My Cycling Diary: Day 5 : Thu, Aug 18, 2011 - 78.00 mi [Cycling] Bretten to Kunzelsau

Day 5 : Bretten to Kunzelsau

Day 5 Speed & Elevation

Day 5 Stats
Distance = 78.29 Miles
Time = 07:10:23 hrs
Ave Speed = 10.9 mph
Elevation Gain = 5290 ft
Calories = 4218
Max speed = 29.5 mph
Max Height = 1690 ft
Min Height = 543 ft

Tour Stats
Distance =486.67 Miles
Time = 40:30:25 hrs
Calories = 26884
Elevation = 14311 ft

I was up early again and after breakfast I was off into town - the town was quite normal but the centre was full of old timber framed buildings.

After the previous day I had feared the roads out of Bretten would be both busy and undulating ... It proved to be neither - I found myself on a quiet, flat road out of town and past the nearby village of Grossvillars - all was well and then I even had a cycle path at the side of the road ... just perfect !

Next past Oberderdingen and I was seeing eagles flying overhead again - then the cycle path dirverted left away from the road but as it was signed for Leonbronn which was on my route I followed it without concern - It then veered sharply left and was heading 90 degrees away from the road - after about a mile I reached a fork and yes you guessed it - No Sign - so I took the fork which was heading nearest the road I came from and my route on the gramin ... Soon I was in forest ... here we go again :-( A 400 feet climb on poor forest track followed before I picked up the smoothe road again & i vowed not t stray off my route again.

I was now carving out the miles and at Zaberfeld I suddenly found myself off route ... this time I stopped & retraced my route and found a sign for the cycle path hidden in a large conifer hedge - very cunning ! back on track I followed cycle paths and minor roads to Laufen am Neckar where I regrouped, had an energy bar and braced myself for the climb out of the Neckar Valley which would be 1100feet in the next 10 miles.

All was going well - I got into a good rhythm and before I knew it I had done 600 feet and the legs were strong - I then reached what looked like a layby and the road turned left ... my garmin route went right ... so determined to stay on route I veered right on a gravel forest track which was decent enough ... the path got smaller... then it branched - I went left past a samll mysterious dark forest pool - the Bleichsee. Then another 200 yards and I was off track - I STOPPED ... back 200 yards and I had no option but to continue off track as my route just didn't exist. The track got smaller and veered further and further way from the route - It also got steeper -- I was dragging the bike through a forest ... AGAIN - I veered straight for where the route should be and at this stage I was trailblazing new tracks through the forest ... after 15 minutes i had hauled the bike to a track which led me back to my track and then .... A road .... hurray

I turned left along the route and passed a convalescing hospital for pneumonia patients but hang on - I was heading back towards Laufen ... I must have gone the wrong way so I turned round and cycled the other way ... but the road turned & i was again cycling towards laufen - I did this another 2 times and just couldn't work out my route - when I turned right I found another road which I tried but this took me 90 degrees away from my route. after 20 minutes and my third time past the hospital (one of the patients in the garden seemed most bemused by this) I saaw a cyclist coming my way at speed - I hopped on my bike and as he hurtled past I hailed him down..... " Bitte, Konnen sie mir helfen ? Ich gehe auf Schwabisch Hall" ... with great indignance at having to slow down about 1mph to tell me he shouted - " zweiten auf rechts" as he disappeared at pace. I passed the hospital for a 4th time then afteralmost a mile the road doubled back on itself and headed in the correct direction followed by a junction and a sign - Schwabisch Hall ... and in 2 miles I was at the top of the climb.

10 miles on the flat followed until just before Michelfeld where the road just dropped and a great plain lay ahead of me - an exhilirating descent at about 26mph followed until I reached a cross roads at Michelfeld and a MacDonalds - Food and liquid intake most certainly required.

I knew from my visit to Kunzelsau in the early 90s that the road to schwabish Hall was busy and not good for cycling - so i took a minor road through Neuhofen and across fields and under the Autobahn to Kupferzell which was only 5 miles from Kunzelsau which I could almost feel now. At any moment now I would pick up the small windy road through a lovely wooded glade which dropped into town......

Well a lot changes in 20 years - the road now linked the Autobahn with Wurzburg and it was MEGA Busy with juggernauts and it had no verge at all - I was eye to eye with huge artic's wheels at al. After about 3 miles at Gaisbach the road went rhough a cutting and seemed to be almost motorway grade - I bailed out and hopped a barrier and dragged my bike across a ditch and into a factory car park by the roadside - I could see a large new college on the hill so i headed for that and at Gaisbach I reached a T Junction - right obviously took me back onto the bypass where i had came from - Left was bollarded off with signs saying Road closed !! ... I went Left ... and boy was that a good decision - after a mile downhill the road looked familar - i was in the wooded glade I remembered and ahead was a sharp bend through the valley which I remembered ... but the road was blocked with concrete blocks.

I cycled through the blocks and ventured down the closed road I recognised aand it rejoined the new bypass .. but the all importat thing was it rejoined as a cycle path behind a large metal barrier - I was on a perfect path downhill through the wooded glade & i could see Kunzelsau at the bottom of the valley.

I cycled past my hotel to get to the bridge across the river Kocher - I crossed the bridge and stopped by the sign for Kunzelsau where I balanced my camera and took my picture - this spot is so special to me as for years I possessed a post card depicting this very scene which my great mothers brother had sent to Howden in the 1920s

After almost 500 miles I had reached my great grandmothers village where I had taken my mother to visit in the early 90s, I sat by the river and couldn't contain my emotions - I was tired, had achieved my main goal and suddenly my mind was racing with memories which all came flooding out at the riverbank where I remembered walking 20 years ago.

After 5 minutes I pulled myself together hopped back on my bike and cycled to the hotel - a quick shower & change and I was off into town to take some photos before the sun went down.

Route :

Photographs :

4 Miles : Perfect minor roads for cycling near grossVillars

7 Miles : A little further and I stopped to photograph one of the
many eagles circling overhead.

15 Miles : having already gone off track into a forest
once today I had a bit bother keeping on track in
Zaberfeld - here is the sign for the cyclepath I was
following - hidden nicely in a conifer !

29 Miles : Laufen am Tauber - you may note the valley does drop
away a lot - the climb back out was 1100feet.

51 Miles : Near Ammertsweiler and I have reached
Reisling Country - the steep sided valleys were lined
with rowas and rows of vines.

39 Miles : The forest track my garmin took me onto which I
was foolish enough to follow.

41 Miles : The forst track was now a path and
in the next half a mile the path became ... well
Forest !

51 Miles : More views of the Reisling fields.

51 Miles : More Vineyards

65 Miles : This is my first sign for Kunzelsau
About 10 miles to go !

76 Miles : on the home straight - this is the first glimpse of
Kunzelsau looking down the wooded glade through which the
road passes approaching the town from the south as I was.