Day 21: Roads to Rivers

Kirnbach to Donaueschingen (53km)

Baring disaster, today would be the last section of stage 3. I had left myself a manageable 50km until Donaueschingen, although this was predominantly uphill, especially the first 10km. I aimed to start a bit earlier today so that I would be climbing in the fresh morning air, unfortunately as it so often does, my laziness prevailed and it was just past 10am when I set off from the campsite. There would be no gentle warm up today, the road continued on from yesterday and was immediately steep. The 10km took forever, my cycle computer at one stage seemed to be going backwards. Each meter was painfully earned and I was quickly into my highest gear. My late start had meant that I was climbing in the blazing sun, looking hopelessly up as the road wound through the trees. As I entered the trees, I was afforded a brief spell of shade, which, despite the gradient remaining the same, made the climb much more bearable. I have climbed quite a lot of hills and they often have similar traits as you approach the summit. As I turned the corner, sweat streaming down my face, I could see a long straight section of road that finished with what very much looked like the top of the mountain. As I reached the top, I passed a sign warning people about airplanes, ‘I’ve climbed so high, that they are worried about me getting in the way of airplanes’ I thought to myself. My intuition was correct and this was indeed the summit.

A period of gentle flat roads followed before a long decent. Normally going downhill is good, it’s free miles, where the legs and butt can take a break, but today I wasn’t so happy about it. I knew that I was to finish high in the sky today, therefore any time I went downhill, I’d almost certainly have to go back up again soon. It proved to be correct and I was soon climbing again. Another huge climb followed, this time though with far greater shade, making it far easier. Atop of the hill, I quickly checked the elevation profile of the remaining kilometres, it seemed that I was now at my highest point and would be descending gradually all the way to Donaueschingen.

I have found that almost every village, town and city that I’ve gone through is either at the top or the bottom of a hill, requiring a climb to either enter or leave it. Now that I was in the Black Forest, these climbs seemed to be exaggerated. As I was entering Langenschiltach, I started to go downhill fast. The hill kept going and going. On normal days, it would’ve been a lot of fun, it was a long relatively straight downhill, with very few cars around, which allowed for an extremely fast descent (by my standards). However, I was concerned, this wasn’t the gradual descent that I’d been promised by my maps, this was a few kilometres of extreme downhill, I knew something bad was coming. Sure enough, as I exited the town, a large hill loomed ahead of me. I find that hills look steep from far away, then as you get close to them, they tend to seem much flatter, then once you are on them, you realise that your initial assessment was correct. This hill was a bit like that, except it looked steep the whole time.

It turned out to be ok and I was soon at the summit, now confident that only gentle downhill awaited me for the rest of the day. This time, it proved to be correct and the last few kilometres of cycling on this trip passed with pleasure. I arrived in the town of Donaueschingen in the early afternoon, checked into the hotel and parked my bike, his job is now done.

This section was certainly a case of getting back into the trip after the disappointment of the swim and it proved to be the perfect remedy. Apart from the heat, I really didn’t struggle at all with the section and the roads of Europe were an absolute pleasure to ride on. The quality and quantity of the cycle paths really put the UK to shame, they almost made cycling enjoyable, which from me is a massive compliment. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring places and countries that I’d never been before and witnessing places that most probably you wouldn’t pass through if travelling by car.

Before I waved goodbye to the bike for the remainder of the journey, I took a short ride down to the official starting point of the Danube. Little more than a stream at this point, I looked out at the body of water that I will be calling home for the next several weeks, wondering what adventures await me. That however, is for another day, so I headed back to the hotel, ordered a German beer and celebrated the successful completion of stage 3.