Huge farmhouses with smoke billowing from their chimneys in the still warm morning air nestle between the rolling hills. The sights, sounds and smells of the idyllic bucolic Schwarzwald are simply beautiful, but I do not have time to leisurely soak it all in as I need to cover about 90km today!
In order to ensure that I finish in daylight, I take a short cut before rejoining the main route and winding my way - mainly on tarmac - between the many farms of the rural Schwarzwald countryside. The tarmac suddenly falls from beneath me as the abrupt descent to Triberg begins.
Landing in the middle of a busy centre, I pick my way through to the train station, behind which starts the climb to Schonach im Schwarzwald (home to the World’s largest cuckoo clock). Somewhere between the recent logging activity and poor signage, I loose the way and end up back in Triberg - albeit the western side, so I power along the road in the heat of the midday sun!
From Schonach im Schwarzwald, I head into the forest where I get hopelessly lost. As I am staring up at the signpost hoping for the names to change and it all make sense, along came a friendly German chap to see if I need help. I do and Caleb kindly offers to lead me back to the route. When I travel, life affirming things like this remind me that the World is not as bad as you see in the papers or on the news. I am not sure if it was sweetened by Caleb’s random act of kindness, but the descent to Simonswald puts a huge grin on my face. This is rapidly removed on the next section...
The climb up to Kandel was relentless. Just under 10km of steep, strenuous, sustained climbing in the shadows of the forest covered peak. The torture is made worse as just when the trail looked to be flattening out, another steep section would come into view. It is easily the worst two hours and fifteen minutes that I have spent on a bike.
If time seemed to grind to a halt as I climbed, then once I reach the small church where the descent begins, literally flies by. With the moon appearing in the sky and the sun dipping below the tree covered skyline, I arrive, exhausted, in Buchenbach.
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