Sneaking back to urbanity.

Nature gets the Emscher back.

Almost at home:

Starting the day with a castle

Green only, no cars, hardly any people, just adverse winds and rain breaks. Love it!

An old fashioned railroad crossing. You need to call the control center and then hurry to cross the rail treck.

Some weeks ago somebody at work claimed this part of a Hamm non existent. I did some research then and now I could see myself: Hamm-Kump is for real ;)

Visiting an old friend and leaving a sunflower.

Finally the map became my friend, but now opposing wind and rain made me stop several times, getting saved by chapels and carports. Stop overnight in Wadersloh.

Starting a new day.

Having a cigarette in the green.

The old houses of Rheda-Wiedenbrück.

Scrap metal art in Rietberg, having an ice cream.

The artificial wildlife sanctuary Steinhorster Becken.

In the morning of our third day I decided to go on alone because my friends planned to head on with their high speed which I found too stressful. Besides my knees had started to hurt because I had no possibility to adapt to this long distances and small breaks. And, last but not least, as the only smoker in our group I always had to hurry to finish coffee, food and cigarettes and not make them wait for me. So here my first relaxing cigarette break, just before I go and buy a map to find my way home.

The map and me had some problems first, what made me stop again and again and drive pretty slowly. Additionally the road signs were far from perfect...

Orchids everywhere.

Nobody around, relaxing speed, no need to talk. That's holidays!

Sleep over in the Flussbett Hotel, having excellent organic food.

We were driving pretty fast and had almost no breaks, but at this organic supermarket we got coffee and wonderful chocolate cake.

And then, all of a sudden, we stood there: A bridge in the middle of restauration, no way to just cross it by bike. And my friends had only a map which did not help to find an alternative route. Fortunately it was possible to cross the bridge by foot though only by ignoring the fences. So we removed our bags and carried every single bag and bike past the fences, over the gaps betweens street and bridge and to the other side. As you can see: We had a sense of humor about the unexpected disruption.

The evening came with some more surprises: The camping ground we headed for did exist but the people there did not allow us to stay. The owner was not present and the women managing a christian youth group for some reason seemed to be afraid of us three travelers and did not show any grace of charity. However, we were happy then to find this old farmyard about three kilometres away from the camping ground. The old owner told his dog that we are okay, allowed us to stay and use the water pipe next to to door and by sunset even brought us three bottles of beer to welcome us.

Three days ago I did not even know I would be travelling. I had so much work that I decided to need a break and told a friend that I did not exactly know what to do except leaving town for some days. She invited me to the trip she and her boyfriend had planned months in advance and here we are, biking and camping about 90 kilometres from our hometown on our first evening.

I bought a new tent because I only had a big one which weights to much for biking. So I decided for the Coleman Rigel. I do not understand how two people should sleep there comfortably even if they like each other very much. Rain becomes a problem when you try to get your stuff out of the tent - you have to decide if either you get wet or you stuff. Although I have to say: It stayed tried also during heavy rain. But even if it does not rain the condensation water wets you and your sleeping bag. Still, the tent is fast to fix, small to pack and really very light. So I will keep it for later loner tours.