On Monday we started cycling from Breuschwickersheim. We had 4 days scheduled to do 155 km, a lot of time to develop a daily routine and to have a buffer in case something goes wrong with the bikes or trailers. We even managed to all leave around 1 pm on the first day, which is a record by far among the last years.
Cycling was quite hard despite only doing between 30 and 40 km per day. The summer came back with some really hot sun, and the road went up and down a lot through the Vosges mountain range. In the end we climbed about 1200 m in total during the 4 days.
Most of the route we cycled on the EuroVelo 6 along the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, which is basically a motorway for boats that crosses the mountains along its valleys, sometimes crossing other rivers through a bridge, going through the middle of lakes separated by dams, and once even passing a mountain by 3 km of tunnels.
Our newly-built rocket stove worked well, and a big solar panel did a good job at charging everyone’s electronics. Someone even brought a USB fan that was used to blow air into the fire.
We went dumpster-diving every day and found quite a lot of stuff. We were particularly successful at getting huge bags of old bread from bakeries and supermarkets.
On the third day we had our first gender circle. This was an idea that we had in the preparation, to talk about the issue early and frequently, not only after a conflict arises regarding the topic.
On the way, we stopped at many lakes, passed through really beautiful landscapes and canyons and camped on big fields far away from anyone else.
