Last night we'd more or less hopped straight in to bed (once again!) and had barely said goodnight to our new friend Manuel so we were pleased to see him (he was first up for brekkie - us cyclists need our breakfast) and enjoyed another classic German feast. Manuel told us he was a naval architect and impressed us with lots of interesting facts about ships. Sounds as if he has a cool job and gets to travel to London and Copenhagen reguarly. After breakfast he was whizzing home to Hamburg, cycling the 120km by 2pm to meet his colleagues for a beer - not bad! Such a distance we could only hope for today...Still, we were feeling confident and felt that after a night in a hostel we should be ready for anything.
We were in search of the elusive town of Plon. Hardly anyone we spoke to had heard of it and after what felt like hours we still seemed to be nowhere near. There were signs, road signs and cycle way signs but each one seemed to say Plon was a different distance and half the time the next sign said it was further than the last - infuriating!
Mid-moring and as we followed one of the many pavement come cyclepath come someone's driveway Hana yelled from behind to, 'look out for the lady!'. As I swerved to just miss her and slammed on my brakes Hana was forced to cycle in to the road to miss me and took a nasty fall as she too rammed on the brakes. The poor shocked woman helped Hana up as I wrestled with my panniers searching for the good old Rescue Remedy. Hana's hand was already really swollen, she'd landed on her shoulder and was in shock. Luckily there hadn't been any cars on the road. It was such a horrible situation as neither of us can speak German - we'd don't even know how to say sorry (entschuldigung!) so were both just repeating over and over how sorry we were in English. Although the lady hadn't been looking where she was going I was definately going too fast and too close to the entrance of her driveway. However, she was very kind and understanding, gave Hana a hug and gestured that we should slow down from now on and off she went. We peddled off slowly and a few miles later spotted a cafe where Hana was able to recover with a lovely hot chocolate - her perfect medicine.
We made it to the town of Neumunster and Hana bravely siad she thought she could make it to Plon. So we pressed on, in the now driving rain, and on and on and on. And still no Plon! The signs on the main road suddenly announced that bikes were not allowed and we were forced back on to the winding cycleways through the tiny sleepy villages. So near but yet so far. We decided our next best bet was for a village called Stocksee which, according to the map, had a campsite. Just as we made it to the village sign I realised I had a puncture. It was still raining, getting darker and at this point we weren't really sure how far the campsite was. Even with a sore hand Hana is still a master of the tyre change and helped me (I have extrememly limited patience when it comes to puctures!) as I struggled in the cold and wet.
It really was getting dark now but we saw signs for the campsite and asked a local lady the way. When we got there it looked closed. Very closed. Just as were busy groaning a man drove from inside the site, popped his head out of the car and confirmed that the site was closed and that tomorrow was the last official day of the season! No! Hana promtly announced that we were staying anyway and he didn't seem too bothered and drove off (I'm still not sure who he was!). Oh yeah, after telling us that we'd have to get to Plon to buy food as there wern't any shops open near here (bloody Plon!).
We hadn't managed to find a shop all afternoon and had run out of proper food so this was not good news. We found a spot, pitched the tent and investigated the showers. The least we could ask for was a hot shower...Hoorah - there were lights and the water was warm, even if the shower block itself was the scariest shower block ever. The campsite was desterted, we were camping there without anyone knowing, we hadn't paid AND we were next to lake...lakes are scary in the dark! I think I watched Friday 13th too many times as a teenager! As we went to sleep I shed a little tear...
I don't even know how many miles today and frankly don't care - today was rubbish!
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