Month: April 2023

Two mornings ago I should have left the hostel sooner. I didn’t have tent or sleeping bag to pack but it was a right pea souper and not very appealing. Finally got going though – needed the lights on and glad of my high vis jacket but for large parts of the day saw hardly any traffic. Despite mist for most of the morning and the forecast of rain it stayed dry until about 5pm. Some tough hills especially early on and at times I did question my sanity and wonder why I wasn’t having a more “normal” holiday and be lying on a beach somewhere – a nice sweepy downhill soon put those daft ideas out of mind though. Not really a day for photos but liked these signs – didn’t see any tanks though.

And saw these Alpacas in someone’s back garden.

Camped at a wee campsite in a village called Knickhagen. Cheapest campsite so far and no extra for showers. Showers clean but old – cracked tiles, silicone holding things together, rusty pipes and a shower rose that is so badly positioned you could only shower part of you at a time – but looks can be deceptive and had a cracking roasty toasty shower.

Rain heavy now and didn’t fancy being cramped in my tent with a meal of bread and cheese so treated myself to a really good value meal at the campsite restaurant. If I had gone back to the tent earlier though I would have realised that muppet brain had forgotten to put a peg in and the outer and inner had made contact and my sleeping bag had got a wee bit damp – luckily it was a milder night and sleeping bag not too damp and got a good sleep.

Packed a very damp tent in the morning and noticed I’ve got a hole in the groundsheet – that will need fixed when everything is dried out later. Last night I’d made contact with Rainer, a “Warm Showers” host and I had a place to stay in Gottingen – plan was to cycle to Rainer’s house and drop my stuff off and then have a wander around Gottingen.

Before I got there though I passed through Hann Munden and had to stop and go for a wander – loved all the buildings – and lack of photos yesterday was soon made up for.

Bugger of an uphill not long after I left Hann Munden but easy cycling after that. Rainer had messaged to say that there was a “wee” hill near his house – that made me smile and I assumed that Rainer had spent some time in Scotland.

Rainer was lovely and welcomed me to his home. We chatted and had lunch – turns out that Rainer had lived in Ireland for a number of years, had stayed in Glasgow for a few weeks and his partner is from England. After lunch I cycled the mile or so into Gottingen – it’s a student city and there are bicycles everywhere – I left Bertie outside the tourist office – don’t think I would have chanced leaving him at the train station – don’t think I would have found him again – this is just some of the bikes.

A nice wee wander around the old walls and some of the botanic gardens and the sun came out so I felt obliged to have an ice cream.

Wee panic when I went back to find Bertie – not quite where I thought I’d left him but not too far away.

Back at Rainer’s I met his wife and 2 of his children and was treated to a lovely meal and Rainer gave me good advice on what route to take when i set off in the morning.

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.

So this is the route I’ve been following for the last couple of days – but in reverse – possibly I might reach Winterberg tomorrow but time will tell. I started south of the official start point and joined in about Kettwig – nice easy cycling – very few navigation problems – couple of detours to campsites and one to take pictures of my wee sister’s works German head quarters in Witten. Lots of bird life, 3 baby coos today, one noisy dark coloured squirrel and lots of stables and horse riding.

https://www.ruhrtalradweg.de/de/der-ruhrtalradweg

Some of the pics were taken on way to join main route. Seen lots of cyclists but not seen any other tourers yet. If you’ve not seen my route click on “Where am I now” and you’ll see where I’ve got to so far.

I’m loving these signs on the route.

Camping near Bochum, Germany. Only tent again. Was about to pitch tent but campsite owner let me sleep in the wee communal shelter instead. Some very heavy rain over night so glad not to have to pack away a damp tent again.

Discovered that my sleeping bag is leaking “down” – found the hole – wonder if there has always been a fault as there looks as if there has been a tear melted shut – I did get it for a very reduced price in the sales 6 years ago. Hole now hopefully fixed with spinnaker tape.

Meant to be heavy rain again but sun is out just now so about to load up Bertie and head off.

Had hoped to put more on here but haven’t had much chance to get laptop out and keeping it charged has become a nuisance and doing blog isn’t as easy on the phone – somewhere on here I have 3 drafts but how to get them is a mystery to me. But 2 weeks in and a lot of miles I am in Meerbusch in Germany.

So far, including, the one from England me and Bertie bike have been on 3 ferries.

Weather has been mixed but except for a couple of days mostly good during the day – nights have varied from cold to blooming freezing.

I’ve had 7 nights in campsites, 2 nights wild camping, 2 nights in a “Welcome to my Garden” and last night I stayed with Peter and Alice and had a bed and Alice’s fantastic home made quiche for dinner.

Anthony, whose garden I camped in, was amazing – ended up staying 2 nights there due to damaging my phone and needing it repaired. Anthony fixed my pannier rack – his eagle eyes spotted that a bolt was missing. He also supplied me with an extra, much needed, sleeping bag for the 2nd night.

Don’t normally use guy ropes on my tent but used them the other night to tie the tent to bike as a sort of safety measure – I’d stupidly left my lock at a previous campsite and by the time I realised it was too far to go back for it – I now have a new padlock.

Peter and Alice have helped plan my route for the next few days – it’s great to get some local knowledge and advice and much much appreciated.

So here’s a random mix of photos from the last 2 weeks.