Uninvited Guest - March 6th

Someone else joined me on the ride today. It was the Beast Within. He likes to turn up unexpectedly, especially when things look rough.

He warned me he was coming last night when I was preparing to leave the comfort of my friends in Herrsching to set off alone again. He then stood next to me in the morning as I looked out of the window at the falling snow and he chuckled.

The Beast loves snow. When later I was trying to get over the hills to Haag as the driving snow cut visibility to 50 metres and Bike was slipping on the ice then he was in his element, pointing out all the things that could go wrong: What if the snow got too deep? What if I slipped and injured myself. As the snow stuck under the mudguards, jammed the wheels and froze the gears he just laughed and laughed.

But then the sun came out and Bike and I made good progress. Beast seemed to go off on his own about then. He made a brief appearance later when we were looking for a place to stay as darkness fell. But I unexpectedly found a Youth Hostel in Muehldorf and he looked really disappointed.

Now there is no sign of him but he won't have gone too far. He'll be back again soon.