5 June, 2015

OK, a few statistics to start: the first part of our tour, getting from the Spanish/French border up the west coast of France, was 800 kilometres. The second part of the tour, crossing France from west to east, will have covered just over 1200 kilometres when we get to the German border later on this morning.  The remaining third part of the tour is about another 1300 kilometres or so.  It has taken 29 days to cover 2000 kilometres and we have 24 days left, so, in theory, we have plenty of time.  However, when we wake we realise we are in for another scorching day – one of those days where just sitting still is hard work.  If the heatwave continues, bearing in mind we have the mountains of Austria to face, we may find the pace slowing somewhat.  Still, we’ll have to face that problem as we come to it.

Forty kilometres sees the end of the Canal du Rhone au Rhin, we have travelled it from start to finish.  Before we leave the canal we manage to snap a photo of a coypu on the bank- we’ve seen them several times but never managed to take a photo before.

Before us is the magnificent Rhine, which we will be following for the next 200 kilometres or so.  We had forgotton just how impressive it is.  We cross the river into Germany for literally a few hundred metres before crossing the border into Switzerland.  We’re not staying in Switzerland for long and after about 5 kilometres we cross the border again back into Germany.  The official Eurovelo 6 route spends more time on the Swiss bank of the Rhine, but we’re going to keep to the German side and pick up the route a bit further along.

We remember this part of the route from our tour of the Rhine from sea to source last year.  Unfortunately, it is one of the less enjoyable parts of the river.

First, we have the busy city of Basal to cross; it looks like every citizen has decided to go to the riverside to sunbathe or swim in the river.   Then we have a very disjointed section with lots of twists and turns, ups and downs, crossing and recrossing of roads and railways which proves to be completely energy sapping.  The heat is tremendous.  We have no idea of the actual temperature, but it is enough to melt the glue that holds the fastener on my map case so the map keeps falling out and that has never happened before.  Originally we had hoped to reach a nice campsite at Waldshut that we stayed at last year and take a day off tomorrow, but at 5pm we still have over 20 kilometres to go.  We don’t want to push on any further and so stop at a hotel by the riverside.  We think that tomorrow we’ll have a quick run to the campsite and have the rest of the day off to recharge our batteries – literally and figuratively.