Days 20-21 – Cycling in a Winter Wonderland: Jena to Tharandt

Days 20-21 – Cycling in a Winter Wonderland: Jena to Tharandt

Saturday January 24, 2015, 176 km (109 miles) – Total so far: 1,770 km (1,100 miles)

Day 20: Jena to Gerstenberg – 74.3km

After all the drinking the night before I did my usual trick of downing a couple of glasses of water before going to bed. It had paid off in the morning when I woke up without any hangover. I love it when that happens!

I ate as much as I could for breakfast, good hotel breakfasts would be rare for me during this trip so I made the most of it. With everything sorted I headed down to the lobby to retrieve the bike and say goodbye to Billy and Juliana.

An uncle of Billy and mine had been following the blog and had given Billy strict demands to make sure I was a bit more visible before I left central Europe and was out of reach! In order to keep the family happy Billy donated a hi vis jacket to the cause which I would wrap around the tent on the back of my bike. He also threw on a few reflective stickers on the mud guard. With the job done we took one last group shot before I reluctantly had to leave the warmth of the hotel lobby and step out into the cold once again.

I thanked Billy and Juliana again for their generosity before setting off, it was great to have such a nice relaxing evening in between the long days of cycling through the cold German winter.

Being a Sunday morning the roads were very quiet so I had a very relaxing spin out of Jena and into the surrounding hills. The fresh snow of yesterday evening meant the hills were white. With the blue sky and the sun shining it made for a beautiful scene.

I followed the cycle tracks out of Jena which made for some tricky cycling as they were a mix of ice and fresh powder. Cycling through this landscape with white all around me was so nice though that I stayed on this path making slow progress for quite a long time before cutting back onto the salted main road.

I followed the main road through Burgel and all the way onto Eisenach. From here I decided to aim for Altenburg. I knew there was a youth hostel both there and in another village 20km past it. With the late start and the slow progress I was making I decided to go for a short day and chose Altenburg as my destination.

I put my trust in Google to find me some quiet roads to link over to the main road to Altenburg. I was in no rush today as it wasn’t that far to Altenburg so I was happy to try out whatever Google threw at me as long as it meant a quiet day away from away from traffic.

The roads Google sent me on were actually pretty decent. There was one section of deep powder which was challenging but that was it. A mountain biker had gone through before me so I was able to follow his path through the snow. Every so often I would hear ice cracking beneath me so I knew I was going over frozen puddles. Somehow my 45kg bike didn’t sink into any of them though.

For the rest of the day I followed a mixture of quiet roads and forest tracks. One of which had possibly the worst road surface I had seen yet. It was essentially made up of concrete slabs with big gaps between them meaning the bike and myself were battered constantly for the entire length of this section. Once out the other side of this it was a clear run to the outskirts of Altenburg.

I arrived into the outskirts of Altenburg in the dark to find out that the hostel was unfortunately closed for the month! With it being dark already I would find it difficult to find a wild camping spot in the surrounding countryside. All the snow on the ground would make things slightly tricky as well.

My only other option was to switch on the data on my phone and find some other nearby accommodation. Luckily for me there was an apartment for only €20 3km back up the road in Gerstenberg. I switched on the lights and did a 3km sprint back along the main road in the dark. It felt good to get some speed up, with me usually doing 5-6 hour days on the bike in Germany I had to keep the speed steady so I could keep going all day. So it was good to let loose here and time trial at 30km/h all the way to Gerstenberg.

The apartment here was run by an elderly German couple. I was surprised by how nice it was. I had a huge kitchen/living room with a widescreen TV and my own Wifi. It ended up being a good bit cheaper than the hostel as well so I had gotten quite lucky.

Day 21: Gerstenberg to Tharandt – 101.7km

Having finished short of my usual distance yesterday I needed to increase the distance for today if I was to try and get back on schedule for arriving into Istanbul at the end of February/start of March. Looking at the maps the night before I noticed there was a huge patch of forest just before Dresden which looked perfect for wild camping. I aimed for this and set off a bit earlier than the day before to try and make it there.

There was still a lot of snow on the ground outside Altenburg but as usual the roads were perfect.

Mid way through the morning it started snowing heavily. I had to ditch my glasses as I was barely able to see a thing as the snow kept landing on them. Without the glasses I was getting blasted in the eyes in the snow but at least I was able to see…kind of! I got stared at even more than usual as I was passing through the villages during the heavy snow. Most of these people probably thought I was a fool to be out cycling in this (and I probably am!) but it wasn’t that bad actually and I fought my way through the snow until it subsided.

With the snow now stopped I was able to zip along through the countryside. I stopped off in a park in the centre of a random village which had some enclosed deer running around for some reason. This was my only real break and I continued along the empty road through snowy hills and plateaus until I descended into the village of Freiberg.

It was starting to get dark here so I got through the town centre as quick as I could and started the climb towards the woods I had aimed for. I took a quick break on the edge of town to assess my options. It was very cold out and there was deep powder on the ground around here. I thought back to the last night I had wild camped when it was -3 and the struggle I had to take down the tent the next morning with numb hands. Until I had found a solution to the numb hands problem it was probably better that I didn’t camp in the snow when it would most likely go below that temperature. So I checked my options on the phone and found a reasonably cheap guesthouse in Tharandt.

I ended up arriving in Tharandt well after dark and after dicing with the traffic in the dark I found my way to the guest house. I was able to have a warm night here hiding from the cold temperatures outside.

With all these nights in hostels and cheap guest houses I was wondering if I was starting to get soft. I had only wild camped the first two nights in Germany and not at all since. I assume most round the world cycle tourers would have no problem camping in the snow in these temperatures. I felt kind of like I was wimping out here. If I could just find some way to sort out my hands I knew I could do it. I had the gear to camp down to -15 or even below, it was just my hands that were letting me down which was really frustrating. I had looked up options for better gloves and found a set that seemed like they would do the job. The soonest I could get these shipped out to me though was in Istanbul. So it looked like I was kind of stuck until then. At least the hostels in Poland would be cheaper so I wouldn’t feel so bad but still it felt like I wasn’t fronting up to the challenge like I should.

There isn’t anything anyone can say to me that would change this feeling. I enjoy setting myself challenges, the more difficult the better and trying my best to conquer them. Overcoming these difficult challenges and doing what you never thought you could is one of the best feelings out there. Failing at one of these due to poor blood circulation and bad preparation/research was very frustrating.

The mountain passes of Turkey in March will be even colder than here so at least I would be able to buy new gloves and try again. Hopefully then I could conquer that nagging feeling that was at me every night I was in a hostel/guest house. For better or worse I was able to get a good night’s sleep here anyway which set me up well for my last day in Germany before reaching the Polish border.