Day 65 – 7/9/2016
Made the 1000 mile mark today, total distance 1641km, 4 ferries, 2 punctures and 1 broken spoke.
Not sure when I made it into Germany but when I saw a street sign with an umlaut and beta S, I knew I was there. In Bunde I bought a map and headed onto Leer where I picked up some free maps at the tourist office. I’m not sure about the German cycle routes, there seems to be lots of them, and at least 4 different types but the signage is terrible as they disappear at junctions so using traffic signs. My map showed a campsite at Detern but when I arrived at about 5 pm the site did not allow dogs, so I filled up with water and wild camped in my tent a couple of hundred metres down the road in the woods.
Today 51km.

Day 66
Just packed all my panniers and about to walk off into the woods with my trowel, when 2 people appeared coming up to me, apparently I had pitched my tent by a geo cache, only 3 metres from my tent in a bird box. I am now cutting the corner and left the coast so heading in a NE direction towards Westerstede, Bockhorn and onto Varel on the coast again and found a campsite near Diekmannshausen, it has been very hot and humid the last couple of days so it was nice to get a sea breeze again. Today thanks to the German efficiency I now know what height Santa flys at.

The best thing about today was a vending machine, I’ve seen cigarette machines and condom machines, but this afternoon when I was down to half a litre of water I came across a dairy products machine and bought myself a litre of ice cold Chocolate milk.

Today 64 km

Day 67

Rest day
After the last 2 days cycling I thought I needed A rest day.
A good shower and washed my clothes, then went for a walk with Pippa that tired her out, but I should have trimmed her claws first as the walk would have taken the Sharp edges off as I do not want her putting holes in my groundsheet or air bed.

Day 68

Pippa must have ate something on the walk yesterday that she should not have, at 2am she started acting funny, I let her out to go to the toilet, but she was still restless and at 4am she wanted to go out again, this time she was sick, when she came back in the tent she was shivering and cold, not her normal hot water bottle, I did not get much sleep and did not leave the campsite until after 12 noon. I carried on along the coast and at the campsite at Tossen they wanted 22 Euro, he added up 7 different items to get the price, not sure what they were but can only guess at 1 person, 1 night, 1 tent, 1 bike, 1 pitch, electricity and tax. Told him too expensive and carried on along the coast. Next campsite had no office, the sign said go to the bar when office was closed and the barmaid sent me back to the closed office. The next campsite had a sign pointing in the wrong direction, I saw the site about a km behind me when I went to the top of the dyke so I went to camp on the beach and sleep under the stars. While I was cooking dinner I started talking to a couple of women walking their dogs and they told me that the ferry I was heading for was out of service due to colliding with a container ship, but did show me on the map where another ferry was. Not sure what happened with the ferry but the container ship should have had a pilot and the ferry captain should have known the Collision regulations, I know them and its not my job.
Today 47km.

Day 69

Up at 7 and on the road by 7.30, at 9am I passed the ferry port that was out of service and carried on south, it was an overcast day so not that hot, cycled past Nordenham and took the Brake – Sandstedt ferry and camped in the campsite on the east bank. I’ve seen lots of cigarette vending machines in Germany but the campsite had one and I had a closer look, you have to swipe your driving licence as well as pay to get anything out.
Today 42 km.

Day 70

Left campsite heading north at 11am and at 1120am found cycle path was padlocked shut so had to backtrack to where I could get over the dyke to find another cycle path, 1 hour later the path was practicable impassable due to construction work, I had to push my bike over bulldozed earth for about 100 metres that was very hard and discovered I knew lots of German swear words, Well most were English but with a German accent that I learned from watching war films.
I met a German cyclist that told me the east coast of Germany was better to cycle up to Denmark then the west as the west had a headwind.
At 3pm I was in Bremerhaven, 30 hours earlier I was only 500 metres away where the ferry route was out of service. I stopped at an Aldi to restock on food and at 530 pm stopped on a bench on the dyke to spend the night.
Today 41km.
Day 71
Today I had to revoke Pippas link privilege, e.g. remove one of the caribeeners that harness her into the trailer, due to her jumping from one side of the trailer to the other and hanging out, I don’t mind her hanging out but when she jumps from side to side I loose momentum by trying to keep the bike upright and it can be dangerous if the road is busy as I might go under a car. I do not like doing it as I want her to have as much freedom as possible plus she whines to much. Carried on to Cuxhaven where I bought some Velcro and bread, then along the coast into a strong headwind and stopped on a bench on the dyke at 4pm. At dusk I moved down to the seafront and put up my tent.
Today 49 km.

Day 72

Met my first angry farmer today, he came driving past me, screeched to a halt blocking my way and ordered me to go back, saying no dogs. I was on the north sea cycle route track and I had seen other people with bikes and dogs on this stretch of path, there was no livestock about for at least 2 miles either side of me and no crops, just the dyke, and the grass was cut in such a way that it was being left to mulch and not going to be used for silage etc. I showed him that Pippa was tied in and could not get out but he was having none of it. Maybe it was the Union Jack that I was flying from the back of the trailer that put him off me. In the Nederlands I was cycling along with Pippa by the dyke with sheep crossing the path and just smiles and waves from the farmers. I took another path back to the road and at Ottendorf rejoined the path again. At 10am I stopped to have breakfast and listen to David Attenborough on radio 4 talk about the sub aquatic ape theory, something I have heard a little about but it’s nice to hear it from Sir David.
In the afternoon just past Belum I was pushing the bike due to strong headwinds when I heard a metallic twang, I checked my back wheel and saw another broken spoke, I pushed for a couple more km until I found a safe place with shade to pull over and replaced the spoke and had a cuppa. A couple of hours later I was riding again and came across a cyclist/walkers rest hut and as it was 6pm stopped for the night. The farmer in the field next to me was plowing into the night and did not finish until half nine and set Pippa off every time he reached my end of the field.
Today 39km.

Day 73

Another early start and carried on to Freiburg where I stopped for breakfast and to listen to part 2 of Attenborough on the waterside ape. Went past the turning for the Wischafen ferry to visit the supermarket, then onto the ferry overtaking lots of parked cars waiting for the ferry. From the east side of the river I cycled north to Brunsbuttel where I caught another ferry over the shipping canal and followed the canal to Hochdonn where I booked into the campsite for 2 nights, at the office I also bought a beer as I felt I deserved it. It felt strange cycling along a canal with container ships passing yards from me.
Today 73km.
Day 74, Friday 16 th September
Rest day.
If I was not keeping a diary I would have no idea it was my birthday. I had a lie in until 9 in the morning, then the birthday shower, washed my clothes and cut Pippas front claws as they were getting very long then went for an hour walk along the canal, one reason was it was a nice morning but the main reason was I wanted Pippa to wear down the sharp edges so she would not put a hole in the ground sheet or my air bed.
Treated myself to a real coffee for my birthday with a home made coffee filter machine made from an old plastic milk bottle and filter from a paper hand towel

 

Then did some sewing, the little bag I keep on the crossbar to keep my E-Werk and storage battery, it has been annoying me for over a month now as it is very cheep quality Velcro and keeps sliding round and falling off, so I replaced the Velcro.

It rained in the afternoon so had to get my washing undercover. I also worked out that 9 degrees east is as far east that I can pick up radio 4 on long wave.

Day 75

I had to use the campsites tumble dryer this morning to finish drying clothes. Made the 2000 km mark today, continued up the canal towards the Baltic sea, strong headwinds all Day.

Stopped on the canal just south of Rendsburg and put up tent in a fishing spot and spent the night with the odd ship passing yards from me.
Today 41km

Day 76

Made it into Rendsburg then left the canal to follow route 77 north. In town I managed to find free inter-web outside a bank and downladed more Google maps.
Just past Jagel I broke another back spoke, this time it only took an hour to replace, hope I do not get to much practice doing this and if I’ve broken 3 rear spokes in northern Europe it does not bare well for the rest of the world, plus I only brought 10 for the rear wheel with me.
Camped in a field near Busdorf 1km from the Baltic sea.
Today 37km

Day 77

Made it into Schleswig and the cycle signs disappeared again. Found way out and heading for Flensburg, stopped at supermarket and managed to find BrennSpiritus, methylated spirits in German. Planned on making the border today but had to keep stopping to check Google maps as signs in Germany are very bad, then Found a campsite and had an early finish for the Day stopping just north of Sieverstedt. I was the only person at the campsite and the owner told me I did not have to keep Pippa on a leash so she had good fun exploring.

Today only 25 km.

Day 78 Tuesday 20/9/2016

Late start this morning, left campsite at 1030 and found a bakers 1km up the road so stopped and bought bread and a couple of nice pastries. I made it to Flensburg and tried to find free wifi but could not, even standing outside McDonald’s so gave up in town after an hour, no detailed maps of Denmark on Google maps for me.

I made Denmark in the afternoon over a wooden bridge and walked through the forest, seeing signs saying dogs must be on leads, no motor vehicles, no horses, no camping and no fires, then to my surprise I saw a sign for wild camping.

the sign at the bottom of the track said max of 2 nights if my Danish is right. So I pitched my tent yards from the Baltic and 1km into Denmark in a nice tranquil spot, until 2 Germans turned up on motorbikes with a trailer and set up 6 fishing rods.

Today only 23 km