Day 51 – at Hinsbourg

The earlier forecast for a storm was updated to a gusty and humid day, and night, with a maximum of 32C and an overnight low only in the early 20s. The morning was more pleasant, and I took a very rough and seemingly unused footpath from Hinsbourg village down to the Donnenbach valley. Not far up the valley is a small lake which made a good destination. A couple of locals were out and keen for a chat. All in all, it was a very civilised affair.

Until today there had been very few people at the campground. A Dutch couple who left this morning to head south in the Vosges, and a single Belgian guy who arrived late yesterday evening. He was so attentive to every detail around his van, that he had me up checking a few things about my own. No surprise he was ex-military.

Other vans mostly have one solar panel, mainly as their roofs are cluttered with other stuff. They are standard designs. One solar though doesn’t generate enough power to be without hook-up for much more than one day. It does make me appreciate what I have. If there were to be no sun at all, I would have power for about 6 days. A good test was not that long ago, 20 days only, when there was 10 centimetres of snow on the roof for three days. Certainly I’ve seen all weathers, but the heat and humidity of the last few days is by far the toughest.