Café de la Poste, Echternach 07-08-06
Thank god for Ortlieb bags
Arnhem- the Netherlands to Prüm - Germany
(6 cycle days; 344km; 2045m)
Arnhem to Grietherort (57km; 83m)
Grietherort to Arcen (49km; 117m)
Arcen to Lövenich (77km; 311m)
Lövenich to Nideggen (56km; 337m)
Nideggen to Monschau (53km; 681m)
Monschau to Prüm (52km; 516m)
Trapped inside
Even if we had danced round in circles, naked, while
wha-whaing to the Indian rain-god, we couldn't have
asked for crappier weather. Between Arnhem and Prüm,
we have been bombarded with bouts of rain resulting
in us spending half of our journey time reading the
not so intelligent graffiti in bus shelters. Before
this trip, these such storms would have had us turning
around and going back home to try again, when the
weather was a little better. Now our home is our tent.
Need I say more?
Tip of the month: for storing liquids, use a baby bottle!
If you don't mind clowns and happy faces
on your storage bottles, a good, very cheap,
and 'super-safe-for-liquids' alternative
is a baby bottle. In the past, I've always
used Body Shop containers, since the containers
at camping stores are always so astronomically
priced. But after no success finding an
outlet in France, I resorted to trying the
baby bottle and it's really good. You can
also cut the teat off and you have a rubber
ring for extra sealing, however it works
fine without it too.
Arnhem (Netherlands) - Bordeaux (France)
Kilometres: 1717 kilometres and 740 metres
Riding days: 24
Alti meters: 9560 metres up
Weather: seriously bad for the time
of year...
we only had about four or five
days that it didn't rain at all...
tent was
packed dry on 4 ocassions only.
Best accommodation: Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon:
not only very inexpensive but clean, well
equipped facilities and lots of green grassy
places to pich your tent on.
Special thanks to:
Tina at Cascade Design; Eric at PL Diffusion
and the Guys at Sports Adventures in Bordeaux for
helping us swap our Therm-a-rest mattress for a
new one so efficiently and quickly! • Scott, Kerry, Mathew and Adam for the interest
and conversations • Wim and Anneke for the warm cups of coffee when
we absolutely needed it. • The really lovely couple at Tonnerre for the
Dutch clogs mascot that's hanging on our tent
for the time being • The owner of the campsite at Le Moutchic for
the baguette • The knowledgeable and patient young man at Soliselec on the Cours d'Alsace et Lorraine in Bordeaux,
who soldered a new mini-plug onto my pin microphone
for the grand total of 1 euro • Frau Ebbing for giving us a spot for our tent
in her wild berry garden.
Breakdowns:
15: Therm-a-rest bubble (Ali): bought Quechua replacement
24: spoke (Son)
29: brake cable (Ali)
30: Quechua (alias crap-chua)
burst after two weeks...
