I remember the first night on the road. We were in a field on the outskirts of a
little village. We hadn’t managed to
find a campground that night and we pitched tent in a hurry. I woke the next morning to the sound of a
coo, coo,…..coo, coo and I thought what
a wonderful sound to wake up to at 5am, in a field on the open road, with no
worries other than what we have to do that day.
We were woken throughout England between the hours of 4.30 and 5 am by
that sound for the three weeks we were there.
By the end of the third week, I was beginning to wonder just how many
pigeons inhabited this fair isle? I have
now come to the conclusion, having spent the last three and a half weeks in
Europe, that it is not in fact a flock of pigeons, it is one BASTARD of a
pigeon who has followed us to Europe with only one goal in mind……..
Now call it paranoia, but when you’re woken every morning in
different parts of different countries by this one particular sound, you do
start to imagine that this one pigeon has made it his goal in life to drive you
insane with his constant coo,cooing. I
feel the need on a regular basis, to jump out of my sleeping bag at 4 o’clock
in the morning when the coo cooing is driving me mental, and shout at the top
of my lungs “Will you shut the F… Up!”
Call me crazy, I know what you’re thinking, but I’ve done
some research into this and there are birds that take a fancy to someone and
will follow them to hell and back. (Or
even Helsinki and back!). So for the
love of God, will you pick on somebody else to wake up first thing in the
morning or send me some other animal noise ‘cos I have to say, this constant
coo cooing is a bit like having tinnitus.
JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!
So this morning the pigeon woke me at 7am. He had obviously slept in, maybe because it
was a Saturday. I immediately woke Ju to
say “Have you heard that f’ing pigeon?
The gentleman from the local mental health ward alias the
looney bin, did suggest some deep breathing and a new shotgun.
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| One of the lovely things about cycling is the wildflowers you get to see |
Over to the showers to clear my head and hear something
other than coo coo. Ju met me in the
kitchen after her shower, where we enjoyed another delicious breakfast while
the computer was charging. It started to
drizzle very lightly but not enough to halt our departure. It was very warm this morning and the
raindrops were actually quite welcome.
Cycled up the dusty gravel path to the main road and headed
for Haby and then Riesby before crossing the water to Lindanis over a one way
bridge.
Cycled along country roads
heading for Suderbrarup where the roads were undulating now instead of the
constant flat we have been used to over the last three weeks. Stopped at a bakery and then headed out of
town with our sights on Sorup, but keeping our eyes open for a nice place to eat
our recent purchases. This is where life
became a little more testing as directions for this village just stopped, and
we had to do a bit of guesswork. Whilst
we were guessing, we stopped to eat our bakery items in a wooded glen, taking shelter
from the very hot sun which was now out in full force.
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| Ju does her scarecrow impression |
Still looking for Sorup, we came upon the village of
Mohrkirch, where a nice lady put us back on track. Stuff the little roads now we thought as we
headed for Steinberglurche where we shared a small coke and then ploughed on to
Dollerup, Langhallig and Ringsberg before turning off toward our destination, a
campground near Glucksburg at the very top of Germany.
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| Another great thing about cycling is all the great houses you see |
As we arrived, the hot sun that we had endured throughout
the afternoon had been replaced by a menacing dark cloud. So we got the tent up in double quick time
before the deluge hit. Sat safely
ensconced in the tent thinking how glad we were to not be stuck out in that lot
and waited for it to pass. However,
because we had been dreaming of a swim during the entire hot, sticky afternoon,
we were not about to let a little rainstorm put us off, so once it had passed,
we ventured down to the beach.
Unfortunately it was not a patch on the Eckernforde beach of yesterday
but Julia was that desperate she went in anyway before we both got showers.
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| Our pitch overlooking the Ostsee. |
After our showers, the storm well and truly hit. Half an hour of spectacular thunder and
lightning and a good deluge of rain to go with it. Sat in the tent wishing we could watch the
lightning as it was lighting up the whole tent.
Our little home withstood it’s first solid test with ease and we emerged
at 6pm to go and watch the Argentina vs Belgium game in the bar with three
other people.
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| Pete pulls his cycling legs up to try and nullify the tan line. When you wear lycra day in, day out, you have no shame! |
After the game, which Argentina won 1-0, we went for a meal
in the on-site restaurant. Took a guess
at the menu and thought we had ordered pork fillets with mushrooms and potato
croquettes and we were right! And it was
thoroughly delicious! Had ice-cream with
Baileys to follow and then went to the laundry to type up the day’s events
while charging the computer.
Back to the bar at 10pm to watch Holland, although Ju could
only mjust past halftime before her drooping head took her off to
bed. I stayed on and watched Holland win
1-0, thank goodness, as they thoroughly deserved to. Great football.
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