The humans did not sleep so well last night. It was warm and muggy in the room despite having the windows open!
They both were up early though and off to breakfast by 07:30 hrs. After breakfast our BBF took his bike battery and one pannier to the bike garage! The door they used last night was shut and had a funny contraption on it. This did not deter him he opened the door and set a siren off!! On the way back a man gave him a bit of a talking too! He apologised profusely, but inwardly shrugged his shoulders, mission accomplished!
Michael from the Dortmund branch came to see them off. Farewells said and more photos taken we were off.
Getting out of Dortmund was not nice. We were dicing with rush hour traffic! The noise and the heat radiating from the trunks has to be felt to be believed!
When Chris saw an ADAC office we stopped for him to buy some maps. We all were relieved when we had left the city behind us.
There were hills, hills and more hills on the way to Hemer today! We have been told that the Sauerland is the Land of a thousand hills. Well we went up a few!
When Chris had registered this distance since leaving home we continued on our journey!
The main roads were no fun, even when there was a paved cycle path to ride on. Often it was just a thick white line painted on the road!
When we cycled away from the traffic it was enjoyable.
As the day grew older it got hotter and hotter!
As we passed through Schwerte we came across the Ruhrtal Radweg which we hope to follow tomorrow and the day after!
We also crossed the Ruhr river. Then it was uphill again to get out of the valley.
We cycled through Iserlohn where our BBF lived from 1975-1977. It brought back many memories.
In Hemer the humans had difficulty finding the street and house they wanted. A woman was asked and gave us directions! Alan tried Google Maps and went off at a tangent! Chris followed the woman’s directions and found it immediately! We arrived a little later feeling foolish!
Jane Hatton was our host. She had been the Chairwoman of the Sauerland Branch for some 17 years and had also been the District Vice Chairwoman for 11 years!
She greeted us with a bottle of cold mineral water and later served us tea appropriately in Poppy mugs!
We sat in the shade of her lovely veranda and just chilled, if one can call it that in this heat!
Official photos were taken, which are on someone else’s phone as Alan’s was misbehaving again! Then with a fond farewell we were off again.
We had a little difficulty finding the right path, made more difficult by Alan thinking he knew the direction, but then we found the right path back to Schwerte!
This time we avoided the traffic in Iserlohn and cycled alongside the Sellersee!
A number of benches with football motives invited one to sit and rest!
We chose one indicating our superiority over the humans, while Chris knew his place!
Strangely the route now was mainly downhill and Chris recorded a full two kilometres without pedalling!
The route now was great and went via fields and woods, avoiding the horrid main road and traffic!
We followed a brook and saw a field full of poppies!
As we now entered Schwerte we cane to a cross roads that had an Hotel on one corner. The two humans went to enquire if they had room for us and they were offered single rooms ata reasonable price!
The bikes were put in a garage and then each went to his room to shower etc!
Now our BBF got in a panic! He discovered he had lost his signet ring!
It is an heirloom and has the head of a centurion engraved in the stone, though when you look at it upside down it looks like a sailor/fisherman!
He searched for it, but could not find it! He had clearly pulled it off when he pulled his cycling gloves off!
The one waitress found it, a little worse for wear, but in tackt! Alan gave her a hug and later a suitable finders loan!
Chris and Alan had a nice meal and discussed the plan for tomorrow and the next day! Chris wound Alan up about the arrival time. Our BBF often misunderstands a joke aimed at him, but he took it good naturedly this time.
We hope to travel at least 70-80 kilometres tomorrow making an arrival time in Ayrshire barracks of 14:30 hrs a distinct possibility! The heat is the problem it forces us to stop frequently to drink and rest up!
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