Day 4-3. Burhave to Wingst contd.
We found signs to the campsite along the road and at a quarter past six we turned into 'Campingpark Wingst'. We parked our bikes up out of the rain and went into the reception. On the noticeboard outside the reception there were two commandments, one regarding tying things to trees, bushes and fences and the other regarding the errection of 'pavillions'. Only allowed with express permission from the management, apparently.
Still, we were not planning of doing any of those things, high on our list of priorities was setting up the tent and cooking some dinner. The weather cleared somewhat while impressive stormclouds were still visible against a blue sky. We put the outer tent up and let it dry out and got on with the business of the evening. We had to duck into the tent a couple of times as light showers came and went. The campsite was lovely and quiet, the grass was well drained and the facilities were clean. It looked like we would get a good night's sleep and be able to recover from the short night's sleep at Burhave. We took our time in the showers and later on in the evening had a look at the maps for the next day.
When we planned the tour we were fairly sure we didn't want to visit Hamburg with our bikes. Big cities, in our experience are generally more difficult to navigate and cycle through, and then there is the problem of finding secure bike parking. Sometimes, as with our stay in Copenhagen, you get lucky and find a hotel with secure off road parking. But an internet search earlier in the year had turned up no information about secure bike storage in the centre of Hamburg. We didn't want to take these risks and decided we could always visit Hamburg another time, by train, plane or car. Maybe we could take our Bromptons and do the 'missing' bits in a long weekend.
So our plan for tomorrow was that we were going to leave the NSCR after Hemmoor and head through Altendorf up to Wischhafen. At Wischhafen we would take the ferry to Glückstad. This would save around one hundred and thirty kilometres, cycling along the Elbe, much of which would be through urban areas. We were not entirely sure where we'd end up tomorrow night but decided to try to get an early start hoping that this would give us more options at the end of the da. If all went well we should be able to do another hundred kilometres tomorrow, which would keep us on target for completing our route before Damae had to fly back to Holland.
Satisfied with the wisdom of our plan, we turned in for the night. We'd managed to cover over a hundred kilometres again, this time without having to double back as the day before. All in all it had been a good day, despite the rain, the wind had remained helpful and we were not completely tired out. In the cool evening air, and with the campsite almost completely silent, we fell asleep quickly.