28/10/24
It was a warm night comparably. The city makes a big difference to the temperature. We benefitted from the extra hour of sleep as we both felt quite exhausted now. The lack of a proper rest day in Düsseldorf was coming back to bite us as the effect of stacking took hold and the long 60 mile ride the day before.
We took it easy in the morning, having a delicious coffee with Tom and Christine. They even had a coffee grinder on the wall, though Tom preferred Yerba Mate. It looked like quite the concoction as he added hot water to it periodically.
We knew we had to get going as we had planned to head to Pfzorheim deviating from the EV15 and heading towards the Schwarzwald (Black forest). We had booked a stay there to rest before starting a hillier route south but hopefully more beautiful.
In the garden Tom and Christine were interested in seeing our setup while also proud of their own. They had Pinion bikes, a gearbox where the bottom bracket would be, and carbon belt drives. They looked pretty good and were surely more reliable than a derailleur. Though any parts would surely be rare in some parts of the world.
While having a look at our low riders, we all noticed that the green surly had a loose bolt! It had completely come out. When it was attached it didn’t have loctite as it was a practice run and we meant to redo it. Alas we never did. Now it was a necessity. The vibrations of the cobbles and paths had loosened the bolt entirely. Luckily the bolt and washer were still there.
We set about removing all the bolts from the front and back pannier racks on the green surly and applying loctite to them. It was an annoying and fiddly job, and we felt bad for delaying our departure. Sundays are a weird affair in Germany, compared to the UK anyway. It’s an actual day of rest. Not just for the elites while the workers serve them. All the supermarkets and shops are shut. All day. You need to be prepared and make sure you have sufficient supplies the day before. Fortunately most towns appear to be surrounded and/or inundated by Aldi Süd stores.
Leaving Ludwigshafen we were feeling apprehensive about leaving the security of the Rhein. The path has been well used and signposted and also very flat. But we’d need to leave it eventually and it was growing a little old to be on such an industrialised route. However, the new route was just the EV15 at first. We crossed the Rhein and after following it for a short while we actually left it. But we were still on excellent paths thanks to the German route finder.
We had decided to make our way most of the way to Pfzorheim and leave around 30km for the next day. That way most of the hills would be in the morning and we could get to our accommodation when we could check in. Rest was sounding increasingly alluring.
Though we had a campsite in mind as a backup, we wanted to wild camp. The campsite was surrounded by motorways and was not appealing. We inspected the route on the map and found it travelled through two nice sections of forest. We made for the second section. It would be closer to Karlsruhe for the morning.
We entered the forest on a cycle way and then took a gravel track off to the side. It wasn’t long before we spotted a clearing but weren’t sure how hidden we’d be. Though we were happier to be camping off a road to reduce the risk of passing traffic spotting us we still wanted to be hidden from dog walkers.
The path turned a corner and headed back to the main cycle way. There weren’t any low canopies and we decided to “make do” with a small clearing in the trees. There were some mighty logs for us to perch on while we cooked some couscous and made some tea.
It got very dark in the forest and we had no need to worry that people would see us. They would have to be searching hard. We had a quiet spot apart from the occasional nearby train and our squeaky mats.
Surly They Won't Make It 