Heading East

23-Jun-08: A Change is Coming
Austria/Slovakia: Vienna to Bratislava
68km, 3h 3min riding

Day started with an expedition to source a new front wheel for my bike and thankfully was successful. So, new wheel in hand (on bike) we peddled off into what would turn out to be another very hot day.

We crossed the Slovakian border at about lunchtime and were welcomed by a Pepsi sign and a myriad of roadworks…not exactly the greatest backdrop for a border crossing photo, but very contextural in any case. I started to notice the shift from western to eastern Europe about 10km out from the border. The atmosphere just somehow seemed ’harder’…yes it may have just been my imagination getting carried away, but I like to think that the land has some memory and in a way exudes it into the atmosphere.

Bratislava is the first town, of many more to come, in which we were treated to a hotel on a non-rest day. We stayed on a boat hotel on the Danube. The novelty was good but the reality was no electricity for most of the day due to a shoted mains and therefore airconditioning that was running behind schedule and in continual ’catch-up’ mode…and it never caught up! Thankfully I figured out how to remove the windows in my cabin and so managed to trade some hot stale air for comparitively cooler outdoor air, which was some consolation.

The town of Bratislava has been one of my highlights so far. A very quaint place with a beautiful ’old town’ and people which seem to want to please. Tourism is still relatively new and they seem to still be making an effort to impress, which gave a nice welcoming feel to the place.

The founder of Tour d’Afrique, Henry Gold, has joined us for a few days and led a group dinner to a traditional Solvakian restaurant…which to many a persons dissapointment was more of a we-fry-it-you-eat-it beer garden. But fatty is what we are told to expect as we move further east!

24-Jun-08: Error in Navigation
Slovakia/Hungary: Bratislava to Gyor
94km, 4h 2min riding

After getting away reasonably early in attempt to escape some of the now ever present heat, the day progressed rapidly into one of confusion, for some moreso than others. Distances travelled by differing groups of riders today varied from 87km to 115km, with just about all parties taking a different route to the campsite!

Our party took a minor 5km detour, just to check out Hungary at about the 20km mark, rather than the 75km mark at which we were supposed to move into the next country. After the path rapidly deteriorated into bush bashing and took a turn to the west we conceeded we had taken a wrong turn and backtracked to correct the error without too much drama. But another group got hopelessly lost and ended up paying a local on a motorbike to escort them into camp…action for which earned them the rubber duck award…an award complete with trophy which has been created in recognition of action worthy of note.

Camp in Gyor was likened by most to the concentration camp we had visited earlier in the week. The bathrooms were filthy and no doors locked…which was more of a concern as we realised that they were shared by a number of permanent residents which spent the entire afternoon stationed outside their rooms watching us like a pack of wolves waiting to move in for the kill. Accordingly, we have now been cautioned to be more careful regarding safety of our posessions and person.

25-Jun-08: Compasses Out
Hungary: Gyor to Esztergom
104km, 4h 28min riding

After the navigation nightmares of the previous day, we left camp having vowed not to rely on anyone else for directions…so we promptly followed a bunch out of the campsite and into the carpark rather than out the front gate and had to turn around and start again!

The days of following reliable bikeway signage are all but over as we followed a flagged route out of camp to a point with a choice of 3 directions to head in! Lucky for us a group had passed through before we left and the local workers standing by put two and two together and waved us on in the correct direction.

We followed a dirt track through Hungarian rural residential style housing, which for those without conviction of the direction they were heading in would have felt like they were being led in to the middle of nowhere. My GPS has come in handy a few times for confirmation of direction and our exact location at any one time, and is being used more and more often as we head further away from reliable signage.

On this particular day my body was very tired…generally everyone is holding up quite well considering the distances we are convering day in and day out, but today was a particularly tiring one for me. The heat, which is now always in the mid 30’s is starting to take its toll on a few people.

To everyone’s pleasure, the campsite in Esztergom was 5 star by comparison to the one in Gyor and came complete with swimming pool, which most of us hit as soon as our tents were up.

26-Jun-08: My Birthday
Hungary: Esztergom to Budapest
56km, 2h 43min riding

The day started at about 12.30am with being woken with a start by a massive lightning and thunder storms, complete with gale force winds. The rain did not come for quite some time and in the pending chaos, many people were up and about suring up their tents and adding extra tent pegs and ropes to ensure they did not blow away!

I got up to have a look and saw Manon and a few others re-enacting the scene from the Harrison Ford version of Sabrina where they are all crouched down scanning the ground searching for a contact lense. I wondered what on earth they were doing until Manon explained that the second she stepped out of her tent the wind whipped the glasses off her face and blew them 10 feet away!

After a few more hours of sleep my birthday officially started with a 15km hill climb, follwed by a 20km descent into lunch. The descent was the best we have had yet, with clear straight runs, gentle bends and perfect visability…all of which and the best ingredients for speed…I hit 62.7kph, which was my being a little reserved and not wanting to challenge the Gods too much on my birthday!

We spent quite some time at lunch waiting for our ride leaders to return and escort us into Budapest. Manon and others very kindly constructed me a birthday cake from raisin bread, nutella, jam and a grape which was presented to the turn of Happy Birthday.

The escorted ride in to Budapest was quite scary and certainly was not really helping me in my mission to steer clear of potentially life threatening action on my birthday. Riding in a group requires a great deal of confidence in the person in front of you…and when you have not confidence in the person in front of you it makes for a very nerve wracking ride!

On arrival in Budapest and after our plan to try and obtain Chinese visas fell through, we found a laundromat and made plans for my birthday dinner. We walked into the centre of town and found a nice restaurant with traditional Hungarian food and great atmosphere and had a great night. All in all a very memorable birthday.