Day 6, 2 6 2014, Furtwangen to Breisach
Today started with a ride up out of Furtwangen. We were using the TomTom GPS application on my Iphone.
It suggested that we should follow a track up to some farm buildings. We did so, but the track ended abruptly in a large meadow crisscrossed by electric fences.
Apparently TomTom had in its database some archaic track, probably Roman, that no longer existed, but Roz agreed entirely that this was the way we should go, and anyway, she claimed, the electric fences were off. The reasoning was that way at the end of the meadows there was a farm house, that no doubt had a drive way that no doubt connected with a road.
Anyway, she was right about the driveway, but wrong about the electric fences.
We rode on very attractive forest tracks more or less at the top of a ridge and then descended gradually to the beautiful Hexenlochmuhle, deep in a valley.
From there, we rode up out of the vallewy at a slope of around 7%. This is quite manageable, much more so than most of the other roads in this region.
From the top of this climb we descended. I have a slight feeling of dread when riding in hills when there is a steady descent, on the grounds that I will have to ride back up again, but this time I was wrong. The descent continued for about 25Km more or less into the very attractive city of Frieberg.
Cities that are arranged around pedestrians and bicycles with light rail are so much more attractive than car-centred cities that I wonder why all city planners don’t move in that direction.
As usual, we stopped at a pathside vendor and brought a punnet of fruit which we ate on the spot.
We rode on to Breisach on a slightly downhill road, past the tourist information office. For the first time on this trip we got the office to arrange a hotel. Also for the first time we bought a supermarket picnic meal. There was not much saving in the meal, but it was a pleasant change.
So, a hard start but a much easier day than the last few.
The Black Forest is not easy on bikes, but impossibly beautiful. There is a judgement call in there somewhere, helped in our case by ignorance as to just how hard it was to be.
80Km for the day.
Roz says: Hard to convince a man that it is still an adventure when the first two kms involved a 16% ride on gravel, a push through grass and TWO electrocutions!!! Whoops. The trail from there was well worth the effort, absolutely divine.
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