Day 9 (9. Tag) 9th September
Regensburg - Reibersdorf 62 kms (493 kms from start)
Regensburg - Tegernheim - Donaustauf - Walhalla - Demling - Pondorf - Pittrich - Koessnach - Straubing - Reibersdorf
Click here for Day 10 - Reibersdorf - Nesslbach
It was a very cold night in the tent but we managed to stay warm in our sleeping bags. My self-inflating mattress is excellent. It gives me some insulation from the ground but is small enough to fit into the bottom of my rucksack. Every morning we had a ritual when camping. Don would get up first as he went to bed fully clothed and would make a coffee for himself and a cup of tea for me. While he was enjoying his coffee I would get dressed in the tent then pack up my sleeping bag and mattress and organise my things at the front of the tent, while sipping my tea. Then I would get up and we would have a simple breakfast if we had food. If not we would pack up and leave and get something for breakfast along the way. My supply of muesli bars and Don's biscuits usually kept us going until we could find a Baeckerei. We rode back towards Regensburg and then over the bridge to the other side where we found a small supermarket and bought supplies for the day. We picked up the Radweg again after hunting around for a while and set off on the left bank through an industrial area and then along the river bank to Tegernheim. We stopped for breakfast along the way when we found a parkbench. I had trouble with my bike - it was hard to pedal in top gear and I started to get tired from the strain. Something was wrong. We continued to Donaustauf and then a bit further on we saw the Valhalla monument, a classical Roman temple built by King Ludwig I between 1830 -42. Don climbed up to inspect it while I looked after the bikes. I decided to clean and oil the chain to see if that would improve my bike's performance. Don took some excellent aerial shots of the river from up above.
The oiling of the bike seemed to improve it a bit and we headed off again towards Demling then along a good riverside track to Frengkofen. From there it was quite a long way around Woerth and across country to Pondorf where we hoped to get some lunch. The Gasthaus was closed so we sat on a bench near the church and ate the rest of our supplies. We were soon joined by a Swiss couple with a young child in a bike trailer. The man was pulling 80 kgs which was amazing. They were doing a fairly long ride as well but not to Budapest. The young man was quite well muscled as though he'd been a professional athlete at one stage, perhaps even a cyclist. Along the way we saw a wonderful bridge - the Autobahn.
The day was warm and we were fairly conscious of sunburn so had to keep applying suncream which we had brought with us from Australia. The track now stays away from the river and goes across country to Koessnach. By that stage we were ready for a cold drink. From Koessnach we decided not to go into Straubing but to take a link road before the main bridge. Interestingly there was a sign for an alternative Donauweg at the start of our shortcut. Unfortunately there were trackworks which meant that we had to detour up to Parkstetten and approach Reibersdorf from an alternative route. Along the way we realized that my back brake had shifted and was locked on to the back wheel. That was the problem with the bike. Once we released the brake the bike was fine. What a pain. It was a hard day.
At Reibersdorf we found a Gasthaus with a campsite at the back. We were the only campers and had the place to ourselves although there were guests staying at the Gashaus including a whole lot of tradesmen who must have been working on a big project. They had identical vans parked across the road out the front. The facilities were excellent and after showering and setting up we washed clothes and put them out to dry draped across garden furniture. Then it was time to go round the front to have our first beer for the day. This gradually morphed into the evening meal. The food was good and as usual there was too much of it. We slept soundly that night.
