07:14: Up and dressed. About to do my teeth and then prepare breakfast. I’ll skip having a shower.
09:14: Walking out of the camping.
09:25: Leaving Riedlingen. Pleasantly cool, with a high, textured overcast and a slight following breeze. I’m out into a landscape of flat river valley and low hills.
There were loads of mozzies around last night and I seem to have been bitten. I can feel itchy spots on my back and legs.
09:53:11
09:53:22
09:53: Stopping to buy eggs from a girl who’s filling an egg vending machine. €0.50 for three eggs!
10:05: Passing through a pretty and prosperous village. Stopping at the ATM to get some money out.
10:13:19
10:36: Leaving Möhringen. Dietelhofen 2 km (11:00?)
10:55: Dietelhofen/
11:02. Leaving Dietelhofen. I’m amongst the gently rolling hills. Still overcast.
11:14:54
11:27: Dobel.
11:35: There’s bit of rain starting to fall. I just passed a bus stop so I’m going to shelter there and boil the eggs.
12:09: That was bloody delicious. I made tea with the egg water. Just add milk powder and a tea bag. Washed up now and ready to move. It’s still raining lightly. I expect this will keep going all afternoon.
13:00:10
13:00:30
The rain’s eased off. Hasn’t stopped but I’ve shed my jacket. I feel blissful. I’m waling along a two-rut path between fields to a rise 700 metres away.
13:02:27
13:05:39
13:12:39
13:16:04
13:46:46
14:24: It’s festival day in Rottenacker so I’ve stopped at a fête in the grounds of a pet food factory to eat chips and a wurst. €5.00.
14:43: …and a bottle of local cola/fanta mix. Now I’m on my way again.
14:54:54
14:59: Leaving Rottenacker.
15:17:07
16:00:09
16:39: Passing through Griesingen. The rain has stopped but it’s still damp and overcast. I have about 8 kilometres to go to Ersingen, where there’s a campsite.
17:06:48
17:22: Just skirted Öpfingen. The path is actually beginning to dry. I probably have another 3 km to go. I hear thunder in the far distance.
18:08: Ersingen. Checked in at the camping. €7.00 for an overnight, €6.50 for breakfast. I’m down for breakfast at 08:00.
18:40: Tent up.
20:23: I’ve been sitting on a garden chair in the campsite, next to the Gasthaus where I’ll get breakfast tomorrow. I’m charging my phone in a spare socket in the loo. There are some other campers, all cyclists. Dimitri, and the German lads who aren’t interactive. The sun hasn’t come out all day. Even now, as the sun drops towards the horizon, the sky is a bruised overcast. It’s damp and chilly. I’m looking forward to getting into my bag. I expect I won’t need the bivvy for warmth, but I’ll keep it to hand just in case. I ought to check the ambient temperature on the backpack thermometer.
As I covered the last few kilometres, I did start to grimace and I can feel that my ankles have stiffened up now that I’ve stopped moving. I hope I sleep well. I got an OK night’s sleep last night. I was too warm at first. Also I didn’t notice at the time, but somehow my legs and body got bitten quite badly by mozzies last night1 or this morning. I’d put DEET on my face at bedtime, and that definitely keep them off.
I wonder if some biting insect got into my sleeping bag yesterday when I laid it out on the grass for some UV dry-cleaning. I think not — the bites feel like mozzie bites. I’ll get some after-bite cream the next time I pass a pharmacy.
I hope to get to Ulm before the tourist office closes. I’d like to book a cheap hotel through them.
Most likely they’d been feasting on me long before I got into the sack.↩