22.7.18, 2nd day, entering Hungary
So I said good bye to Manu and Thabo who will be 25% older when we meet again and set off tot he Hungarian border. I have to get a routine for leaving, eg filling up waterbottles charging all thousands of chargable stuff etc.
It was not too hard biking today, mostly flat, sometimes wind even from behind, but in the middle of the day I felt weak and tired. Of course I saw many storks and made some more pics, but this one was the first 🙂
I got my 17:00 afternoon thunderstorm like yesterday, this time so heavy that two times I stopped biking and it didnt stop the last 5 hours.
During the ride at a crossroad some motor cyclists waved hello as if I was one oft hem or equal in a way.
First I tried a bit to find a good place for the tent but then I saw a sign for camping and thought that this is a compromise and another step between sweet home and the real wild thing.
So I took a shower there and saw a pretty fat guy who had used his car to get from his mobile home tot he shower and back (lets say 150m) He also takes some steps between total comfprt and living as a tramp…
I set up the tent in a special way, as there was a table under a roof and i tried to set it up there to keep it dry., was not bad.
It is nine in the evening now and I am looking forward to falling asleep while raindrops make a percussive music. I like that ?
23.7.18 Balaton, Danube etc
A day of challenges. I got up at 5 as usual and at 7 I started cycling. The first challenge was „road 8“ I tried to avoid it but I didnt find alternatives, every time I was lead back to it and sometimes it was clearly illegal as sign showed „no bikes!“ sometimes it „only“ was giving uncomfortable feeling as it was like a highway, also the car drivers behaving like on a highway.
Then I also had my first encounter with dogs. They were behind a fence, running with me, yelling and barking. The fence ended and I thought the show would end, too, but all of a sudden they were directly behind me and I thought my end is near. Now I yelled, too and then a man at the other side oft the street also shouted and the dogs stopped running…
This time the first thundersorm came at 10, turning into rain for 4 hours. When I reached the Balaton I could not see much, because of the heavy rain. (Balaton in pic left from the houses under the wire)
Then there was an hour of sunshine for my sunburn and a rest at a river. There I noticed that in my bags was about half a liter of water from the rain, for example multiplying the weight of my toilet paper (although it again was in an extra bag!) but also I was really moistened
An then there came another impressing thunderstorm, only with less intense rain and only 2 hours. This time I crossed the Danube and could protect the camera against the rain for some Photos.
In the end I had reached my goal (2/3 of the way through Hungary, so I could reach Romania tomorrow) and looked for a place for my tent.
I saw only unsecure places, that means good but too open to the public. And Garmin“said“ there is a Camping area 4 km from there. So I said, ok, another one, as everything is so wet and I am still to unsecure to do the “wild thing”…
The Camping is another missing link to wild camping as there is no shower or running water (except fort the Danube, which provides a nice scenery).
The only Difference is that I met other bikers (from Belgium starting their trip from Vienna) and a Hungarian couple. And I could charge some of my gadgets and write for a while. And I should pay more than fort he place yesterday that had everything an average place provides.
The Hungarian guy had a good picture for the limitations of Nationalism:
When you go to Mars for the Marsmen the relevant information is from which planet you are, and when green guys visit Earth it is more relevant that they come from Mars than which part of it. And when you go somewhere else in the Milky way than even earth becomes irrelevant, maybe our sun would be of interest. And so on. We had good talks but I fell asleep standing as 140-150km had some effect on me.
24.7.18, Day 4, leaving Hungary
Today I managed to leave at 6 and so I made at least 160km and reached the Romanian border. I say „at least“ as the Garmin was confused and didnt show directions or kilometers. Later I want to write an extra post about Garmin, Gopro & Co….
Today nothing special happened, no rain (maybe this is special?), a lot of bike lanes, some in really good quality, some not…
This is one of some big farmhouses with impressing lightning rods (the roofs are straw or reed).
And these are the horses from there caught with strong zoom.
And this is the electric fence that shoked me while I used it as a tripod for zooming.
What else did I see?
Many empty houses, sometime like this one only under contruction, according to that many, many signs “Elado”, ok more storks and different kinds of bike art
At 3pm I was very tired, said down and had some kind of sleep what I noticed as my head or arms fell sidewards from time to time and waking me up.
At the border the officer said that half an hour before me, 3 Taiwanese had passed. In the next village in the exchange shop the guy also told me they had been here and he had sent them to Pension Luciana. But I had been there before, it was weird, the door was open but no one came and the windows were covered. When I went there again, the door was closed. I noticed a paper hanging nearby leading to another Pension and here I am. Partly I try to dry things from raincoat (that really was in the rain) to my passport (which was in an extra cover in a side bag of an said-to-be waterproof bike bag, but still wet…