Thursday 2nd October 2014 - The Liverpool supporters were a bit subdued this morning after a 1 nil defeat by FC Basel last night.
Bike dusted down from the muck the other night, packed up and off into the streets of Basel again.
Easier in daylight. Cycled through the train station. Crossed the Rhine over a flood gate bridge, I think. Now following the Eurovelo 6 route.
German side of river now. All went smoothly for a while. Through streets of houses and then about an hour from leaving the hostel, into the countryside.
Arrived at Rheinfelden-Baden and crossed the bridge, back into Switzerland, to stop for lunch. Nice town, old cool looking buildings. Saw some miniature goats and parked myself beside them, for something interesting to look at while I ate.
Back to it. Back over the bridge and about 5km later lost the signs. Backtracking, still couldn't find them. Grrr. So decided to cross the river at a power plant bridge I passed earlier.
All ok, but still no cycle signs. Decided to just head back to Rheinfelden and go to Bad Sackingen, the next town, by road. First though I had to follow some walking paths through the forest, which meant pushing up a bit of a steep gravel path for a bit.
Another couple hundred metres and I found the Eurovelo 6 (which is also the Swiss Route 2). Yey!
These however now lead me back into the forest. I found a Nescafe train lurking in the bushes randomly at one point.
The paths here were bad. Gravelly and rocky. Slow going, bumpy, bone shaking. Really conscious of taking it easy on the bike too.
On and on and on. I could've been riding in Tollymore Forest it had the same sort of look about it.
Gravel now in my shoes and my socks slid down into them too, irritating. Then a man on a bike stopped as I was looking at the map. I don't think he was the full ticket. Kept telling me the best way to go in broken English and the slabbers were falling out of his mouth while he talked. I said thank you and pedalled off.
Passed a campsite, had the urge to just stop, but only done about 20km. No.
Saw a woman hit her dog in the face with a frisbee and then came upon some roadworks. Guessing correctly where the cycle path went, I found the next bench and stopped.
Looked at map and knew I wouldn't get to where I was hoping to today, so looked for nearest campsite. One just outside Bad Sackingen, that'll do.
Ate some pineapple and pulled my socks up and got going.
Pedal along the river, nice big fancy houses and manicured gardens, into campsite. 4pm. So much time wasted looking for signs earlier and slow forest paths.
The lady there said that it was a private site and there was no camping. Bummer.
Look at map thinking there's plenty of green space about, I'll just keep going and see what happens.
Followed EV6 onward. Passed a Co-Op and stopped of. Bought some coffee sachets, mushroom cuppa soups and finally found some instant noodles. Now I've gas again, I can cook. If you call boiling hot water cooking. They also sold painted eggs, which was weird.
Splashed out on a Mars bar, tin of coke and an apple pastry thing to try and give myself a boost.
Pedalled on and spied a campsite in Mettau. It was away from the river, so I knew it probably be a climb up to it.
Passed a massive power line station and a castle in Laufenburg. Also saw a field of deer. Turned off from the river and climbed about 3miles, hoping that the campsite would be real. The sun was setting now.
Got there and it was real. Real nice. Expecting it to be expensive, as everything else has been in Switzerland, pleasantly surprised that it was only 14CHF for the night. Awesome toilets with toilet paper (not all campsites have) and soap and HAIRDRIERS!!!
Orderded my two croissants for the morning and pitched my tent. Had chicken noodles for dinner.
Its getting darker earlier now and I'm more a night person, so thinking I'm gonna have to make a effort to get up and away earlier now, yawn!
Lovely sunset up here on the hill and the sound of cow bells jangling around me from the moos walking about in the fields.
That's the great thing about this trip, I know there's always going to be something good round the next corner. I never know what it is, but it's the not knowing which makes them be good and me keep going, if that makes sense?!
I also love my wee tent.
Day 34 - 02.10.14
Basel to Mettau, Switzerland
11am to 6.30pm
4hr 27min cycling
67.8km
1923 calories
962 metres asc
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