Kat-ventures: A Late Summer Day in the Saddle

Distance: 118.1 km
Time on the road: 6 hrs
Time total: 8 hrs
Calories: 3500

I set off not as early as I wanted to but still early enough at 9am. With roughly 100km ahead on my bike I wanted to take it slow to preserve some energy for the even longer track of day two. Unfortunately I had to take the bigger backpack due to the sleeping bag's size. Damn. I really need a rack and some additional bags.
I started nevertheless and headed south-east towards Erkner. Since I live quite in the center of Berlin that took as long as and hour, but with such a fine late summer weather, little traffic and a cycle path the going was fairly easy. I took a short break, had some fruit and an egg before the next stage that should lead me to Bad Saarow having accomplished two thirds of my tour then.

Erkner

I switched to my iPhone navigation since the maps I had printed were just a rough guidance. The sun was warm in my face and the roads mostly deserted as I passed through typical Brandenburg scenery with woods, now-empty fields and meadows, the scent of resin, moss, herbs and... well... summer in my nose. Brandenburg has its very own charme and I have to admit that I felt very attracted to it. Infact I always did. A pity that the few small villages I passed through didn't belong to the more beautiful ones. So I was looking foward to a longer break in Bad Saarow hopefully with some ice cream and coffee.

Somewhere in Brandenburg

After 4.5 hours and a few detours (No, a road bike is NOT suitable for sandy paths!) I finally arrived... only to be very disappointed that there was no village at all at the point where I entered it. After a quick study of the map I decided against taking another detour to see the village proper and have my break in Storkow instead, only another 6 km away.
Upon entering its vicinity I spotted a nice place out of the corner of my eye through a gap the the bush directly at the shore of a big lake with some benches on the green and even some rails to tie my bike to. Wow! It looked like a secret spot, haha. Had some more food and relaxed a bit in the sun drying my sweat drenched shirt before I approached the last third of today's tour.

Lunch break at Storkow

I was determined to reach Teupitz - my destination - without another break as I passed by an ice cafe in Maerkisch-Buchholz. I couldn't resist and had a nice ice cream bowl and a cappucino, dwelling in childhood memories of my dad taking us on tours outside of Berlin and making us only go when promising some ice cream, haha.

Ice cream break at Maerkisch-Bucholz

A door on the other side of the road

Just keep on going

Eight hours after leaving home I finally arrived at the Teupitz campsite direcly next to a lake. The place was small but quiet and the woman at the reception was very friendly. Still I think 9 EUR for one night in my tent including a token for 4mins in the shower is a bit too much. Pitched my tent, had the first half of my chicken, made good use of my four-minute-shower and sat on a bench at the waterfront for the better part of two hours waiting for the sunset. Didn't feel that exhausted but hit the sack as early as 9pm after reading for a bit due to a headache setting in.