Back To SoloI left Heidelberg and I was back to being alone. This time, there wasn't a friend I was riding to, but I had Couchsurfing prospects so I didn't really mind. I barely remember the first day and I didn't cover much ground. I was pretty sleepy all day so I thought it would be good to find a place to camp pretty early on and just ill until I could put up my tent and sleep. As it transpired, the area I was in at around 6pm wasn't at all conducive to rough camping. Eventually I got to the stage where I was too tired to care and just camped behind a slight mound but still very much in view of the road. I was expecting company all night and could constantly hear animals near my tent. At about 9 I decided that roughing it when I was with someone was fine, but roughing it alone just wasn't fun. I'm not so full of pride as to just keep doing it regardless, so I contacted someone about 150km away in Bad Salzungen and got a response almost immediately. As I was camping in such a visible spot, I was up at 5.30 and on the road 45 minutes later, which meant I had time to cover the ground (150km is a big day for me). It was really cold that night so I had to put in the headphones and pump it to warm up. Somehow I covered a lot of distance and made it to Bad Salzungen by about 6pm. I met Mikhail the Russian doctor and his wife, the Russian doctor. As I was pretty tired I again wasn't the most fun guest, but they understood. We spoke about Russia, books, gaming and of course, energy. An Energetic InterludeThere are a lot of wind turbines in Germany, functional and under construction. This makes me feel good. They are pretty. They are clean. They are not noisey. There are also nuclear power plants here. I was talking to Kyle about Germany shutting down their power stations and how they have some (I think 16) in England but people don't really know about them. I mentioned that there were none in Australia and he was shocked. I guess you just use solar he said. Nope. When I got to Mikhail in Bad Salzungen, we spoke about a similar thing. He ask what we use if we don't use nuclear. I said coal. His response was literally "it's barbaric". Yep. Air quality is such a problem in China that they are starting to pump out nuclear power plants. It makes sense. Australia is embarrassing. People over here find something that is a good idea and they do it. We just oppose all change based on nothing factual, reasonable or scientific. Nuclear is not the solution. It is the stopgap we need in place of coal. Back To The StoryThe day I left Bad Sulzungen was a public holiday. I thought it was just a regular public holiday. I have since been informed that it was "Man's Day" where the guys get drunk and abuse their women. I didn't see much of the abuse, but there was certainly a lot of drinking. A national park I passed through was bursting with people, all had a beer in hand. I made the 115km to Ostramondra which is a small town in the middle of nowhere by about 6pm (again), an hour earlier than expected by my Couchsurfing host. It go cold. Twice I had to leave town to have a pee. Eventually I asked Meret to call the host to see what was happening. At 9.15 I heard a ruckus. Along the street comes a white horse painted like a rainbow being cajoled by three small hunting dogs, towing a cart with some super drunk people in it. Mission to get to bed early failed. The next day it took me an hour to find somewhere to buy food and by the end of the short day I was pretty knackered. This is getting monotonous for me writing as well as you reading but it's all I can do at the moment. As it stands, I am now in Halle Couchsurfing for two nights so I get a rest day. Also I've changed plans to go to Berlin first, then Dresden.
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22/5/2015 12:29:30 pm
Hey Chris!
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Chris JonesJust a guy going for a bit of a documented ride. Archives
May 2018
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