During the week that the UK has been shocked and saddened by the horrific destruction of the infamous Robin Hood Tree on Hadrian’s Wall, we feel incredibly privileged to have spent the best part of our week living among the trees and woodland of Germany and France.

Heading South from Koln we were soon into the hills and woodland of the Rhineland-Pfalz region. We’ve ridden through mile upon mile of incredible woodland. We’ve wondered at the diversity of broadleaf trees and conifers, spaciously planted to allow the light to pass through the leaves in that magical way that it does. We’ve marvelled at the huge number of tracks criss-crossing the woodland – all amazingly supported by great infrastructure, this is Germany after all. Paths for shared use by all walkers, cyclists and horse-riders, although we hardly bumped into anyone else the whole time. We’ve been impressed by the sustainable way in which they are managed, with only a few trees picked out and felled at any one time – Not using the tree-eating, ground churning monster machines you see tearing down forest plantations in the UK. But most of all we’ve enjoyed the calming affect spending time amongst the trees has had on us.

We’ve camped beneath them, taken comfort in the shade they’ve provided given the unseasonably warm weather that Germany has been experiencing (not that we are complaining), and we’ve wondered what tales they could tell if only they could talk. We’ve taken great solace in the fact that despite the sad news about the Sycamore Gap tree, there are many more trees out there and although it can never be replaced, the story has highlighted that there are many people around the world who love the trees about as much as we do!

Here are a few extracts from my notes from the road for the last ten days or so:

• Rookie error on first night of wild camping, rolled into last town of day after closing time for the shops – Dinner (and breakfast for the following day) courtesy of local kebab shop. Ted welcomed like family after mentioning Baba (his Turkish Grandad). Falafel wrap for breakfast anyone!? Made sure we’ve not made this mistake again since. Mainly enjoyed a true athlete’s breakfast of peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

• A week of misty mornings, sun light through trees, cloud inversions and cloud lifting to reveal blue sky days. Unseasonable 30’c warm days. Suncream on, sweat pouring off, attracting all the flies – bleugh! Like a true summer holiday.

• Route followed Nurburg Ring race route. Noise of cars unbelievable. Pretty cool to watch for a while. Ted stopped to admire the Volvo service vehicle (not the race cars, obvs!)

• Lots of woodland tracks, rolling up and down hills. Some steep climbs, legs getting stronger, especially off-road. Even managed some trail centre tracks we found – but super slow going on loaded bikes, even for me!

• On hill above Cochem, missed turning and ended up at top of cable car, only path down was steep, narrow walking track. Not great. Ted managed to ride most of it – me, not so much! Arrived at bottom in Cochem in one piece, celebrated with ice cream while being stared at like zoo animals by all other tourists.

• Warm welcome by WarmShowers hosts for this week – Alexander and family (our last German hosts), and Philippe (our first French host). Huge thanks to them all for great food, lively conversation (in several languages!) and insight into their own incredible tales of bike tours and other travel.

• Spent way too long debating whether a bakery would refill our water bottles – Need to get better at this, be less British about it. Have since become much braver at just asking for water, so far no one has said no – so what were we so afraid of!?

• Met the largest tick we’ve ever seen – bigger than a ladybird – crawling up Ted’s leg. Thankfully caught it before it had chance to sink its head in!

• Learning you are never more than 5 mins away from a bench (or desk chair in watchtower!) in Germany, so making the most of it.

• Watching some spectacular moonrises of the full moon, golden and orange, pretty special. Not to mentioned the following sunrises of pink and orange and golden light – Helping to ease Ted’s grumpiness in the mornings, and impatience with the speed it takes for coffee to brew.

• Crossing border into France via a very overgrown route. Fun to feel like we were walking in the footsteps of those secretly trying to cross the border in days gone by, but the reality involved lots of lifting bikes over fallen trees, bashing through brambles and quite a lot of swearing!

• Becoming frustrated with the route. Always seeming to take the most over-grown track, or taking unnecessary diversions off trail only to re-join it again. Then realising we were following an old GPS of the route – classic us! No wonder there had been so much bush-whacking with bikes required.

• Woodland instantly feeling French – sounds silly, but you know what I mean – sandy trails, lots of pine trees, and herb scented warm air bringing back memories of childhood holidays and Eurocamp tents.

• Route not all plain sailing – Still some extremely difficult hike-a-bikes up and down. Getting frustrated being on trails we wouldn’t walk, let alone take a bike – pretty sketchy.

• Now fuelled by Croissants, French bread and Pain Au Chocolate, when we can find anywhere open that is – This is France after all! But thankfully they have Pizza vending machines to make up for it.

We’re having our first day off the bikes today to rest and recharge – The campsite we’re staying at even has a spa! The next section of the route looks like a toughie, so we are wondering whether to break it up with some easier sections, or to persevere with it. Knowing us, either option will still involve ridiculous trails all in the name of a great woodland camp-spots, spectacular views and great places to drink tea!