Day 21: To Badbergen

August 30, 2022

It was a good night and we even got a lie-in this morning as we only had a short day planned. When we did finally get up after 12 hours in the tent Mike was already at work but Daniela was still around. One thing I forgot to mention - last night when we’d been feeding Kevin I had mentioned that Dea enjoyed eating his baby food too. “Yes! Me too!” Daniela had exclaimed. “She used to eat it all the time,” Mike remembered, laughing, “one spoon for the baby, one for her...”

It had been enough to convince me to try a bit of Kevin’s fruity food, and I must admit it did taste good! Just like an excellent smoothie.

Dea filling in Mike’s guestbook (or trying to stop Kevin eating the pen at least) while Daniela cleans her bike.

When we did eventually get going we had a nice ride for the first session of the day. Luckily our hosts had mentioned to us about an old railway line that had been converted into a bike trail and we were able to get completely away from the roads for a few kilometres of brilliant cycling on our way to Dinklage.

But this is how they usually are. Back to reality as we approach Dinklage.

We took our break in the middle of the town on a bit of grass under some trees right opposite an Aldi. It was a fine spot! While here we took a video call with our friend Matt, who some of you may remember from my book as the short little bearded chap who was motorcycling with Dea in Mongolia on the day that she and I first met. Indeed, it was only because of Matt’s decision to stop and talk to me that day that any of this happened. So we all owe him a lot, especially Kevin, who wouldn’t exist otherwise. As such we think it only right that we visit Matt while we are in England and we spoke to him in order to make arrangements for visiting him on his boat (he now lives on a boat) in Bath. This we did but the significantly more interesting part of the conversation was about how Matt had very recently taken trains from England to Denmark (by unfortunate coincidence he had arranged to visit Denmark a week after we left it) and along the way he had been approached by Greta Thunberg, I think in Dover Ferry Terminal, who he then travelled along with for two days all the way to Denmark.

“I don’t believe you,” was my response, but he wasn’t quite adamant. “What did you talk about?”

“Disastrous climate breakdown.”

The story seemed to be holding water now. I demanded to see a picture.

“Yeah I’ve got a picture,” he said. “I mean, she’s wearing a mask though.”

Matt did send us a photo of him with what absolutely does look like Greta Thunberg in a mask, taking a selfie, with Matt photobombing behind her. Unfortunately I stupidly just asked his permission to use it, so you’ll just have to take our word for it.

It’s a little hard to continue with the blog now. Obviously it would be much more interesting to read Matt’s blog about taking trains to Denmark, but he doesn’t have a blog, so we will just have to try and plough on with our boring day not hanging out with world famous people. Don’t worry though, at the end of this blog we will be taking trains to Denmark, so you never know, hang in there.

During our break we surrounded Kevin with tarps and tents due to his love of rolling onto the grass and the fact that there were acorns everywhere.

I did some shopping in Aldi and on my way back I caught Dea being very strange.

Being in such a public place I think she was worried people would think she was homeless if she just laid on the grass, so she tried to do some exercises to make people think she was normal.

After our break it was back to roadside bike paths.

I don’t want to seem ungrateful about the German bike paths. Sure they are often in bad condition and next to busy roads, but my goodness they are still a fantastic option to have. It really is remarkable how may bike paths there are and it’s just a shame more places in the world aren’t like this.

Our hosts were another “one night tent” garden in Badbergen. They were very friendly motorcyclists with a super nice beautiful lawn, that we sat outside our tent on to eat our dinner - wraps filled with tofu, vegetables, and garlic sauce, yum yum. Now, all across Germany at every single break we take, literally every single break, there comes a wasp. Because it is always just one wasp and because it always comes, I am quite sure that it must be the same wasp that is following us. It is a very strong and resilient wasp to fly along and keep up with us for such a long way, especially as I have killed it twice. Yesterday it even got into Kevin’s trailer. It must have flown in through the back which we keep open due to the heat, and Dea noticed it in there buzzing around next to our precious baby, which gave her quite a fright. Luckily it didn’t sting Kevin and it flew away when she opened up the front of the trailer.

But this evening it was back. I noticed it flying towards Dea as we were in the middle of enjoying our wraps. At that moment Dea was distracted looking at Kevin who was lying in the tent behind her so I said, “our wasp is back,” and at that very same moment it landed on her finger, and then in the very next moment Dea’s wrap was being thrown in an instinctive panic, tofu and vegetables and garlic sauce being scattered across our motorcyclists’ beautiful lawn.

Today's ride: 22 km (14 miles)
Total: 704 km (437 miles)

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Rachael AndersonPersonally I’d rather read about your travels than about meeting famous people! I love your writing!
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1 year ago

Rich FrasierI agree with Rachael. The three of you are famous enough for me!
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1 year ago