Day 357 11th July
58 miles (Hamburg to Art Ange) Average speed 8.9 mph Top speed 26 mph
A very tough day
I was feeling awful most of the day. 90 Minutes of footy on Saturday and copious amounts of beer have knocked me sideways. Everything aches and every pedal stroke stretched the scab on my knee open again.
I left at 10 in the rain but it didn’t last too long. I could feel every muscle complaining as I tried to fight through the pain. Trying to navigate wasn’t too bad as I left the city, but the cycle paths made it very challenging with broken paving and tree roots. I headed south east and found the Elbe but the cycle path wasn’t as good as I’d read about and sometimes very poorly sign posted. I was struggling to set any type of pace and it was getting me down as a headache joined in the fun.
After cycling in the rain for an hour I found a schlosh (if that’s how you spell it – castle) in Reinbeck and had a drink by the river. I tried to go through a path which ended up being a golf course and some very nice houses. I think it was one way and mostly cobble stones so I was happy to get through to the end and back on proper roads. After about 20 miles I decided that I would have to settle for about 40, but it didn’t turn out that way. Then the clouds thickened and the thunder and lightning helped me celebrate 10,000 miles with a drink of apple juice while hiding in the forest. At least it was easy to write 10,000 in the mud at Geesthacht.
As the day went on I was beginning to fall asleep at the helm and needed to find a bed but the one I found refused to come and open up for me at a Bett und Bike hostel for cyclists when I rang her. Thankfully the youngster already staying there let me in to use the loo. The woman wouldn’t even let me camp the night, even though there was a price for this. I just think she couldn’t be bothered for 10€. So I had to backtrack to Bleckede and hope that the ferry was running. Thankfully it was and for 1.50€ I got to cross the river but it wasn’t quite so easy to find the campsite and when I finally did it was at the top of the hill!! I could hardly move as I tried to set up my tent but at least it had stopped raining long enough to do so. With no food and no energy I had a marathon and went to bed at 10pm.
Elbtalaue campsite free as no-one around to check in or out.