Phaffing to the South - My Africa cycle Trip

From Start to End

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  As planned I left Mooshausen on the morning of the second of October. For the First 25 km my uncle cycled with me. We cycled until lunchtime where we had something to eat and said our goodbye's, little did I know that it would be a very important goodbye.

While I was cycling I started to think that I had forgotten my Malaria meds at the apartment that I had for the last two and a half year in Bad Saulgau. So plans changed and I didn't cycle to Ostrach , but I drove to Bad Saulgau again to see if I could get into the apartment. After all was sported I and I had my meds I stayed in Bad Saulgau and meet with a couple of friends for a last beer or two.
The next morning was equipment check and see what I can do without, because I had just to much with me. On the second day I had company on the road again and I cycled from Bad Saulgau with Michael Bachhofer, he was on a racer and was just on a sunday cruise while I was sweating and suffering to keep up with him.

It was very good to have him with me though, because he knows the area like the back of his hand and he choose all the good routes so that I had to cycle as little as possible uphill. While we where on the road I kept in his windshadow which also helped a lot..
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After 55km we parted again and I cycled the last 20 km to Tuttlingen where I pitched my tent on the construction site where I was busy for the last two years. It was a wet night but I sleeped like a baby and the tent proved to be a good purchase, at least for the first night.

  In the morning I had a cup of coffee at SKS bau, and I was back on the road again at 9:30 heading toward the Schwarzwald. It was all uphill form hear for the entire day and most of it on unpaved roads. I past trough a town called Furtwangen and then I started to look for a campsite. I found a very friendly farmer that alowed me to pitch my tent between a little hut and a steam. It was a very wet night and the rain was pooring over my little tent.

On tuesday I started early in the morning and by 7:30 I was back on the bike. It started with a steep incline of 150m change in altitude. I was thinking to myself that I should have cycled that last night so that I would have a easy start in the morning, something to remember for the future. The road at that stage was a well tared road wich was winding itself through the Schwarzwald but it got worse and worse the further that I went on. After about 4 km the road turn into a gravel track and about another 3 km it turn into a mountainbike trail. Here I was going along with 35 kg of equipment up a little track. It was great to see what the bike is made off.

After one and a half hours of cycle and a half an hour rest I got back to the main road and I saw the big road sign that displayed the distance of 3km to Furtwangen, while I had cycled 15km.

From there one it was an easy ride done the mountain and through the last part of the Schwarzwald until I got to the open plains of the Rhein.

I kept on cycling north until I got to a bridge where I decided that I would dry the tent and sit in the sun before I enter France. I hooked of the computer and called my mother in Namibia via skype where I got the bad news that my uncle that cycled with me for the first 25 km had been in an tragic accident, which would mean the end of my phaffing to the south trip.

It is now to late in the year to start the trip again. I was already pushing the limits as it was leaving only in October. I am now considering to do a southern Africa tour wich will start in the begin of next year. The new route will take me through Namibia, Sambia, Tansania, Malawi, Mosambique, South Afrika and back to Nambia.

So please check in to see what will happen next.

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