The view on today’s ride along the Elbe was not so dramatic as yesterday. But the day still generated some drama with a thunderstorm that caught me a bit after the halfway point.
If there was a thunderstorm warning issued this morning for the afternoon, I must’ve missed it. But as I was riding, the signs were unmistakeable with the bruise colored sky of swirling clouds taking a large percent of the sky. And coming my way, it seemed.
At some point, the front edge of the storm caught up to me and the crosswind became extremely strong. It threatened to blow me off my bike, so I decided to stop and take some shelter behind some juniper trees in someone’s driveway. The clouds swirled over my head, lightning flashed and then the rain started and began to intensify as the wind calmed slightly. And so, in about 15 minutes, I set off into the storm with full rain gear on my way. What else to do? You can’t hide in someone’s driveway all day and the weather wasn’t any worse than we had ridden through many times in New Zealand.
I made it to Torgau, my desired destination, having ridden about 63 miles that day with about 750 feet of elevation gain. I think I have about 120 miles left to get into Berlin, meaning I should have two fairly short days and be able to camp pretty close to Berlin to get in there and meet Jay on Monday.
Wendy and Mike, our friends from Liverpool, warned me that the Euro Cup is in Berlin on Sunday, so I’m happy that I won’t be there then!
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