The river levels, if anything, rose overnight. No chance of taking the waterfront cycle path this morning (pic). Though it would have been a chance for me to use my trunks, about the only thing in my panniers I haven’t managed to use since arriving in Albania so long ago.
After a week and a half of pancake-flat central Poland, the ‘hill town’ of Nowe (pic), all of maybe 40m high, came as quite a shock. I used my bike’s granny ring for the first time since Zakopane.
Most of today was again easy, pleasant riding through very gently undulating landscape (pic). And, again, it put me in mind of eastern England. Perhaps that’s why there are so many Polish fruit-pickers and vegetable-harvesters in East Anglia, round Boston say. They must feel at home, particularly with so little to do in the evening.
I had a coffee in the small, amiable town of Skórcz, where the cafe-pizzeria proprietor was so impressed by my End to End trip – and the fact I could tell him in Polish, more or less – I scored a free biscuit.
The final run to my destination town for the day was on quite a fast road, but I had a stroke of luck. I tucked behind a JCB digger-tractor-thing (pic) that trundled along a few miles to the next roadworks, providing not only a shield to slow down traffic that might otherwise have close-passed me, but also a handy drafting opportunity. He was going about my ideal speed, ie 8mph or so.
This is what the roadworks was all about (pic): a new segregated bike lane being built for a few miles into the town of Starogard Gdański. It will provide safe, convenient cycle access into the town. Or more likely – to judge by my impression of a friendly but rather dull, prosaic place without much in the way of an entertainment district – out of it.
Miles today: 46
Miles since Polish border: 488