Riding in solitude: 3 days, 331 km, 2 nights camping
A 3 days solo ride from Berlin – Spreewald Lübbenau – Hoher Fläming – Schloss Mansfeld

Date of journey: 15-17 September 2018 (Saturday-Monday)

During this whole time, I was silent yet aggressive, but constantly being deprived of attention. She was too busy soaking up this wonderful world in her serene solitude. That’s so silly and rude.. but let’s see for how long?!

Hi everyone!
Remember me… I am Parmanu, the tumor on Priti’s back. With complete authority, I have recently hijacked her account and her life. Now, I am going to tell you the story of our recent bike trip.

Each year, the research group in which Priti works organizes a tutorial kind of workshop in a location with limited network connectivity. The event certainly strengthens the team network connectivity. This year’s site was “Schloss Mansfeld”, almost a thousand-year-old castle located in the region of Mansfeld land in Saxony Anhalt, Germany. Priti decided to cycle to the workshop venue, which is approximately 200 km from Berlin (direct distance). I was absolutely not ready to take this stress and made myself quite clear to her about it in my usual distasteful way.

Two days before her ride, I wrapped myself with intense and radiating neurological pains. She was terribly uncomfortable and I could feel that she has at least started doubting herself with the plan. I brought some new inexperienced pains to her this time. Instead of resolving the issue with me, she dropped an email to my enemy and her doctor for an appointment with a complaint report. I wasn’t sure of my success as the packing and planning were still progressing. I felt tired by Friday midnight and dozed off for a while. Early next morning, she just carried me on her back and went on yet another journey to happiness.

Here is a little secret I am telling you: although initially, I was reluctant to go, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Shhhh…don’t tell this to Priti!

The plan was to reach the venue in 3 days, so Priti planned a detour to cycle to Spreewald for the first day, then to Mansfeld via Hoher Fläming. Here is the route we followed for three days:

Day 1, 15 September 2018, Saturday: Berlin – Spreewald Lübbenau, 105 km

With her mind still clouded by doubt, Priti was cycling out of Berlin city. 25 km into the ride, we entered a beautiful countryside and took our first break. It was a charmingly cold morning. We also took a stroll through the forest of Strintgaben, lined with rows of nearly vertical (almost 90 degrees to the ground) trees. Pine, beech, and oak are typical trees in the German forests. With no one around, Priti tortured the poor trees with her awful singing. She sang one of her favorite songs, the Smurf song – “la la la la la la, sing a happy song. la la la la la la, Smurf the whole day long…” (some of you may remember this experience with her).

The interplay of light and shadow in the forest distracted her enough that the confusion, I tirelessly built, somehow evaporated. Moving on, we crossed many tiny villages one after the other and witnessed awesome landscapes, beautiful lakes, herds of horses and many deer frolicking and leaping across the road, corn fields, and sunflower farms. The pictures in the gallery below will give you a much better impression of the route and the fun we had.

Around 3 pm, we reached the campsite named, “Camping am See” Hindenberg (FYI: wild camping is illegal in Germany). The owner could not speak English and I know German only a tiny bit (Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch). It was funny and interesting to talk to him. Later, Priti had a delicious meal to reward herself. Then, she chose a nice spot near a tree and pitched her tent. While she was just walking around and taking pictures, a Swiss lady, Edith, from a nearby caravan approached her and kindly offered to take Priti’s picture with our tent. Thereafter, they had a long conversation about life and journeys. Edith had been traveling with her husband for almost a year. Before that, for a very long time, she was helping mentally challenged kids. It was quite refreshing to talk with someone who understands so deeply the intensity of mental health issues and the necessity to raise awareness for the same.

The sun was slowly going to the other half of the world. As we gazed at the setting sun, somewhere Priti was thinking that about the words of Alexander Pope’s “An ode to solitude”
“…Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”

But, here I am telling you her story, so she is not anymore unseen or unknown! I was tired by now and I started poking Priti and forced her to lie down (haha I win I win!). She slept but decided to get up sometime during the night to watch stars (my short-lived victory!). When she woke up, the campsite was completely dark and we saw such a splendid star-studded sky after a very long time. Time passed slowly as we were glued to the light show of starry carnival in the sky. I guess we must have been sitting in the cold outside for a very long time. Back in our tent at around 2 am and I rested some more.

Please click on the image to see the full aspect ratio image slideshow with captions. These are just square thumbnails for the gallery.

Day 2, 16 September 2018, Sunday: Spreewald Lübbenau – Hoher Fläming, 108 km

Yes, this was the day we almost fully spent in true solitude! Approximately 90% of the time, we were alone and cycling through the forests. The morning was chilling cold in this fading European summer. We were heading west and the sun was shining on my face and on Priti’s back. It was very soothing till afternoon and thereafter quite hot and uncomfortable for me.

When we reached the Fläming skate region, Priti biked on some impressive asphalt paths passing through the forest areas. I remember that sometime in August, Priti cycled the RK1 circuit (95 km) of Fläming Skate project. But today, our route touched partially all the circuits. Even though it felt like as if the villages were in a deep slumber, I can tell you one thing for sure: one could die out of thirst here, but not with hunger! There were plenty of apple, pear and plum trees marking both sides of the path. Priti also plucked some fruits and loaded herself with plenty of sugar (though I am more fond of a chilling drink of coca cola than fruits). Towards the end of the route, we saw a big forest burnt down to ashes. This summer, there has been a few news reports about the accidental fires in German forests and it seemed that this may have been one of them (see gallery for photos).

After experiencing a lot of nature’s tranquility and peace, we finally reached the campsite, “Campingplatz Hoher Fläming“, where the silence remained unbroken. There was no one on the campsite, not even the owner. Priti looked around and found a note saying that the owner will come by 6 pm. Priti found herself a comfortable spot near a hedge and started pitching her tent. In the meantime, a couple arrived with their caravan to the campsite. Priti had a little chat with them and then requested the lady to look after her tent and bike while she went for a meal.

A coke and a lemonade – quick rehydration for both me and Priti. The restaurant, Gasthof Doris Moritzs, had an old era style ambiance. Although there were only a few vegetarian options, it was nice.

Back at the campsite, we met the owner, Fritz. He was a cheerful guy and as expected, could not understand English. I think it is quite common for people away from the main cities to speak just the regional language. With her poor German skill, Priti managed to tell him about herself and her travels. I guess Fritz enjoyed it. Afterward, we met another girl who was staying in one of the cabins for some time. Heidi is an environmentalist and was a very friendly girl. There were cheers, laughter and happiness everywhere in the campsite.

Today, Priti decided to clean and re-lubricate her bike chain and the derailleur. This is what a cyclist does when there is nothing else to do, reclean and re-lubricate the bike and then repeat it, haha!! Slowly and happily, Priti did this job in almost an hour humming her favorite tunes (which are mostly kindergarten poems or distorted good songs by the way!). The plan was to sleep as early as possible and get up in the night to see the stars. Priti got up at around midnight, but alas! there were lampposts glowing all over the campsite, so only very few stars were visible. Priti took advantage of the situation and did some light painting photography. Do have a look in the gallery of day-2, last pic. She wrote my name over the tent. I felt loved!

Please click on the image to see the full aspect ratio image slideshow with captions. These are just square thumbnails for the gallery.

Day 3, 16 September 2018, Monday: Hoher Fläming – Schloss Mansfeld, 118 km

On last day of the trip, we started off from “Bergstrasse” (‘Berg’ in German means mountain). Dear friends, I must tell you that it was not just the street name, but the whole route today was just going uphill. Almost 100 km distance was just a mix of gradual and steep climbs. By afternoon, Mr. Sun was overhead and it became extremely hot and Priti’s only savior was sips of water from her supplies. I was missing my cola!

By 9 am, we reached the river Elbe in Coswig and crossed it on a ferry. Our route then matched with a part of the famous 1260 km “Elbe cycle route“. At least, here it was flat and quite enjoyable until our path deviated towards our destination the “Schloss Mansfeld”. Our aim was to reach the castle by evening (after all I was desperately looking forward to a soft mattress). There was no known cycle route connecting the current location and our destination. Therefore, Priti ended up cycling mostly on state roads with no bike lanes or extra space on the sides. These roads are definitely much smoother to ride, except that we had the company of trucks and lorries which are allowed on weekdays. I, sometimes, wonder what a great life it would be if biking routes were as wide as these roads. Wait, it was the case in Denmark (a pending story to be told). Back to this trip, there were a few segments when we faced a lot of traffic but the lorry and car drivers were considerate and gave us plenty of room to ride safely. It was a continuous uphill. The unending long and winding state roads didn’t have any shade or side space for taking breaks. Crossed some tiny villages and it felt like the whole Saxony was sleeping at this time. Priti was constantly looking for some shops to buy cold drinks as she was about to run out of water-supplies soon. I wanted my cola so badly! Soon, we reached the city of Dessau and a Berlin Déjà vu started happening. There were traffic signals at every 200-400 meters. But the silver lining is that Priti got water and I got a Fanta. Priti stored some more water for the remaining day.

From the elevation chart, Priti already knew that at around 95 km, there will be a steep uphill. The difficulty level increased when we saw that the steep path is actually another crowded state road. Priti cycled this section slowly on her bike’s lowest gear. The gradual uphill route continued, but the idea of sleeping inside a castle by evening kept her going. Yay! we finally reached the Mansfeld area. Towards the end, the GPS showed some shortcut path to the top of the castle hill (after all who doesn’t like a shortcut!). But here comes the surprise, we had no idea what “kind” of shortcut it was until we took it. It was basically, a very steep gravel trail meant for walking. There was no way we could have biked on this steep trail and so Priti decided to walk on this path. It was crazy pushing the bike up the trail with the load. Priti could not brake or stop as the cycle would have simply tumbled down under gravity. After struggling for some 400 meters along the hiking path, Priti managed to reach the top and then in another 700 meters we reached our destination. Hurray!!

A few colleagues had already reached there by cars and trains. Priti did her usual photo-session around the castle with me. She then locked her bike inside the castle garage and we took a walking tour of the castle. The evening ended with a lovely barbeque and campfire with her friends.

Please click on the image to see the full aspect ratio image slideshow with captions. These are just square thumbnails for the gallery.

Life in the castle

In short, it was an amazing experience living in a “castle”. Every morning before breakfast, Priti slept on the big and wide side walls of the castle which offered a bird’s-eye view of the town of Mansfeld, transitioning from the dawn to the bright daylight. Daytimes were dedicated to science but evenings were colored by the beautiful sunsets, followed by the campfire and a bubbling and giggling gathering of friends under an open star-studded sky. During these 4 days and 5 nights, we were blessed with amazing sunsets and clouds with numerous shapes left to one’s imagination. Here are some glimpses of the evenings we spent there.

Please click on the image to see the full aspect ratio image slideshow. These are just square thumbnails for the gallery.

Overall, it was a memorable experience. I am glad and I hope that Priti is grateful to me that I allowed her to add another story to her life. 🙂