The last 24 hours of any great adventure has the potential to be the worst. The thought that everything you have enjoyed and experienced is about to come to an end and also the anticipation of the journey that you have to endure to get back to your family. Our last 24 hours has certainly lived up to that grim prospect.
Firstly the road that we had looked forward to riding, the B500 from Freudenstadt to Baden Baden, named as the best motorcycling road in Germany, and a real beauty, as we got to about the halfway point we came across diversion signs saying the rest was shut. Our first response was to press on, it had worked before, but about a km later we came across barriers and worse still a security guard who made it clear we were going no further.
This was supposed to be the highlight of our last full day before we headed towards Calais and home. The last leg of our trip had been the topic of discussion several times over the previous few weeks. We had been to this area on 3 previous occasions although great, nothing new and compared to all the previous places we had visited a little underwhelming. But there was always the B500 to get excited about, and now regrettably, there wasn’t. Neither of us wanted the adventure to fizzle out but also neither of us wanted to prolong it just for the sake of it. With the enjoyment of riding the B500 taken away after about 25 km, no matter how good it had been, our minds were made up.
Even though it would be a long ride we were heading for home. The diversion occurred deep in the Black Forest and we were diverted down minor roads very steep and quite slippy from the morning rain. A minor mishap with Andy’s bike delayed us a little but once back on major roads we started the mile munching that was to be the order of the day.
Taking toll roads to speed up the process and at a total cost of 32 Euros we arrived in Calais at about 6pm. We hastily booked onto the first ferry and it’s homeward bound.
The journey today has not been accompanied with the continuous chatter, so familiar on other rides. Instead we rode in almost complete silence, both I suspect reflecting on our experiences over the last 27 days but also a little miserable that it was ending in such an uninspiring way.
So there it is, the last blog from us Dad. We’ve enjoyed doing it as it’s made us document this very special journey we two brothers did together. We also enjoyed doing it as it made us feel closer to you, and if you couldn’t be with us, and it’s some time since I last saw you ride a bike, then this was the next best thing. It’s back to the phone calls every few days and listening to us rave on about the things we saw but who knows maybe we’ll do another trip and take you along again?
We love you Dad!
