Day 10 - Bingen to Worms

One thing I learned from my trip to Rome 3 years ago is that a bad day nearly always follows a good day and vice versa. And after yesterdays great day today was a struggle.

The day started slowly, and to make up time Paula and Sarah headed off to the supermarket which was just "down the road" while the rest of us finished packing and headed off to meet them. Obviously we got lost, and after a few phone calls agreed to meet them at the ferry in town as the route continued on the East side of the Rhine.....but there were 2 ferries!!!!

So an hour wasted and it was just after midday that we caught the ferry. The path was ok to start with but after a while there was an unpaved section, we had inadvertently split into 2 groups with Paula and Sarah behind and the end of this section we waited for them to catch... but they did not arrive. They had "cheated" and taken the paved route through town, although I am sure they will disagree! What confused us all more was that we thought that Paula and Sarah were behind us, but actually they were in front. After a few more phone calls Paula and Sarah agreed to wait for us in Mainz.

5 mins later my front pannier rack broke. The frame is connected to the front  bike forks by U-bolts, which are quite strong and P-clips at the bottom of the forks which are not so strong. A P-clip is basically a thin piece of metal, with a hole at either end. The metal is bent around the forks so that you can bolt through the holes and connect to the pannier rack. One of the P clips at the bottom of the forks had sheared off. One of the pannier bags I "bungied " onto my rear rack, while the other was bungied onto Chris s.

3 essential things for cycle touring are: -

bungy cords,
strong "elephant" tape
cable ties

It is amazing what can be held together with these 3 items.

My steering now very light or twitchy as my bike was un-balanced, however no real problem. After 5 more mins and on another unpaved track Chris punctured. Another delay, but the main problem was that the weather was getting hot.

Very Hot - about 38degC.

This made every thing a lot harder. We eventually caught up with Paula and Sarah and decided to stop for lunch at the first shady restaurant. We found a good one just south of Mainz and rested for an hour and a half. It was about 5pm when we headed off and still extremely hot. We had promised Rachel to stop at a river beach and cycled over the Rhine to head down to Worms on the west side as this seemed shorter and looked more likely to have a beach. The route was now very rough and the going slow, after the small town of Nackenheim we were on better roads and found what I thought was a drinking fountain as it had the sign "Kein Trinkwasser". Rachel, Kate and I emptied our water bottles of our now warm water and drank loads of the Trinkwasser and also filled 5 water bottles up. It was at that point that another cyclist, who had been watching what we had ben doing told us that "Kein" was the German for "Not"! He could have told us earlier, but also, as he pointed out, "You need to learn more German"

On we went, bought some more water in Nierstein, and eventually found a suitable beach for a refreshing swim. The Rhine has been very full this year and it is a bumper year for mosquitoes, so while Rachel and I swam, the mosquitoes also had a refreshing drink from all of us. We had a quick sandwich and headed off

The track continued to be rough so we headed for the village of  Guntersblum, where we followed good quiet roads and cycle tracks through Alsheim and Mettenheim before reaching Worms

Worms is pronounced Vorms, rhyming with Forms, but we just call it Worms. It is a pleasant town but was getting dark when we got there. Chris realized he had lost his front light to add the days hiccups. By the time we booked into a hotel, showered and headed out it was nearly 11pm, and the only place serving food was a kebab house, so it was a quick Doner and bed.

A long and hot day, and an early start the following day as our friend Bill and his son Rory were catching the train from Karlsruhe to be at Worms for 9.18 to ride with us back to their house, where were having our 2 rest days with Bill, Ali and their children, Issy, Rory & Ellie

Todays Stats
Distance 95.8k
Time 5.11.58
Average Speed 18.4kph
Climb 230m
Total distance 915k