September 28th
We awoke to rain and hoped with a little wait inside the tent that it would blow over. It didn’t. We eventually made our way out and to a boulangerie called Grenacker. Which was so fantastic we ended up going in for a second round. We eventually set off, re-found the EuroVelo 15 (we think) and headed towards Basel.
We were riding down incredibly long and straight, car free forest roads. The only hiccup being barriers at every crossroads that we had to dismount to navigate. But nonetheless the going was good and it had stopped raining.
We then came to quite the roadblock of a fallen tree across the whole road. We thought a guy in high-vis was cutting it with a chainsaw, but as we got closer it turned out to be a cyclist in a bright jacket, carrying his bike over it. We chatted to them and they had come from Basel and apparently this was the only major tree block, so that was nice to hear.
We removed some panniers and then set about trying to break a few branches off the tree to make passage easier. Then we were able to carry the trike across in stages and eventually we were the other side. Bags back on and we were off.
Despite our leisurely start we were making good progress and ended up quickly reaching Kembs-Loechle. Here we were diverted off the forest road and down a canal path. We said goodbye to tarmac and hello to hard packed sand. Nice to ride on, but with the damp weather and despite our two mudguards, it covered our panniers, backs, bottles, hopes and dreams, in a sandy muddy combo.
We were soon into Huningue, where we saw some white water rafting and Olympic course kayak centre in the river. The people taking it on must have been very cold. Next thing we were blasting into Switzerland. There was a small sign and many CCTV cameras but no hard stop or passport check. We weren’t sure if there would be or not. Pretty sure that’s our 6th country of the trike trip, good fun.
It was grey and drizzly as we arrived and the route in was fairly industrial. We were both less than impressed but we were also maybe just hungry. We cycled into Basel, across a bridge and into a fairly central area. Most things seemed closed maybe because of the rain, except about 700 barber shops and hair dressers. We stopped at a supermarket and Louis got some added snack extras at lunch to lift morale.
Stood outside, under a little shelter, we finished lunch and then some more snacks before dragging ourselves back onto the trike. We hit the river and headed east. Aiming to pick up the EuroVelo 6 route to Schaffhausen. We saw one sign for it right at the start and then no more.
We were very quickly across the border into Germany. We were originally in Switzerland little more than an hour. And most of that was spent eating lunch.
We ended up on a main road running next to the river and decided to stay on that until some towns further east that we know the cycle route also goes through. The heavens opened and we got drenched. Very thoroughly soaked. Each foot had its own private swimming pool. But being on the mostly flat main road we just cycled on, setting a good pace and ticking off the distance.
After a good 15 mile stint we stopped at a shop to have a banana and dry off a little. It had mercifully stopped raining after an intense hour. Luckily we then tempered we needed more water to cook with tonight. And after we had bought that and left the shop we remembered it’s Sunday tomorrow and nothing is open at all. So we went back in to get tomorrows provisions sorted.
Back on the road we pressed on and through Bad-Säckingen. Once past it, we stopped to check and saw that if we went on any further there was only towns and no green for a fair way. We searched for a camp spot and with a steep little climb to end the day we found one off a forest road. Cut, flat grass, but with a dual carriageway soundtrack. But, we’ll be tired enough to sleep through anything.
During cooking and eating (back to pasta after the gnocchi fiasco) it started to rain nice and heavy again. Dampening the array of clothes we had drying on our trike / washing line. Stood under some trees finishing the pasta wasn’t our most comfy meal. The temperature had also dropped off a cliff. Neither of us had felt our toes in a while. Louis even managed to have a worm between his toes without even realising.
At least inside our little tent it warms up quickly. With one final foot-worm check, we were down for the night.
Daily stats:
90 km. 525 m elevation gain. 5 hrs 4 mins moving time.
Cumulative trip stats:
1,139 km. 9,275 m elevation gain. 67 hours, 9 mins moving time.
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