Gli occhi miei vedrano ancora

The night on the hay bales was interesting. Hay bales are not quite as soft as one might think, and the individual straw sticks, or whatever they are called, can be very sharp. On top of that, the cold was penetrating. By crunching down low in the sleeping bag and pulling it closed over my head and then staying very still I managed to sleep a few hours at a time. Pitching the tent would have been wise but I wanted to be on the road early and without having to re-pack the tent I can be on the road much more quickly in the morning. At 5.30 I was awake and crawled out of the sleeping bag intent of quickly packing and rolling. It was cold – maybe 10 C. I pulled on two shirts, a fleece and my cycling shorts and tried to warm myself by moving quickly and gathering my things, then resorted to jumping up and down. No luck, still freezing. Back into the sleeping bag, lay down, pulled it over my head and fell asleep again until 8.30. (The day before I left I removed my watch and left it at home, at this time can still get the time of my Blackberry). By 8.30 the air temperature was tolerable and I was quickly on my way.

Prior to my departure a friend asked me why I do such trips, what they give me. Had to think about that one for a while and am still thinking about it. I guess one could ask why anybody does anything. Let’s come back to the philosophy later. That morning I would have answered that question with this: for the taste of the coffee in the morning. Have you ever tasted coffee after a cold night in a sleeping bag? Those who have know what I mean. Those who don’t, I promise you that the taste is ten times more intense than any espresso taken in the local café on the way to the office, and I suggest you try it.  The best coffee I ever tasted was one morning on the Camino de Santiago. We were already well into Galicia, and thus already had many hundreds of kilometers of Camino behind us. On that day we left the pilgrim hostel well before sunrise because it was a full day walk to the next hostel. In that part of Galicia the towns are very small and walking for hours we found nada. Only after walking 8 kms did we find a café and although it was just a normal café con leche as one finds anywhere in Spain, it was the best damned coffee I have ever tasted. It probably sounds silly, but I still think about that morning and that coffee. Anyway, this morning I found a coffee house after just 10 kms of easy riding, sat outside in the sun and studying my maps, dreamt of what lay ahead in the journey.  

A few hours later I was at the source of the Donau, in Donaueschingen. Met Dietmar from Heilbronn, a retiree also on his way to the Black Sea. He is driving a travelling bike that he has kitted out himself. It has everything, from solar panels front and rear, a trailer with a picnic table, a chair, and storage for many liters of water and food for a week. This is not his first tour. We talked for a while, I gave him some chocolate, he gave me some energy bars. We exchanged telephone numbers and agreed to meet and camp together somewhere along the way.

This is the jumping off point of many cyclists doing the Donau Bike Trail and it has a bit of that feeling of camaraderie that exists when people have common, a-bit-out-of-the-ordinary goals. I have felt this camaraderie strongly on the Camino de Santiago, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and in the Swiss Alpine Club cabins that lie at the higher altitudes. Back in the normal world the people are probably all very different in lifestyle, profession, etc, but here, at this moment there is a common bond between them. It is a feeling I like very much and was pleased to experience it here as well.

Only 2'840 kms to the Black Sea

Set off from there, had a great ride, stopped to make many more photos than I normally would but because the landscape is so wonderful I could not ride by without trying to capture the images.

That night I cooked on my new camp stove for the first time – Maultaschensuppe! Hey, when in Schwaben…..Was not great, but was hot and considering I made it while crouched over a propane tank in a field, it was a success.