The Go Trek – Week Four
There have been some big events this week; we kicked off by ElliptiGo’ing the entire length of the River Ahr doing our first century on the GO’s (100 miles in one day), we had our first night camping, we slept in a barrel and we passed the 1000 mile mark – making this journey officially Journey No.8 for Dave’s Expedition 1000 project.
We thought we’d done pretty well making it to Day 23 before we got the tent out! It was a lovely spot by the River Lahn and there was a full moon.
We woke to the sound of rain – which was a bit miserable. It did clear up though so we dried the tent while enjoying breakfast in Bad Ems having got the photos we’d gone there to get!
The sun only teased us for about half an hour and we set off again in the rain, we back tracked to the Rhine and both pulled over in Kamp Bornhofen, without saying a word, when we saw two huge barrels by the waters edge!
On closer inspection we discovered one of the barrels had two camp beds in it. Obviously we had to stay there!! We found Torban, the owner of the barrels and discovered he was a German champion chef back in the 90’s! He prepared us some delicious food, insisted we used his hotel sauna to relax our muscles, and invited us to sleep in the barrel that evening. I was so excited to be staying in a barrel!
If barrels aren’t your thing Hotel Ankor has huge lovely rooms with water beds, the food is delicious and the family who run it are welcoming, generous and kind.
After a barrel of laughs (!) that evening we set off the next day and didn’t get far, just down the road in Kaub Am Rhein we spotted this!
Benno, the maker of the bike and owner of the truck stop it sat outside, invited us in for tea. He also fed us chips, gave us Benny’s truck stop fleeces and oil – for our ElliptiGO chains. Benno, thank you!
That evening we reached Wiesbaden and stopped outside the www.KRKG.de rowing club. I wandered in and saw some young rowers and Einstein! He looked me up and down, came outside to meet Dave, took one look at the ElliptiGO’s and smiled. He thought they were wonderful and hopped on for a test ride. Einstein turned out to be Axel, the rowing club coach. Over tea and cake he told us that he’d been at the club since he was 12 and had rowed for Germany. I was amazed when he announced he was 70! He departed some life advice on Dave and I …
“Decide in your life; that which is important and that which is not.”
…and told us we could camp on the club grounds and use the facilities.
What a lovely man. I hope I get to 70 and if I do I hope I’m that cool and that full of life.
Here’s a little Punkt video we made that evening…! Axel and the rowing club punkt video.
Having mostly been rained on this journey, except for in the UK where it was gloriously sunny, we were happy to start the next day in full sunshine. I optimistically put on shorts and a sleeveless top. Soon we were drenched and cold and adding warm layers. The rain stopped as we approached Frankfurt – a very significant point in our journey. 1000 miles. This whole project came about because of Expedition 1000 – Dave’s project that will see him do 25 journeys of 1000 miles or more on non motorized transport. The Go Trek officially became journey number 8. Yay!!
Apparently we’d arrived in Frankfurt during the skyscraper festival hence the streets being so crowded. It was great but we couldn’t stop for long; we had to make it to Dharmstat that evening – an ElliptiGo dealer called Stefan had invited us to stay in his shop! ‘Der Mover’ is like no other shop I’ve ever been to. A bike shop with a party room attached; there’s every kind of bike you can imagine to ride on, karaoke, lasers, baby football tables and all in the most magnificently decorated themed rooms.
Stefan took us out for sushi, drove us faster than I’ve ever been driven to the top of a multi story car park, sang karaoke songs to us and showed us a laser show. Just another regular evening on The Go Trek then!
The end of this week was marked with a glorious evening by the Rhine. We headed South from Darmstadt, the sun came and we had a dry nights camping by the waters edge.
It’s been another week of meeting kind, interesting and lovely people. Both Dave and I are getting fitter and the endurance challenge we are facing, whilst tough at times, feel very do able on the ElliptiGo’s. I’m also LOVING Germany. It’s a country I’ve never travelled in before and (despite a lot of rain – which we’re repeatedly told is unusual for this time of year!) it’s beautiful, lots of history, culture, great cities and warm people. I want to come back here… maybe on my BMW GS 800 next time!!
For more info on the trip please follow us on www.thegotrek.com
Thank you to all who have donated already to our chosen charity, Coppafeel. To donate and support us in our aim to raise £3000 please click here.
Back to blog