wild camping: first postponed for some reason, done once. to be continued.
asking sb for permission for setting up the tent.
feeding dogs when they hunt me as a surprise.
taking more pictures in the right moment, instead of being late because of indecision to stop the bike.
Doing couchsurfing and Warmshowers! it was frustrating to write requests and get no answer or a “no” and it is hard to say when I will be where, but try again!
Of course even after 1000s of encounters and years of living here it would be hard to get and give a complete picture, so it will be only some pixels of it.
What I saw in more than 50% of all pensions where bedsidelamps without any socket nearby. But it is obiously only part of thee complete design that is more beautiful than average Austrian pensions show, but less functional.
What you can see, are lots of signs of religion, not only those “holy huts”
but also at least as many crosses along the streets as in Austria and today I saw something interesting: A young lady in (Let’s say:) sexy clothing suddenly making weird movements with her hand. But soon I assumed this was 3 times a cross, because she was passing a church. Maybe I am wrong and she only tried to get rid of a fly but for this the movement was too inefficient. (and by that i didn’t valus the effiency of making the cross sign)
I saw coffin shops with a coffin lid nonchalentey leaning against the wall and cheesy plastic floral arrangements.
In Curtea de Argeș, a little town (30.000), along a mainroad between normal houses there was a meadow and on the meadow were two cows, and I couldnt tell how they came there and how the would go home again.
I saw given up houses in all conditions between half built and nearly complete decay and then villages with all the houses and gardens beautifully arranged. In front of nearly every house in nearly every village are benches and often there is one old person sitting. but normally just one. and not the neighbour joining in. No, both sitting seperately and each f them watching the traffic. When I waved hello, most of them waved back, a few even coming first with waving.
As I needed new batteries I went to a supermarket and what can you do when you are alone?
First I hoped to see a couple, one of them waiting outside while the othe would go in, but there was no. So I took my bike cover.
Unfortunately also my camera was undercover, so I have to illustrate it by archive material. Additionally, I used my bike lock, but in this case with alarm. I came back soon and of course nothing had happened. But I knew something would happen soon, so I held my key ready when I carefully removed the cover. But not careful enough, because the alarm started (it is sensitive to vibration). With the key at hand I could end he alarm before it really became loud. If I would have to leave the bike for longer I additionally could fix the cover with 2 locks, but then I would have to be planful with the alarmlock to be able to nlock it first when I come back.
I wonder when I will be in such a situation of next level security demands. And still I wouldn’t go to a museum or so with my bike well locked but the all the bags more or less protected only by cloth and some noise if the alarm rings.
Would this stop a determined thief who is willing to take stuff out from a bike in public? And this public – I know some people are courageous, but are always the right people at the right place?
(will be updated when I know more)
Day 9 Transfargarsan
Of course, nervous like always and additionally nervous because of the mountain ahead of me, I woke up before my early alarm could do its job. And I clearly could see that I tended to procrastinate to avoid the inevitable, so I took over control and finally I left the pension at 6:05.
Some early dogs made my departure more interesting as the street slowly approached the Valley that was the entrance to the real mountain road. Soon the fog turned to rain and when I changed to poncho it stopped. Then for a while I cycled only in my shirt but finally from about 9 to 14 it rained more or less heavily.
After 150 meters in altitude (10%) I was slightly optimistic that I can do it and even more after 500 (1/3), but still nervous, as I couldn’t guess how the weather would change, especially at 2000m and as I couldn’t know if I would get weak. To make it short I got weak at the last ~5km, but at the same time knowing that it was almost done, was big comfort. On the street you could read marks at 20,10,5 and 1 km, finally 500, 300, 200 and 100m.
The view was really great, even with rain and fog and many people in coming or overtaking cars pointed their mobile phones at me and some cheered and also some motorcyclists waved. I can say there were moments, when this not only way pleasant but gave new motivation.
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Finally, I came to the top and there was a market. At the end there was an inviting umbrella, so I made a stop, first bought cheese and grapes, which was great, but then saw glasses with fancy kind of cream in it. With gestures I showed that I wanted to eat/drink it and the lady said yes! and I bought a glass. But I got my disappointment immediately as it was mere sugar with colour, like the cover of some cakes. (Later I have been told this is really eaten on bread. Well, because of biking I can eat a lot and in the next pension I combined it with the cheese and ate it also pure to get rid of it.)
But first I had to get down! It started with a long tunnel and after this I was really feeling cold as too long I had been standing eating in wet shoes. So, I grabbed those arm warmers that I had prepared for that and tried to get down fast. The Gopro didn’t work anymore, so I just looked at the again great scenery, btw also the spot tracker was low of battery as something with the light dynamo that should power it was wrong. I remember that for a long time a red light on the small batterie of it didn’t flash, but I didn’t pay attention until now and “now” was too late.
It was great to feel the air getting warmer with every loss of elevation and finally I could take off first the poncho, later the jacket+armwamers, then the long bike trousers and the last section I was riding as if there never would have been any rain or coldness. But those 65km were really hard again, as it was a lot of up and down and I could feel the first 30km of ONLY going up
When I was going up, a couple on bikes without bags came down and they only had short bike trousers and a rain cover. You could see that they suffered! And when I went down a lady came up, like me with a fully packed bike and good rain protection.
All in all you got the feeling of a special atmosphere on that street as many people stopped their cars to look at the mountains or wild rivers and taking pictures. Most of them were also driving attentively.
Now I have 10 days left to reach Burgas, but it is “only” 450km! Even if I say I want to be there 1-2 days earlier to cut videos etc I should do only 60km every day. I’ll try my best!
30.7.2019 Only 80km
I nearly slept until 6:30 and lazily prepared departure, so it was 8:30 when I left. Not bad for the beginning. Then I made a stop to collect some nice apples, and while eating one I slowly went on. But then A group of 4 bikers passed by, I swallowed down the apple and my plan of slow-go and caught up with them. They were 2 young couples from Poland and also had done the Transfargasan they day before and where on their way to Odessa. The guy at the end of the group also told me that they normally ask people if they can set up their tents in the garden and so far no one refused. Impressed, I put it on my to-do-list…
(On this list there are also some photos I want to take and only one I did today: thoses little houses in all variations, with doors sometimes showing what I call Paganism in Christianity)
For me it was hard to refuse the challenge to go with their speed, but there was no use in it and I also was not sure if they were interested in my companionship as they seemed pretty concentrated on cycling. So I said good bye and fell back into my original speed.
In the next city, Arges I found a good place for break and breakfast. I enjoyed both, still busy with my nuts-dried fruits
the pic is taken from a clip
-chocolate mixture but much tastier with one of those apples.
And so the time and kilometres went on and I reached Pitesti. I asked Garmin if it could show me a camping site and it said “Yes!”. But in the end, it seemed to be embarrassed as it showed me to go in a direction, just to tell then, that this is wrong and after playing this game for 10min, it was clear that the camping site just was a park, nothing else… By that I had lost my original route and struggled to find it in this crowded city. Except for the heat this was no big problem as I had done as many kilometres as were reserved for this day and therefore there was no need to catch up with any schedule. When I again was outside the city I tried to find a place for wild camping, but it was hard, too much civilisation. And all of a sudden, a heavy rain started. I found shelter under the umbrella of a man selling watermelons (I would like to eat one, but they are too big!) and asked him where to find a place for the night. (Not really asking, just showing the translation on the phone). He pointed in a direction, 2km on the left side, called Komet. It was off my route and it was off my intention to do wild camping or ask someone if I can set up my tent, but these were kind of nice weather projects and still I have a year left to improve.
So I am again in a pension, downloading pics&vids from camera, editing, writing, uploading, eating, thinking.
When you do a bike trip normally one part sends signals first, the one that meets the saddle. But where else can you feel that you are biking? Lets start from down to up!
Depending on what kind of shoes you use your feet can just hurt or be deafened and numb. When you bike more than one day also your soles tell you that they exist, but it normally the rest is predominant. Next are your legs: you have knees and when you do some hills or mountains, they can tell you that this is hard, but if they are not too outworn you more easily can concentrate on your hurting muscles. I now remember, that more than ones, I had muscle cramps the first day and wonder why (and yet I am happy that!) this didn’t continue! Maybe because of some training I only have slight muscle soreness although I couldn’t make training equalling more than 100km rides for several days.
Now the main part…
sitting is no fun at least for me latest after 15km. And in this case after a few days, it was not only a matter of feeling but of open skin. So whenever I am not distracted by other pain or by the traffic or by finding my way, or, or, or, – I could indulge myself in this special malaise. Only remedy apart from distraction “stand-up pedalling”, but this as other side-effects like exhaustion and harder to stay in your track when you have little space aside roaring traffic.
I wonder how many days (weeks? months??) this will be a topic, I only know from playing the guitar that I grow harder skin after a while, but we all know the difference between this and that….
Ok, moving upwards we have the back and the shoulders and the neck and all of them can hurt and then you can move a little, try to find a more correct position or concentrate on the saddle ?
On the other side of your back is your stomach. It shouldn’t be empty and it shouldn’t be full – easy job!
My next problem are the hands, they also can be deafened of course but after some hours the wrists hurt and I fear the “Loge de Guyon-Syndrom” that I once had because of biking (needed 5-6 months to disappear)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulnar_tunnel_syndrome
To continue, your head is left:
your nose can get strong smells from overrun animals and engines, your ears can be stressed a lot from the never ending noise from cars and trucks, your eyes have to cope sunlight, wind, sand and other Materia and in combination with your senses you really have to concentrate most of the time!
Always checking the surface, the traffic, the route is necessity and sometimes like hard work, allowing no mistakes.
I don’t want to forget sweating (especially under a helmet and drops running into your eyes and sunburn in the hot season and frozen hands and feet in winter or freezing all over when you get wet.
So, you can say riding a bike is training for the whole body.
And the funny thing is: even if you are alone on a smooth street without front wind, flowers smelling, birds singing, the sun not biting, nothing especially hurting, no cars, no dogs, no hills you still will benefit from biking!
Breakfast
First it took me a while to start in the right direction, my orientation is bad enough to be tricked by some bends and triangles that I interpreted as squares. And then it was (so far) the day with most head wind. It was interesting as the surface at first was totally flat and then slowly became wavy and then hilly. Still there are 2-3 days left to reach the real mountains, but I think these are early announcements.
Today I learned to look around in villages in a certain way: I gave up looking for public water supply and finally bought water in a plastic bottle, and I looked around for dogs. Some came from behind and I am not sure if there are better ways to react, but I speeded up as fast as I could and, in both situations, they gave up (and I was really exhausted and wondering how much Adrenalin and fear was necessary to escape.) When they run from a court at the side there is no good chance to be faster than they are. The first time I tried to get away, but in the end, I found myself with the feet in the air, waiting for a wonder – that was: they made terror for some seconds but didn’t bite and went back. Another time their respect for a passing car helped me. After that the next time I slowed down when I saw the dogs and did everything to keep them calm. It worked but can I know if those wouldn’t chase me anyway? Two times I felt lucky as those dogs were occupied by food, but again I don’t know which dog would have done what.
the sign I wanted to photograph…
…and this is the dog that approached me meanwhile. (I was not sure what he will do, so I had the camera in one hand and a stick in the other. But now, in the pic, he doesnt look dangerous 🙂 )
Today I started eating quite late and then it was plums from a broken tree. They were not full ripe and so I tried not to be to greedy to avoid side-effects. But the idea of “street food” also made me look around in another new way. (Foto above)
The last 25km were hard, as it were mostly very bad “streets” and that absorbed too much psychic energy to do what I thought I would do since entering Hungary: wild camping. Instead I was so happy that Garmin had worked well and brought me to a “Casa”
26.7.2018
Woke up at 6:20, giant breakfast at 7, departure 8:15, French couple around the 70 apparently also had spent the night in the Casa, they go from the Atlantic to the Black sea. Unfortunately, I asked them too little about their experiences and also a photo could have been nice, but theses are things I have to learn: don’t be hasty, at least sometimes, and know when it is a good time for that “sometimes”…
Today mainly bad (old concrete with holes and cracks) to very bad (mud and puddles) roads, some of them apparently by Garmin/komoot meant as shortcuts …Many dogs but no hunting 🙂 At first very pleasant in the morning fog (until 9), then quite hot. Ringlots and plums eaten, overall surprisingly little hunger, but I would have an appetite for cheese and fruit juices. However, anything else but my supplies brought from Vienna is forbidden until after the mountain (to reduce weight).
In Tom Allans bike blog I read to give at least one hour to find a good place for wild camping, so I started around 6:30. And soon, I found a place only asking myself if I shouldn’t do another 10-20km to reduce the distance for th next day. But then the mission “wild camping” was more important to accomplish. First my plan was to start with eating and then set up the tent, but then there was rain and I hurried up. Then, in the tent, I finished dinner and quite early started in a night of light sleep, as I still have to find the proper material to imitate a pillow.
27.7.2018
Mild night, at 5:15 I decided to end it and putting everything back on the bike and get ready took around an hour (this will not be much shorter even with more routine, I guess). Another start with riding in the fog, only more stressful as in 3 villages the dogs tried to hunt me. The first was a group of three, just barking but then from the background a bigger one came running very determined, I had some 30m lead and when I reached full spead it was only 10m but still that race was long enough to leave both of us exhausted and me saved. But in this condition I encountered the next bunch and even with more energy left there wouldn’t have been a way to escape as the were awaiting me in a narrow street. The problem in both cases was social pressure: they get angry by the anger of their fellows. So I don’t know exactly why in the end they let me go, but they did.
Today to times I got help of locals at construction site: at first when there was a sign that you can’t go on and I tried to find out what to do, a car driver stopped and explained me how I still could go on there. Well, it was quite hard, as I had to push and the lift my really heavy bike (48kg), but it was worth doing because I was on a “fast” street then. The second time a woman on a race bike helped me. By the way, I had my second clip pedal accident when I turned around to follow her and forgot that my left shoe was fixed. Luckily, like the first time, my mirror didn’t break and I only had some new scratches. She is doing training for a long distance race in Switzerland in September.
While on smaller streets dogs are hunting bikers, on bigger streets they lose their lives. Every few kilometres you find dead bodies in all stages of decomposition between open and bloody and only some remaining of their fur.
Today I had quite many long climbs, which became worse by the thought it will be four times harder in two days, the rest was even worse mud roads where I partly had to use all my power to push my bike forward while I balanced somewhere on the edge of vast puddles, caressed by stinging nettles.
I have to say that some villages are really pretty, others a bit depressing as you see them dying and they mostly are just two rows of houses along the streets.
Another example for me to stop when the moment is right:
On one climb there was a water pipe and when I realized how nice this is, I had gone another 30-40m and it was too much for me to stop and go back. Only I learned to look harder. (And indeed, 50km later there was a second one and I used it not only for drinking but for cleaning muddy shoes and cooling down. Even now the memory makes me sip at my bottle ?
Finally I found my “pensiune” and came back to my digital life of updating Garmin, saving pics and clips, posting, etc.
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…
I’m sort of intruding into Martin’s blog to post these last pictures we took as a family before leaving him alone:
… what a strange moment that was for me as his son!
getting up early by inner alarm like usual during tha last weeks I found a lot to do and by mistake got some extra work, too (eg. accitentally throwing down cleaning liquid)
But as planned at 8:30 I close the door with the feeling it is for a year
Marvin was awaiting me 🙂
He helped me with my stuff and the bike. both my sons were so caring and supportive all the time…
Doron and Marie Christine arrived with their bikes and then after saying good bye to Marvin for a year we started going!
But soon I noticed that the screen of the GPS was empty, the maps apperently had been deleted during update. I didnt have to make a decision, Doron said, let’s go back and fix it. Well, four hours later it was done and nearly everything worked well (only the SD card with the maps for Asia was not recognized, but there are some weeks left until then)
So we startd again and they went with me for a while. Then again saying good bye for a year. Doron even hugged me (he is a handshaker, normally)
We escorted Martin a few kilometers on his tour start
We left Martin alone in the famous town of Wampersdorf (has anybody ever heard of Wampersdorf?)
I went on, but it was not only leaving, it was arriving as my first stop was in Kaisersdorf where my very good friend since 17 years, Manu, On the way, sometimes my phone beeped, delivering best wishes from friends and relatives, making me feel a bit sentimental, as I did not expect so much attention. I came into a thunderstorm. I felt additionally happy to stay with Manu and not setting a tent in wet grass. She had prepared everything nicely and we talked for a while but I ten had to give up, being really tired.
There was a mosquito in the room and normally this is enough to make me totally awake again but not this time. But i woke up a few times with the heaviest cramps in my legs, partly of a never before experienced kind where I didnt know what I could do. On the ride I also had cramps two times and also the helmet hurting at one specific point of my had made me worry a bit. I even was biking without helmet for a while and for every stop putting it down was the first thing I did.
Today (I woke up at five and started with charging gear and writing) it will be the last farewell in Austria and the trip will get its real quality of the unknown
sometimes I get the feeling that only by a lack of imagination I could have decided to do this trip:
While so many people said they never could that I was convinced I could. And now in waves the feeling “why give up the normal life? why do that?” overwhelmes me.
Inbetween I just prepare, clean the apartment, empty my wardrobe (friends will live here during this year) and think about going by bike as I am used to do, only longer and everyday.
and sometimes I am only realistic and neutral:
How will it be to sleep in my tent, alone for the first time (in a tent) and waiting for animals making sounds or for people coming to chase me off?
I dont like it but it is within the field of my experience and I know, for a long time those animals will be no tigers (dont know exactly about Thailand or Cambodia) and those people will accept an excuse instead of collecting my scalp.