the traffic had got a bit busy, but then road turn into a forestry commission type track but easy uphill riding to the highest point, despite obvious signs of tree felling but down the other side was a different kettle of fish – more pot holed and bumpy and stuff that I’m not very comfortable on but we weren’t doing to bad – and then you start to tell where the forestry vehicles had been in and out- lumpy, bumpy and very muddy – and the rain started – a very slow descent to meet tarmac again and a very wet and mucky Bertie and me finally arrive at the hostel.