It was by far the coldest night last night. Neither of us wanted to get out of bed this morning. By the time I had got breakfast ready my hands and feet were frozen. The joys of living in a tent and alfresco dining!
Apart from the cold the cycling day started well, we picked up the route and made our way towards Riedlingen. The wind was for once at our backs and we made very good progress. Even lots of roadworks and poorly signed diversions at Riedlingen barely delayed us.
We were making such good progress that 60kms before lunch looked possible, leaving us with a short afternoon. We clearly spoke too soon! The hill we encountered just outside Zwiefaltendorf coming into Datthausen was so steep that I have to admit we both ended up getting off and pushing. I managed about half way then I simply couldn't turn my legs fast enough to keep going. Once I stopped I couldn't restart and even pushing was very tough. I ended up laying my bike over and going to rescue Debbie further down the hill. Even with two of us pushing it was a struggle especially with slippery leaves underfoot. With no luggage, I don't doubt we would have made it. Laden as we are, I hope to not encounter too many more of these!
When we finally got our breath back, the rest of the route was relatively straight forward. We sped into Obermarchtal, continued through Munderkingen and the humorously named Rottenacker, and arrived in Ehingen at about 3pm.
With no camp-site for miles we checked into the guest-house Sonne, looking forward to a warm night and comfy bed.
The town of Ehingen is reasonably attractive, but certainly not on the scale of some that we have visited. Nevertheless we had a nice coffee and doughnut and a large meal in the guest-house restaurant. Hopefully we will wake up refreshed and warm for tomorrow.
PS Debbie reached 30mph today! She was very excited albeit a little scared!
Wow, one month on the road!
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