Day 13 – Friday 20 July 2012

Rinteln – Syke-Clues

Campsite

Camping zum Hachetal, Im Fang 3, 28857 Syke-Clues, www.campingpark-syke.de

Notes

From Bückerberg Torfmann heads to Bremen, and I follow much the same route, but stop short at Syke where there is a campsite.

But first I had to get over the Wesergebirge. The River Weser manages to cut through a gap in the ridge, the Porta Westfalica but I puffed up and over the ridge in improving weather. Once over, I was onto the North German Plain and things suddenly got a whole lot easier. For the first day in the whole trip it did not rain, and secondly it was flat. The roads were small, and many of the links between roads were not on my Michelin 1:350,000 map. I had plotted them on my computer and downloaded them to my GPS device before leaving and the whole thing worked a treat.

My route took me through small farming hamlets where there was no restaurant and it was not until about four o'clock that I came across anything, and it was closed. By then I had stopped for bread and cheese along the way. I crossed the Mittellandkanal at Rusbend, and later crossed the Weser (by now a much more imposing river) at Wasserstraße.

The Syke-Clues campsite appeared to be abandoned when I arrived, so I found a place where there was one other tent and set up next to a volley-ball pitch. The showers needed a 50 cent piece and ran out before I had rinsed off, so I had to get the soap off with a flannel at a wash basin. I cooked a meal of noodles and sardines on my petrol camping stove.

Eventually a chap turned up and I paid for the night. It had been a good day.