A blow to the head - and it goes pitch black. The ceiling is too low to stand on! Luckily I'm wearing a helmet. There's not a ray of light to be seen, I've lost my bearings. I try to turn left and stumble into a pothole. How am I supposed to recognise holes like this without a light? Finally: the exit. In the dim light, I recognise small stalactites on the low ceiling of the cave. Pim is waiting outside in the sun and tells me: "That was the Oswald Cave".
There are over a thousand such caves in Franconian Switzerland. For me, the Oswald Cave is the first close encounter with the karst mountains between Bamberg, Forchheim, Nuremberg and Bayreuth. It was only recently that I travelled to the Franconian province, to Pegnitz. And so far I've only travelled through the low mountain valleys by car. But right from the start, I was captivated by the landscape with its peculiar rock towers, plateaus and countless castles. I soon realised that I had to explore the area by bike. In my search for the most beautiful routes, I came across Pim, tour guide at the Pegnitz mountain bike club "Schiem-a-no". He promised to take me with him on his next rides.
You will find the following tours in the PDF download:
1st Pegnitz tour (35.18 km, 750 m elevation gain, 3 h 00 min)
2nd Ebermannstadt tour (32.74 km, 780 m elevation gain, 3 h 15 min)
3rd Waischenfeld tour (19.45 km, 380 m elevation gain, 2 h 00 min)
