Ulm to Donauworth 93km 55miles
Today was a wonderful day's cycling in just about every regard.....Virtually entirely flat, or -1% gradient, Temps perfect - very low 20's with 50% sunshine! Beautiful.towns - Dillingen very EZ on the eye and trails good with low levels of Sunday riders! Our Campsites was as per Ulm, that being canoe and kayak clubs.... Ulm has the edge on facilities, the Donauworth location was pleasant enough!
It's gettind decidedly cool as Autumn begins to take it's grip, and being 1,500' AMSL adds to the cooler temperatures at night heart in deepest Bavaria. But when the sun is out it's making for the most ideal cycling conditions one could ever dream of!🤩
Upon arrival at Donauworth I immediately git to work fitting my new Ortlieb rack to Scott MTB! Without the array of tools I have at home the fut took a little longer than I'd hoped and it went well beyond Sunset such that I was operating by torch light trying to develop a fitting technique that could allow for my limited tool selection. Paul headed into town to be an observer of the resudential evacuation of an apartment fire on the 3rd floor. 9 fire engine, ladders, police cars everywhere apparantly! He returned just in time to help with the final fitting of the pannier bags... in the dark and cold. Once fully complete and tidied up I headed to the warm shower block to call my dear wife Maria and warm up abit. A hot shower finished the thawing out process by 1030 thesome 'admin' and off to bed for a great, albeit chilly sleep.... note to sekf, buy thermals pygamas, and more warm socks.... the north winds doth blow!!
We found a country park with goats and great Chicken&Chips.... early dinner!! So that was sorted so as to underpin all the above activities!
Countryside today was almost 'Home Counties-ish', all very pretty farmland!
So, the rivers, The Mighty Rhein and Danube (Donau), both nutured, and born forth from the same crucible of life, the womb of Mother Nature, with 'Ye old green man' atte ding the birth of their twins! The defining products of Baden Wurtsemberg, Bavarian and Swiss Hinterlands and like babies growing towards adulthood they each have distant characters of their own from their first emergence and throughout their journeys thru life. The Danube begins life as quiet and calm as a new born sleeping baby, coasting through the early stages of it's life reaching almost 150km before it's first toil, that being the weir creating a small backed up lake and a further 100km before she is asked to perform her first proper job of Kraftwerking, that is hydroelectric power generation.
The mighty Rhein on the other hand is not so much born but forged out of the pressures and turmoiled exit from Lake Konstanz/Bodensee. As a total contrast to his quiet sister, he is a tortured and strong beast with demands for work within 40km of birth. Hydroelectric plants every 5 to 10 km compared to measured 40 to 50 km of the Danube's early adulthood.
We've been crossing paths with Gwillaume and Leticia every day, and again at our campsite tonight!
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