Rudesheim Am Rhine to Nierstein

Slow going today as the cycle path was unpaved and badly signposted. We had thought the Rhine cycle route was the Mecca of cycle touring, and we have certainly passed by many pannier laden bicycles most of them heading downstream in the opposite direction to us, but the path doesn't follow the river very closely and has sporadic signposting even at vital times. At one piont it even failed to provide a detour or warning when after riding for about 4km along a path our route was barred by road works. Rather than retracing our route we managed to push our bikes and gear up a steep embankment and around the blockage with some difficulty. We also helped a german woman to do the same. Wet and weary we arrived at what we thought would be our final destination only to find the campsite on the map was a members only camping club. After consulting the map and discovering the next campsite was over 30km distant we decided to double back on our route for a few kilometers and cross the river by ferry. Having done this we were faced with yet another private site and were unable to camp there either. We then had to begrudgingly recross the river on the ferry and head to the nearby village where we ended up in a very pleasant B&B glad to finally be out of the rain and able to relax.
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Total Distance Cycled : 1295km
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Daily Distance Cycled : 65km
Ascent : 107m
Time Cycling : 4h 48
Average Speed : 13.5km/h
B&B : N 49°52'25.9" E 08°20'16.4"
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