13th May - Annoying niggles & the Black Forest to the Alpine Road

It was a cold night and I woke to a layer of frost on the grass around the tent.  The good news was my  combination of sleeping gear had kept me warm all night, the bad news was that, for some inexplicable reason, I had been mostly awake since 4 am and so was not in the best frame of mind.
‘A good hot shower will sort that’, I thought to myself and headed off to the shower block complete with ‘get this’ heated floors!
So not only was I the ‘only camper in the village’ I had my own suite of heated shower rooms to choose from - luxury!  However, normality resumed when of course the shower token decided to run out half way though and I had to rinse off with cold water!
Anyway, an inordinate amount of time later (I’m out of practice) I had packed up my camping gear, reloaded the bike and was heading off through the black forest past the picturesque church just down the road from the campsite.

For some reason my satnav did not like the route I had worked out and uploaded whilst in the UK.  

I had been trialling a new route planning app, which seemed to be great for planning this kind of trip and allowed each day’s planned trip to be uploaded to the sat nav.  I don't normally use a planned trip in this way, preferring to just have a destination in mind each day and then sort of follow my nose to get there, however I thought I’d give this method a go.

The problem seemed to be that the SatNav’s logic seemed to be fighting for dominance with the route planning app’s pre-planned route,  constantly trying to re-route my to a different road.  Very frustrating and I eventually turned it off and resorted to following my nose again.  I have since found out that you have to switch off -auto re-route’ on the sat nav to stop this impertinent techno behaviour .... its all in the user manual, but whoever reads those 🤣

Need less to say the black forest (B500) was all that had been promised, picturesque scenery, sweeping curves a riding delight (hence very few pictures as I had not mounted my helmet cam yet)

After a couple of hours I headed east towards Fussen and the start of the Alpine road.  The Alps beckoned in the distance.
I stopped for the night at a small B&B just outside Fussen and took a stroll down to the lake for something to eat.

12th May - Hook of Holland to the Black Forest

My first day over the channel was always going to be a bit of a drag, the main objective being to cover some distance and get to the Black Forest area, hence using the overnight ferry to Holland.

The choice of Black Forest as the first stop was inspired by a mate who had originally considered doing this first bit with me.  I had never been and so decided to wiz through anyway and see if it was worth a second longer visit some other time.

Its certainly a lovely area and, as I neared Baden-Baden and the famed B500, the 400 mile dash from the port faded into a distant memory and I went in search of a campsite.

Camping Herrenweiss is in a very quiet spot just off the B500 south of Baden Baden.  Its a small family run site and I was the only ‘camper in the village’.  Tent up, I headed off towards the village where there was apparently a small restaurant / bar.

Something told me I’d made a wise choice.... 

And there it was, the end of day 1.

11th May - Pack ‘n go!

Packing is quite an iterative process for me - packing, unpacking, repacking and so on.  I start with what I think I might need then see if I can get it on the bike, then start cutting down to what I ‘really’ need and think a bit about location of various items.  For example, the first stop is an overnight ferry so I don't want to have to lug everything off the bike and just a need a quick overnight grab bag, leaving the rest as secure as possible in situ.

The chief packing challenge this trip is that its going to be cold and quite possibly wet (so everything is more bulky).  I am also planning quite a bit of camping and potentially some wild camping (so I need cooking equipment and some ‘emergency’ food.

So over the past few weeks I have upgraded my sleeping bag to one (allegedly) comfortable down to minus 7 degrees, and am taking a quantity of thermal gear and down jackets for day and night use.
I am also taking a roll mat in addition to my tiny inflatable mat as I have found heat loss downwards to be a problem in the past.  As a result I cant get everything in the panniers (unlike my Morocco trip) and so I’ve added a dry bag on the back seat for the tent, roll mat and a couple of other bulky but lightweight items.

This trip I am experimenting with three new items, crash bar panniers, a small dry bag (in place of a tank bag) and a pacsafe net for the large dry bag so it can be left on the bike when I go off exploring on foot.

 The idea of the small crash bar panniers is to keep a few items handy (chain lock, first aid kit, tyre repair kit etc) and move a little of the weight forwards - not so much of an issue on the GS compared to my Tiger due to it’s lower centre of gravity anyway, but it all helps.

So finally all on board and we’re ready to go.

 
Next stop Harwich for the overnight ferry to Holland.

A plan coming together ....

I always love that feeling when the elements of a plan start to fall in place and what started out as a vague idea begins to crystallise into reality.

As with most plans, the route for my next trip has been through a number of iterations to fit into the time available, to incorporate particular things I wanted to see, to trim back when I thought it was getting too big and to extend when I thought it was getting to small.

This trip is taking me to 11 new (biking) counties and is my first trip that will be 'visa free', despite the potential complications that Brexit could have brought.  Along the way I'll be taking in the Black Forest in Germany, the Alpine Road in Germany & Austria, the Julian Alps & Karavanks in Slovenia, the Tatras mountains between Slovakia & Poland, the three Baltic States, Finlands lakes & forests, the remote landscapes of Lapland, the bleak and most northerly (by road) European point at Nordkapp (gotta be done) and then a long stretch of superlatives down the Norwegian coast before heading hone via Denmark, Germany & the Netherlands.

The plan is about 7000 miles, 35 days and timed to be late enough that the mountain passes are open but early enough that there is still snow in the Arctic but I can camp out without becoming too crispy by morning!

Not long to go now.....