A GERMAN woman cycling through Europe in support of Scottish independence had a scare yesterday after she thought her bag had been stolen.

Eva Gerber, a 54-year-old online media manager, is cycling from her home in Bavaria on a solo 1000-mile trip through Germany and the Netherlands, to Scotland.

The mother of four grown-up children, with two grandsons, left at the beginning of this month and has had to cope with high temperatures and sunburn. She reached Dusseldorf at the weekend as she tries to make a ferry sailing from Amsterdam on Wednesday. Her plans took a hit yesterday after she stopped for a rest near Dusseldorf and realised her bag – with all her money and travel documents – was missing.

However, Gerber later said a woman found her bag where she had stopped, and she was on her way to collect it.

She said on a Facebook video: “My friends it is all right. A very kind woman found my bag and looked inside it to get my name.

“She then went on the internet and read about my cycle trip to Scotland, so I am now on my way to meet her and get my bag.”

As she heads for a ferry connection in Amsterdam, Gerber said she was looking for anyone with connections to Yes groups in the Netherlands.

She added: “I’m doing fine. It’s better with the weather and the sunburn than I thought it might be so I’m back on my bike and already on target. I have to be in Amsterdam on Wednesday to take the ferry to Newcastle.

“Because of the sunburn I will take the train in some places, but it has not been as bad as I thought it might.”

The ferry will take Gerber to Newcastle, from where she will head for Berwick-upon-Tweed then Edinburgh. She will take the Union Canal route from there to Linlithgow, then on to Stirling and Glasgow, her final destination.

The intrepid cyclist has camped out some nights and spent others with family members and friends on her route.

She has only been in Scotland once before but “fell in love with the people, the country and the culture”, and would love to live and work here.