Our BBF had a good nights sleep, no muscle cramps, he must have drunk enough yesterday or was it the beer?
Before we tell about today’s journey we must mention a couple of things that could affect the whole journey.
Our saddle bags are broken! Both bags have lost the hook on the oval you see which hooks over part of the carrier frame to stop the bags rocking about. Clearly the rough nature of the terrain, as well as the tumbles we have taken caused them to break off. We feel the bags are not up to the task. We are currently in the middle of now where, or as the Germans might say, “am Arsch der Welt!” There are no cycle shops anywhere here to replace them and if the top hooks fail we are done for and will need to improvise.
The other thing of note is the costs of overnight stays. When Alan planned the hiking tour of the border he booked all the accommodation before hand. We still have this plan and are using it to gauge where we might stay. The costs have doubled so a bed for one night now starts at €50. We only hope we do not run out of money before the end, which is a distinct possibility if the daily out goings are between €75-80 including an evening meal! Enough doom and gloom for now. Look on the bright side Alan says.
The weather was at least with us today and we set off around 0936Hrs and had chosen the proper cycle route to get to Birx we thought. The profile of the route was not particularly friendly either, but at least the horrid Convoy roads of the East German NVA could be avoided. Woods and fields tracks were plenty enough anyway. The only real adverse problem we had was the strong winds against us that and the hills meant we used quite a bit of power to maintain seed.
We’ve no idea who the man is, but he must have impressed some people to be given such a seat in the woods in the middle of nowhere!
At least the struggle to get to the top of hills when out of the woods is rewarded with great views.
We paused here for a bit but didn’t partake of the fitness offer, as it was far too cold to follow the instructions.
The sign tells one to enter only with warm feet, to walk like a stork until the skin gets pins and needles, then not to dry the feet but to walk barefoot in the grass. Obviously the level of the river plays a part in all this as today it would have been deep an come up to your knees.
More decorated wells were found.
And as one would expect where we are this is also dedicated to the reunification of Germany as the village was a border one.
Back in the woods we forded a stream, but failed to take a photo as to stop would have meant not getting up the hill on the other side. After we had passed and climbed the next hill we found a nice little rest stops in an observation hut.
It was possibly used by hunters too. Note the gravel path. Not made for ordinary bikes that’s for sure. The navigation advice was to get off and walk!!
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This well in our waypoint of Weimarschmieden like all wells we have come across, says not drinking water. Sad really when walking the Camino in Spain most villages have wells with potable water! If the Spaniards can do it, why can’t the Germans?
We think this chap may have been a Border Guard, otherwise why have a Border post in your garden!
We found a bench by the Church for our light lunch and planned where the next waypoint or stop should be. Birx was another 18 kilometres and the bike battery had another 21 kilometres on Ecomodus, but there was no accommodation there for us. We eventually found a place in Heufurt which is well off the route, but at least we have a bed.
We like the place as they had put out GummyBears for us Bears! We cycled 44.3 Kim’s today and are roughly between 18 and 19 on the route map.
