Gwilym's Adventure Blog

It was cold in Hungary this morning. Single figures when I got up and in the first hour of the ride it was actually unpleasant. I had both heated seat and grips on full. It started to warm slightly but never the heat of the day before. Once into Slovakia (new country so I earn a sticker). I found some amazing roads and headed for the Tatras (on the Polish border).  The temperature was now mid teens so actually very nice for riding. I spent a few hours on the road that runs along the flank of the Tatras and had a few coffees to admire the view before pushing on west which is the way I must always be heading now. My campsite here has a bolted climbing crag but I have no gear and no one to belay me so will put it on my list for a revisit some time. Yesterdays blog has now had the map and additional pictures added.

What a great day, yet again Romania delivers! A 6:45 start and I was heading up the 7C by 7:30. "I am so great, I have missed all the traffic" thought I as I came round the corner and had to stop for over 10 minutes whilst about a million sheep , a few donkeys, dogs, a couple of horses and 4 farmers wandered down the road. Once I carried on there was a trail of sheep poo for 5km so they must have started early to move them that far. Once past this however, the road was virtually my own. I saw about 4 cars on the way up. I was riding South to North so the classic picture was my descent. It was pretty cold up to at 11 degrees as the sun was only just starting to touch the road in places. Once down the other side it was coffee and croissant and a chat to a group of British bikers. Staying true to my plan, I headed North without using the A1 (woudl have saved 3 hours riding) but used the DN1 which was a pretty good road in itself with fast sweeping be...

Very hot here in Serbia and fortunately the campsite has wifi so I can blog and bore you all. 7am start was not early enough. It hit 33 degrees at some point today. I had a ferry across the Danube River before filling the tank and drinking lots of (crap) coffee before the Serbian border to use up my Hungarian Forint. The border crossing was almost disappointingly easy. Passport and V5 to get out of Hungary and Passport to get into Serbia. They had no interest in my bike's paperwork which I had all in order and was ready to impress them with. As the heat cranked up I realised that Serbia (or at least the north part) was missing any features. It was hours and hours of straight flat roads through farmland interspersed with some towns and cities. There were very few bends and those there were, had rail tracks accross them and bloody great pot holes. After a few hours (and with a maximum speed limit of 80kph) I realised that I was stuck to my k...

Long day in the saddle today though only 450km but all on back road. Some amazing Austrian valleys and passes to start the day in a more than ameniable 16 to 18 degrees.  After a morning coffee just before Hungary once over the border the heat started cranking up to around 33 degrees. A visit to Decathlon and a new sleeping mat means I should finally get a good night's sleep tonight. The problem with these frictionless borders if you forget that not all countries take Euros. My first fuel bill of 5764 f made me panic as I had no idea what that was. I now know about £16 so cheapest fuel so far. Thought I had better get some money so stopped to change €20 into local stuff at a exchange place only to arrive at the campsite being run by a Dutch guy who charges in Euros. Don't want to get stuck with it so will have to fill up using cash tomorrow. Campsite tonight is pretty cheap aswell. I like Hungary so far. Tomorrow is probably going to be a jaunt...