The Go Trek – Week Five

I’m looking at the sky, it’s cloudy and grey BUT it’s not raining!  This week has been the wettest so far and the places we have been have made world news due to the floods!  I was told by a local that “in 50years of being in the region there has never been this much rain”…

It was however a sunny start to week five, thank goodness, because we were welcomed to the beautiful town of Germersheim by the Mayor, newspapers and television!

Click here to see our debut appearance on the news in Germany.

The day and event was organised by Hardy, owner of this incredible bike – the Pedersen.  The design is over 100yrs old!  Michael Pedersen was a danish inventor and manufctured the bike in Dursley (GB) in 1893.

A very old and very cool bike!
A very old and very cool bike!

The cycle paths in Germany are a real treat, they are well signed, in good condition and at often take you through beautiful countryside.  After time in Germersheim we took a very remote path through dense but stunning woodland to Knittelsheim Muhule – a lovely hotel off the beaten track.  Thank you to Hannes for a lovely evening and to Hardy who organised it all.

The following morning we awoke to heavy rain that lasted all day – with miles to cover we set off anyway and were so happy at 6pm when the rain stopped and we had this view!

After the rain comes the sun!
After the rain comes the sun!

We took advantage of the dry weather and covered more miles that evening and found a nice little spot to camp just outside of Beitigheim, which meant only a few miles the next day to our destination, another gorgeous German town – Affalterbach.  We had the good fortune of being invited to stay with Herman and Marlene.  They are Daryn’s parents, Daryn is the ElliptiGo distributer in Germany.  After hot showers Marlene fed us delicious home cooked food and then Daryn arrived and gave us massages – incredible massages!  You see Daryn also happens to be a physiotherapist, reflexologist and practitioner of Chinese medicine.  That saying….. feet, landing on, springs to mind!   After our service, it was time to have a look at the Go’s.  and give them some TLC too.

Here’s a little Punkt video about The ElliptiGo Service.

We had a date with the Mayor in Affalterbach, who has a great sense of humour – he gave us towels!  Daryn and Herman rode with us for a while that day.  Herman is 70.  He’s had two hip replacements and he did 50km, a distance he and Marlene regularly go on their ElliptiGo’s!

With Daryn and his Mum & Dad!
With Daryn and his Mum & Dad!

Our next stop was Basti’s house.  Basti is a friend of a friend of Daryn’s, kind of!  He’d met him once.  Anyway, when Basti was asked if we could stay he said YES!  Basti was so much fun!  Dave and I left his house both a little bit in love with him the next day.

Punkt video – This is Basti

Basti’s house was in Reichenbach, that night we had sand bags at the door and the town was on the news expected to be under water by morning!  Thankfully it wasn’t…  Just…  Another days ride in the rain with u turns several times due to flooded cycle paths and we made it to Ulm.  What a reception we had!  Live on the radio, with the television and newspapers there too the Mayor greeted us with quite a crowd in the square.

Click here to see our welcome – Dave captured the moment on Punkt!

As luck would have it we’d arrived just in time to have special entry into the annual Ulm Minster stair race.  Yes, that’s right a race!  540 steps after 1,300miles of ElliptiGo’ing!

The record time is just over three mins to the top.  The average is five mins.  I’m delighted to say we both did it in four and a half!

Leaving Ulm the next day we decided to do 90km – I mean why not, after a race?  The thinking behind this was to reach our next stop a day early so that we could then have a full rest day.  We set off feeling strong and managed a record pace!  We covered 33miles in two and a half hours.

If someone had told me that Dave and I would do hundreds, in fact thousands of miles on an ElliptiGo, then after a long day, enter a stair race, get great times and then set a record pace for a long distance on the ElliptiGo the next day I probably wouldn’t have believed them…  However, that is how we finished Week Five!  The ElliptiGo is amazing.  It’s not just a great way to travel, it’s a great way to train, to get super fit and improve condition too.

I love it!

So now back to the rain!  ….  While sun would be amazing I think to myself, “it might be wet, but compared to a bad day on a high mountain this is actually just fine”.  The ElliptiGo’s aren’t phased by the rain either and I think my face here is a good indicator of how I’m feeling!

Smiling as I ElliptiGo in the rain!
Smiling as I ElliptiGo in the rain!

Thank you to everyone who is supporting and who has donated to Coppafeel, our choosen charity for this event.  We’re now over half way to our £3000.00 goal with online and offline donations!

For more info on The Go Trek and to make a donation please click here.

 

 

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