First of all I guess I should tell you about the ferry then. So in fact I had not misread the text, they really have cancelled our ferry ….which is of course somewhat suboptimal given our hotel in Athens, our flights home and the courier to collect our bikes are all predicated on us arriving when we say we are arriving. Because we are in the middle of another insanely hard day I simply don’t have the capacity to think about it  right now and so I forward the text to Jo and plea for her help. Within just a couple hours I get a text flash up that simply says “it’s all sorted”. What a fantastic relief and what an amazing wife I have. Jo has rebooked us onto a ferry which will sail the following day. It means a bit of jiggery pokery to our plans but we can still make it work ….phew!

Given we have chosen to stop early at an unscheduled campsite we get ourselves an extra 2 or 3 hours of much needed recovery time. It’s also a really nice campsite in a beautiful spot. My only criticism is that I found the gents toilets very intimidating and so try to “hold it in” until we leave in the morning.

We are, as is now the norm, up and out by 730 and on the road to our rest day campsite. It is immediately apparent that our decision to stop for the day before the climb we could see coming was the right one. It is 13 miles, 2 hours and 2500 feet of climbing to get to the planned campsite (which doesn’t look as nice anyway as we ride past) and on the back of an already hellish day that would have been almost certainly undoable. We are both very happy with our choice!

Obviously climbing up to over 3500 feet means that more often than not some “downage” will follow and it duly does. With a couple of notable and punchy exceptions the rest of the day is largely down….which is of course very very welcome. It is also properly beautiful here ( we are in the Black Forest) and we regularly  stop to take it all in …not only is it stunning to look at its also so peaceful and it smells amazing (weird thing to say I know but it really does….oh and unlike us who desperately need to wash some stuff!)

We pause for lunch, and our first sit down meal since the Lydden Bell (6 days ago!!) in Engen and then push on down towards the shores of Bodensee.

When we hit the lake (not quite literally but very nearly) we pick up a cycle lane that follows along the shoreline and we just keep pedalling south east. We do have a campsite in mind today right at the other end of Bodensee, 30 ish miles away still. We did try and book it in advance but they told us all the reservable pitches were taken but they do have a small number of “back packing” pitches which are on a first come first served basis. The final bit of information they give us is that if we want one of those pitches they “highly recommend” arriving by midday to get one. Given its already gone 3pm and we are still 30 plus miles away this obviously injects a bit of additional and unwelcome jeopardy into our day ….the idea that we might cycle 10 hours to our much needed rest day only to find we can’t camp there is not a pleasant one.

It’s a nervy and never ending grind then along the length of the lake and to compound things it’s apparent that everyone in Germany is on holiday here. Not only does that make cycling a bit more of a challenge (it’s strongly advisable not to hit pedestrian with your bike) but every campsite  we pass has a rather ominous big red sign saying “begelt” which we take to mean “no chance mate”.

Eventually, just after 7pm we roll into Campingplatz Iriswiese am Bodensee….the guy on reception does the German equivalent of the teeth whistle thing the plumber does when you ask them how much it will cost to repair your boiler and just when I think he is about to turn us away it’s clear we are in! I am not sure if he took pity on our clearly exhausted, dishevelled and no doubt smelly demeanour but who cares …we are in!

TMAAT have arrived at the midway point of our adventure then. We have covered 682.5 miles in 7 days of cycling and climbed over 29045 feet….both of which are new records for us. It has been a huge, brutal, challenging but rewarding and fantastic week.

Whilst we have been busy turning ourselves inside out, Dan, our missing from this adventure third man, has been rowing himself into oblivion and has so far managed to reach the frankly unbelievable 500km point (he is rowing 800km in total, the equivalent of our Dover and Adriatic ferries) ….what an amazing achievement….huge kudos to you Dan.

Finally, for now at least, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has followed, liked, shared and donated so far….it means so much to us to know you are there supporting us. In particular it’s a HUGE shout out to Emma Welch for organising the TMAAT quiz night this week and to everyone who took part raising a massive £270 towards our total ….thank you so much, sorry we couldn’t be there but I am sure you understand.

The fundraising is going great then but we would love to raise even more so please keep doing what you are doing and perhaps tell your friends about us and what we are up to, check down the back of the sofa, empty the copper jar and raid the kiddies piggie bank (they will never notice anyway!)…..every single penny makes a huge difference.

Thank you.