Day 18 - Tuesday 4th July
Marchtrenk - Salzburg
151 km. Total 2645 km.
"In spite of ourselves we'll end up sitting on a rainbow"
Up 5.30 and pack up. It was somewhat troublesome after the night's
rain.
While I finished this job a wondering runner and his dog passed by. I had
about 7 km to Wells, which thank God is much smaller than Linz. It was
not difficult to find the way. I sent a postcard and drew 800 ÖS from
a bank. On the outskirts of the town I found a bakery with a built-in café.
That's where I am situated right now enjoying "Belegtes Brot"
with sausage and coffee. Everything is still flat. From here I ride in
direction Gmunden.
I am going to follow the big road, nr. 1 for about 10 km, before I change
to smaller roads. I wonder when the mountains and I are going to meet?
It's now 7.15 and I'd better be going.
10.03: It had to end that way. Eventually I entered a McDonald's
restaurant. It was my intention to buy nothing but a cup of coffee, but
they talked me into ordering a breakfast menu, which cost 30 ÖS.
It's still flat, but as far as I can see from the maps, the mountains should
start right after Gmunden. From here I have 35 km to Bad
Ischl. The distance from Wells to Lambach was a night mare. It was
only for 10 km, but it was absolutely awful. Narrow road, heavy morning
traffic and fog. After Gmunden it was a little better. I met a Danish car.
The weather forecast talks about temperatures up to 33 degrees C. The fog
has now disappeared, and the weather is not too bad.
Whoops, that was the first cup of coffee. I am going to find out
if cup number 2 is free of charge. Suppose I just roll up with my empty
cup …
Well, it was certainly worth trying. But it did not work. The girl only
threw my old cup away and charged me without batting an eyelid for another
15 ÖS.
Well..
It turned out to be an afternoon with a lot of changing weather. First I had to take shelter in a bus shed for about half an hour and later on I ran into a thunder storm which was much worse. It was extremely violent but on the other hand it was amazing to watch the lightening hammering on the mountain peaks. I was afraid to ride on in a weather like that and placed myself under the protection of a gas station.
All day long I had only one angry mountain. But it was a very long one, about 3,5 kilometres and I am certain the first part of it was 12 % - at least. The suitability of the roads as regards bicycle riding varied a lot. Some places the road was uncomfortably narrow, and some places I found perfect bicycle routes.
I wanted to pass Salzburg before I would call it a day, but again it started to rain. Therefore I changed my plans when I had passed the city limit and spotted a camping sign. However, this site had been closed down. It took me about 30 minutes before my eyes opened to that fact. In my opinion they should remove the sign.
But in the suburb Aigen, there was most definitely another camping site, people told me. And when you get into a big city it's very hard to find a place to put up your tent apart from a camping site, so I kept on searching.
7-8 times I had to ask for the right direction, before I finally
located the place. All the time the rain was pouring down.
Tomorrow morning I cannot leave as early as I want to. They insisted on
keeping my camping passport and will not give it back to me before 7 o'clock.
It's quite a big site, and I have met Danes, Swedes and all kind of other
good people. I must say I prefer the camping sites in the small towns.
The weather is bad. It drizzles constantly. The weather forecast for tomorrow promises showers and temperatures up to 26 degr. C. All this rain spoils the fun. My stuff is damp and moist. I put up my tent next to a table made of stone. I have placed my bags under this table.
There is a swarm of kids here. They play tag between the tents. A member of the staff just told them to go and play somewhere else, but they are back again. If their playing around is put to the vote I would vote that these children were told to go and play far, far away from my tent.
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FACT BOX I have only one head. So far I have not met anybody who could convince
me that wearing a helmet has hurt them. Through a long career as a competition
rider I have actually seen a lot of examples of situations where helmets
have been exceedingly useful. "The joy in the speed, the fear of crashing" is perhaps a rather precise description of racing. How many times have I not seen and heard these crashes. As a rule the first thing you hear is a loud shout followed by the most hated hideous sound of metal scraping against the asphalt, a sound that seems to last forever. After a short time with silence you can hear people moaningly start making out the size of the injuries. But you can leave your hat on. |
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