What a week this was! A week filled with emotions, with the best but also the worst feelings I have experienced for a long time. But let’s start from the beginning
Seven days ago, last Saturday the 12th of January at 11:30 I said goodbye to family and friends and cycled the first few km’s out of my hometown Bern towards Basel. We organized a little brunch to sit together, eat and chat one more time. These 3-4 hours felt like 30 minutes and when it was suddenly 11:00 o’clock, I couldn’t believe that this moment has come now.[/penci_text_block]
That feeling of freedom which I experienced on the first meters / km’s was so intense and is hard to describe in words. I took the bicycle path I cycled so many times before to go to work and then made a short stop in Moosseedorf, next to the house I grew up as a little boy. After this little breather I cycled all the way through to Oensingen where i wanted to look for a place to sleep. Although I’ve done this same route to Basel on my road bike before, I wanted to take it easy on these first few days and only cycle between 50-60km’s a day.
Finally in Balsthal, after the first height meters and after I noticed a fine stitch in my knee, I decided to ask the next / closest farmer to pitch my tent on his land. As before on my test-tour, the first attempt was a success! The farmer let me sleep in a closed shed next to a wood stove and even brought me some coffee! What a great end of this first day.
For the next day, rain was announced and I didn’t set an alarm clock cause I only had to cycle around 45 km’s this day as i wanted to visit a friend in Riehen on the border to Germany. When I woke up because of the agricultural machinery I then packed all my stuff together, thanked the farmer for the hospitality, put my rain gear on and started cycling. What bothered me on the first meters was not the rain or the cold but my left knee that still hurt a little.
So I climbed up to Langenbruck in a slower pace when suddenly rain turned to snow. It was snowing so hard that I could barely see anything and the only vehicle that passed my several times was a snowplough. Though the harsh weather, I had absolutely fun on the bike! It’s all these little things and challenges, being outside in nature where you feel so alive, that’s why I’m so motivated for this trip!
Though I had fun cycling this day, my knee pain got worse on the last 10 km’s to Riehen and I wasn’t unhappy to arrive in the early afternoon. I looked after and treated my knee the rest of the day, but the next morning I couldn’t go any further.
It was two weeks before the start as i accidentally hit my left knee horribly on a doorframe. Although I was able to walk normally these last weeks, I did not cycle or had any other pressure on the knee. Regarding the type of pain I knew that it has to be from that accident and couldn’t be from a normal knee overload, the right knee is fine! A visit to the doctor later this day sadly confirmed this presumption.
Cause the bone skin of my left knee is infected I have no other choice than to wait and let the knee completely heal. So.. here I am now, laying around since last Monday and taking care of my knee with plasters, ointments, medicine and what else is possible. It’s definitely not the start I wished for and I’m still struggling to accept that I can’t continue at the moment! It is very frustrating I had to stop after only two days on the bike after months / years of preparation, cause the only thing I want to do right now is to ride that bicycle.
Since the knee is still not 100 % okay until today, I will have to wait some more days and hope to be back on the bike / on the road soon!
Thanks again to family and friends who came by last Saturday so as all the support and wishes from all of you in the last few weeks!
until then
Fabian
5 comments
Hey Fabian
Get well soon!
Don’t let it bring you down.
Peace
Hey Patrick
Thanks a lot for the wishes!
By no means! ☺️💪🏼
A few days more of anticipation 😉
Hello Fabian
I am writing you from the south-western part of Germany.
And you’ll will read in the very last text passage why.
Its a couple of years that I moved from Switzerland where I spend nearby 20 years.
That’s why I knew VeloPlus and enjoy sometimes using their links to travel reports.
Practicing bike-to-work, I cycle all year through.
My route from home to work is a 10 km small trail only passing through forests and fields.
This means a great luck of having no car traffic at all.
But animals like deer, rabbits, or squirrels also having fun, playing a game to show up suddenly for to proof regularly my reaction time.
So here is my message to your enterprise:
You probably sit and wait for healing your knee injury.
This is what you missed the last weeks in southern Germany:
Frost, snow, ice, wind, storm and cold rain.
All these weeks I have to used my old MTB with studded tires.
Despite being experienced with gear and protective clothes, I still fought with cold fingers and toes.
So your awaiting probably reward you with less struggling conditions in February!
And I envy you for all the upcoming months of travel – Good luck!
Jürgen
Hi Jürgen!
Sorry my late reply!
Exactly on the same day you wrote this comment, I started cycling again from Basel towards Hamburg. I cycled all along the Rhine river to Mainz where I unfortunately had to break off again because of heavy knee problems.
Like as you mentioned, the first two days were really windy with freezing temperatures! 😁
Apart from the knee pain, I had a really great time in south Germany, met awesome people and highly enjoyed cycling along the Rhine. There is coming a short blog post soon about this week through Germany and when I’m gonna start again!
Wish you all the best Jürgen, many tailwinds and happy times on the bike!
Fabian
Ouch. A dodgy knee doesn’t sound like fun at all – particularly in cold and freezing weather!