Bad Kohlgrub to Fussen

June 29, 2024

To the land of Ludwig

It’s a particularly fine morning and the view from the breakfast table towards the horizon is truly astounding, though a little heat haze is already apparent. Our Airbnb host shows us around their house. It’s massive, but very comfortable too - very woody, but this is Bavaria and we’ve noticed the enormous amount of wood that can go into one building. But it requires no gas or oil, being well insulated and with solar panels. The living room has a floor to ceiling bookcase with a ladder to reach the highly cerebral volumes no doubt.

A cycling group assemble outside their accommodation.

We off about 9:30am and find the bike route at the top of the street, heading NW to Saulgrub. The trail is unpaved beside the road initially and then enters the forest, where we have about six kilometres of gravel. It is shingly and rough in parts and requires concentration for our road tyres, and also because there are lots of weekend e-biking groups.

A Dutchman rides beside us for a while. He’s good company and we chat about the route he’s on to Rome from Amsterdam. He congratulates us on riding ‘bio bikes’.

After crossing the Halbammer River, the BK route heads north around to Wildsteig and south to Wies. It’s still very hazy, so we don’t see all the peaks around us. Soon though, we are cycling through an open valley with paragliders and Raptors hover above.

At Trachau we manage to find a small supermarket where we buy some basics and a bottle of cold Fanta. I can understand why it’s the pope’s favourite tipple on a hot day. We know there’s no shop at the campground at Forgensee so we need stock up.

The day is getting hotter. I get through 3 litres of water.

Has to happen. I keep thinking of suitable song titles.

We now embark on the picturesque Panorama route around the top of the lake. Weekend crowds are swimming and e-bikers are hurling themselves along at great pace. We, on the other hand, take the climbs at a much more leisurely pace, and there are many ups and downs before we reach the entrance to the campground. Just before we do, a young man on a road bike cruises beside and tells us that we are on BIO bikes, tells us it reached 34deg today, and we are Impressive.

We’ll do anything for a compliment!

We set up our tent on a small area set aside for people like us. Interestingly, we booked this from NZ - a mistake, because they made us book four nights. We see now that cyclists are simply arriving for one night and leaving. When Ann tackles the reception lady on this later, because we only want two nights, she is unbending .

Once our tent is up and filled with our accoutrements, we head to the lake for a dip. The water is very cool, very blue and very refreshing . And in the distance is the famous castle. With the surrounding peaks and the castle of Ludwig in the distance, it’s quite a surreal swimming spot. The lake has an immense number of watercraft plying their way about and we even see a rowing eight.

Later dinner is a pizza and cold pils. The ground beneath our tent is hard, but we don’t notice too much.

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 241 km (150 miles)

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