The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2025

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Travelogue

Oooh la la (as a French lady literally said to us yesterday), what a day!

Yesterday we'd gone to bed wondering if our trip might be over. M2's bike had lost an important retaining screw and her whole left crank, peddle and all, had fallen off. You'd think this a minor thing because surely any bike shop would have such a simple part. Ah but then you don't know bikes, my friend! There's a distinct lack of standardisation in the bike world and manufacturers do like to reinvent the wheel over and over. Sometimes literally!

We'd been told of a bike shop in the town by the campsite that might he able to help. But it doesn't open until 2 pm on Monday. M1 had found a couple of other possibilities on the internet and one opened at 9:30.

Our next campsite was 110 km away so getting back in the road asap was important and we have an Airbnb booked in a few days time so we didn't want to get behind schedule. 9:30 sounded much better than 2 pm therefore.

So, we walked into the town, pushing our bikes, found an open boulangerie and had breakfast.

M1 then cycled out of town to a large Intersport and sat outside waiting for them to open. It was a 10 minute bike ride away which would have taken 30 minutes to walk, pushing the broken bike. M1's mission was to find out whether or not Intersport could help.

They could not. They did have an in store bike repair service but they didn't have the part. Curses.

M1 cycled back to the campsite and joined M2. We waited until about 13:30 and pushed the two bikes into Selestat and found the small bike shop that had been suggested. M1 went in. The place was a real bike shop. Crammed with bikes and tools.

The mechanic was really friendly and spoke great English. He said he thought he might have the part we needed but wasn't sure. He invited us to leave the bike and return in half an hour.

We did just that and were delighted to see his smiling face and thumbs up!

M2's bike is fixed. We're back in business.

We'd decided that fixed or not, we'd take the train to Strasbourg. If the bike wasn't fixed, we'd have more chance of finding a well equipped bike shop in a large city. Alternatively, having lost more than half a day, cycling from Strasbourg to Selz would be feasible.

So, we biked to the train station and somehow got the bikes to Platform D. M2's bike fitted in the elevator. M1's did not. Somehow M1 carried The Mule with all bags attached both down and up a big flight of stairs! Must be all the camping mush. It works like spinach does for Popeye apparently!

The train journey was dull and slow but we made it to Strasbourg.

From there the cycling should have been easy. It was more or less flat all the way. But it's been shockingly hot all day. 39 Celsius showed on the Thermodrop at one point. Mid-thirties most of the time. To make matters worse, we cycled into an exhausting headwind the whole time. It was like cycling uphill for 50 km.

But we made it and we're still on schedule! The campsite is by a lake and we're one of only two tents.

We'll leave France for Germany tomorrow.

Photos