Day Nineteen

31/05/25 - Day Nineteen

Lazy start today, getting away at 10:40. No plans on distance so was keen to go with the flow and see what came my way! Feeling better than last night and excited to see what the day would hold. Got up to 30 degrees so a good test of some heat and handled it well. Ended up on 50 miles for the day, and after a post lunch wobble - the holy trinity of loneliness, self doubt and anxiety - took a gorgeous dip in the Rhine.

Refreshed and having cleaned my boxers, I watched jealously as some boys backflipped off a foot bridge into the water. I fear I may be getting too old to learn to backflip now, but never say never! I then carried on a kilometre or so further to the Rhinefalls, taking a gamble on a track. it led me along the banks of the Rhine and I came out by a ferry port, some turnstiles and stairs leading up to an glass lift. Speaking to some people coming down I asked about the lift, they hadn’t a clue. So I risked it again and shouldered my bike and carried it up the stairs to the amusement of passers by.

The lift had a no bikes sign, but the alternative was 3/4km which I just couldn’t face so I took it up the lift anyway. The lift spat me out at a castle and more turnstiles to the viewing platforms. Turns out no ticket/payment needed! So I spent half the time admiring the largest waterfalls in Europe and half the time being amused by people taking endless photos of one another in front of them.

I then nipped down the river to Schaffhausen to grab some food for supper. Pasta and pasta of course, and a bottle of choccy milk! When filling my bottles at a fountain, a man came and did the same and we got chatting. Yury was a very nice Russian engineer living in Constance, Germany, further down the Rhine. We talked about biking and camping in the area. He told me about a Swiss/Russian watchmaker fella named Henry Moser, who took the first bicycle trip to India!

I had to depart though as it was now past 8 o’clock and knew how tricky it can be to find a spot. My spirits were high though as I rode away from Schaffhausen. I approached a farm house to ask if I could camp in their garden but they said no, so a soldiered on. Just down the road I found a woods where people owned small plots on the riverside. Set back from this was a forest track and it didn’t take me long to find somewhere a way off into the forest. It’s still 20 degrees as I write this and I intermittently can hear dance music playing from a not so distance speaker. I hope they don’t come exploring my neck of the woods!


 

 

Niva, niva

 

 

 

Cameras never do these things justice!

 

Spotted a Zeplin as I spoke to Yury!

 

 

 

 

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