The errors of our way

We are still in the trial and error stages of setting up our daily routine, and I thought I’d share some of the errors we encountered on our way in Germany:

1. Failing to get up in the morning

We have had very good intentions to get up and start riding in the morning, but the realities of camping (and camping in April) are hampering that. When it’s cold (frosty bike seat cold) it’s much easier to snooze than get up. And getting up is only half the problem. Despite it being a very simple tent, anything involving going from being in it to on our bikes or vice versa seems to take us approximately 2 hours. Whilst our lives are packed up in relatively few panniers, our morning routine has become quite big; we have at least a 50m walk between our bed and our bathroom and between our cooker and our kitchen sink.

2. Believing slow punctures will magically go away

They just don’t. And they are a lot easier to fix at a campsite than on a cycle path.

3. Checking when the shops close (and reopen)

After lunch we’ll start to think about picking up food for the next 24 hours or so. This is logistically challenging at best, but far more complex when we realised 1 hour before the shops closed that they wouldn’t open again for 3 days due to the easter bank holidays.

4. Avoiding saukraut explosions

This was a panic buy in the aforementioned shopping spree – an attempt to keep us vaguely on track for our 5 a day. I have read online about bagging all food items and keeping them safely separated from the rest of your worldly possessions but I clearly find it much easier to learn from example. My example resulted in my panniers being scented with aux de saukraut, which let’s say – lingers.

5. Finding campsites

The realities of where campsites are doesn’t always work with where we want to be. We haven’t wild camped yet (and even if we’d wanted to there has been little opportunity for it – the one spot we saw in Belgium suitable for wildcamping had “no camping” signs up). The closest we got to considering wild camping in Germany was just outside Mainz. This was the day of the not so slow puncture, and we realised fairly late in the day we weren’t going to make it to the campsite we’d planned, so we rerouted to a campsite with rather dubious reviews. It was somehow far worse than we had imagined – it managed to somehow both be occupied and look completely abandoned. There was no sign of a reception (there was no signage whatsoever) and we had the distinct impression that we were not welcome.

As we were debating our limited options, as if by magic, a man appeared: Axel. On hearing our predicament he called the manager of the residents only campsite where he lived nearby and arranged a pitch there for the night, completely saving the day.

6. Taking it easy

When we have talked about rest days I’ve imagined – well – rest. In reality what I’ve found so far is there’s an awful lot of admin to be getting on with. Different kinds of admin to the usual “life” type sure, but admin nonetheless. The result is a couple of kilometers into our ride from Heidelberg we realise that there is no way we’re going to make the 105km we had planned for day 14 – we’re both a bit ill, knackered and in need of a rest.

When we arrive at our campsite Ben “the budget is a feeling” Forrest took no persuading that a bottle of wine and breakfast pastries are in order. I’m not sure the wine has the medicinal properties that we’d hoped for, but the extra night at the campsite definitely helped.

7. Brushing our teeth (yes really)

One evening I emptied the entire contents of my washbag into the sink as I brushed my teeth. I did not do this on purpose. The campsite in question had sinks with automatic taps which I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to use (I had to be shown how by the woman standing next to me and still I didn’t really get it). But magically, as soon as I emptied a large number of my possessions into the sink, the tap turned on every time I retrieved another item, each time getting the remaining items wetter and wetter. Once everything was safely back in my wash bag, I tried to turn the taps back on to clean my teeth to no avail.

Another time, the campsite shared its loos (and showers) with the neighbouring pub. We rocked up on a Friday night. Ben had to brush his teeth whilst slowly be being backed into a corner by two raucous Germans relieving themselves after one too many beers.

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One of the things I’ve wanted to use our slightly slower pace of life for is getting back into reading. I used to devour books but as I’ve got older I’ve got lazy and out of practice. The last part of my daily routine, when we’re tucked up in our tent is to read a chapter of my book. I’m currently rereading the Hobbit (technically I’m reading it for the first time as last time round I looked at the pictures as my dad read it to me). My memory of Bilbo is of an adventurous hobbit, but rereading, I can see he is a hobbit who (slightly reluctantly) goes on an adventure and makes one error after another. It’s a nice reminder that it’s the things you haven’t planned to happen that often result in the best stories.