Tag 1: Cycling at the coal power plants

The start of the bike adventure! It began with a slight delay at 11am. We first went through the hustle and bustle of Dortmund city center and Nordstadt. The bikes were running smoothly, with an additional weight of about 12 kg on the rear wheel (estimated), giving us much more grip. Did we need it? Well, with an outside temperature of more than 30 degrees Celsius and sunshine, not really :)) When we left the car and truck-dominated areas (which happened relatively quickly), we soon discovered a small harbor with a few smaller yachts at Seepark in Lünen. Older people were sunbathing on their floating second homes. It was quite idyllic. From there, we continued along the Datteln-Hamm Canal. At Bergkamen, we passed our first power plant with a large cooling tower. Later, two more power plants followed, which were also located directly on the canal, which was used (and still is used) to transport coal. We also observed an old coal mining tower from a distance. Many areas and buildings are no longer in use there, some of them are decaying, some are being renovated. We also saw some ships on the canal, as well as some people sunbathing or swimming in the canal, and even more people cycling. A significant part of our first half of the route led along the canal. We took a lunch break around 2pm under a bridge with a view of the parallel Lippe River surrounded by greenery. The walls of the underpass were decorated in typical Ruhr area graffiti style, and the floor was adorned with various cigarette butts. A little contrast program alongside the beautiful nature is allowed! Contrast is also a good keyword for the appearance of our bikes: in Dortmund, they were still nice and clean, but after the dusty route along the canal, they had put on a beige camouflage suit.

We discovered a nature reserve called Tibaum at a Lippe River meadow with many ducks, swans, and pigeons. From Hamm onwards, the Lippe River and the Datteln-Hamm Canal flowed very close to each other, and at one point near Hamm, only a wall separated them. In the meantime, we cycled on a dike-like elevation of the canal. After crossing to the other side of the river (finally some shade!), we rode along Adenauer-Allee for a while, and the canal ended behind Westfleisch and the third coal power plant in Hamm-Schmehausen. The route became more rural and had fewer waterways. So the second half of the route showed us rural life :)) We also spotted a pair of storks in a lofty nest, as well as some horses, cows, and sheep. In this part of the route, we mainly cycled on barely traveled country roads. This scenery would be repeated often on the next stages.

We reached our destination village Bad Waldliesborn around 6:30pm, which is located north of Lippstadt. We arrived at Hotel Waldblick after a nearly 90 km ride, quite exhausted, although the last part of the route was particularly pleasant through the forest. The shower was calling! Since the restaurant at the accommodation was closed, we ordered delicious food from Twenty One, mmmmhhh.

Data for Stage 1 (Navigation with Naviki, mode: leisure)

Start: Dortmund

Destination: Bad Waldliesborn

Route: 88.5 km

Travel time: 5 hours 31 minutes

Average speed: 16.0 km/h

Maximum speed: 33.7 km/h