From Lehrte to Winsen

Thursday, 18.06.2020

Good news: The little swallow from Bad Staffelstein has survived the hypothermia caused by the cold rainy season🙏 A big thank you to the kind lady from the animal shelter!

The morning is simply beautiful today. I open the small exit of my one-person tent and look out onto the lake... the sun is shining through the clouds. I take a dip in the pleasantly warm clear water... fantastic! And now for a nice cup of coffee... a magnificent morning here in 'my paradise'.

And off I go to new adventures. As I pack everything up again and get on my bike, I have the next surprise: another flat tire on the front wheel🙄 Once again, I dismantle everything from my trailer and start the repair. Now I know how to do it😅 But there is no hole in the tube... so it can only be the valve. And I can't replace that, because it's integrated into the tube. I put everything back together and pump up the tire... it seems to hold the air. At the next gas station, I add a little more air, and the journey continues.

In the afternoon, I arrive in Celle. I'm looking for 'my charging station' again, at the restaurant with the yellow 'M'. It starts pouring rain... oh my god🙉 This will be interesting... where will I sleep tonight... what will camping in the rain be like?

I'm looking for a lake nearby... it's 20 km away... travel time about 3 hours. Maybe the rain clouds will have disappeared by then. That would be nice, of course. But it turns out differently... after almost 20 km, just before reaching my destination... I pass by a campground. I consider whether I want to spend a night here today. I drive to the entrance gate and ask a gentleman if there is still someone there where I can register. He says he just closed. But he is willing to open the gate for me. And once again, I feel something like divine providence.

It's wet and cold... really uncomfortable, but I'm not made of cardboard... I set up my tent under a group of beech trees... so I'm not completely in the rain😅 After a nice hot shower and a hot self-cooked semolina pudding, I fall asleep comfortably in my sleeping bag.