Day 2 - Mikołajki - Bondary

Saturday 08/08/2020
-----------------------------------

After the inevitable 1st night of under canvas drinking... I woke-up at 6am feeling great! It was boiling from the moment the sun rose.

We left by 8.30, but it was 30C by then! Lots of roadworks and route changes, but we hit some great roads and I really enjoyed the riding - more great bends with a few interesting stops en route. Too hot for riding though. Had a a mesh jacket on so it was like riding in a T-shirt but even when moving it was too hot. 

Stopped to see the canals / locks in Augustów and went to see some old Orthadox church. Too hot - probably about 33C with zero wind. Amazing views and old villages with wooden homes - really nice.

On an interesting road I had a deer run-out in front of me which I didn't expect. Also rode past a very drunk cyclist who was all over the road! Other than that, no real adventures today apart from stopping short of our planned location due to calling ahead and not being able to find anywhere to stay.

We've stopped by a lakeside resort. It's really busy but they have food, cold beer and terrible disco-polo music. We found camping in the woods which is relatively quiet and right by a beach. Nice and cool in the shade!

A quick dip in the lake and we are newly born! All unplanned, but a great day in any case. Tomorrow we need to change the route as we have a lot of miles to go and it's all a bit too much if we try to make up today's missing finale and some of tomorrow's more distant waypoints....


Mileage: 1412
Country count: 6 (GB, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland)
Beers: 20 + 4 whiskeys
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0
Ass pain: 5/10
Mechanical issues: 1 (oil leak)
Accidents: 0
Wetness: 0/10
Coldness: 0/10

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day +2 - Hannover (D) to Swindon (UK)

Image
Monday 17/08/2020 ------------------------------ After a bumb-numbing final push, I made it back to the UK in good time. If I hadn't camped and my ass could take the pain, I would have ridden door to door in 18hrs. It was a very warm night and I struggled to get to sleep initially. Woke-up to heavy thunder, but thankfully no rain. Didn't rush as I had plenty of time to get to the channel tunnel for my crossing.... I took some scenic roads toward the motorway which was nice but the clouds ahead looked ominous so I put-on my waterproofs and packed all the water sensitive stuff away. Rode straight into a massive storm - couldn't see a lot so had to pull-over for a bit. After a few miles the sun was out again so when I tanked-up, I removed the waterproofs. About 50km down the road an even more menacing cloud loomed and by the time I hit Holland, the wind and rain really picked-up. I stopped under a motorway bridge to put my waterproofs back on, but the location flooded within a...
Read more

Day 6 - Solina - Kazimierz Dolny

Image
Wednesday 12/08/2020 --------------------------------------- After another day / evening spent in the wonderful Bieszczady mountains, it was with great regret that we had to leave and start heading back Northwards. Really - this is where we should have rushed too 10 years ago. Unfortunately it has become over-developed now and far too busy. A nice cabin - day rides out and some mountain walking would be a nice alternative journey..... but not this time. We left the Bieszczady toward Sandomierz and hit some of the best roads and views of the trip. We didn't bother going to Sandomierz despite it beiing a great city but it was a real pleasure and a fun ride all the way until Kazimierz Dolny. On the way we rode through the biggest orchard region I have ever seen. Apples, pears, cherrys...
Read more

Day -1 - Swindon (GB) to Magdeburg / Barleber See (D)

Image
Saturday 01/08/2020 ----------------------------------- After weeks of 'planning' the inevitable last minute rush of packing and re-packing and faffing with luggage happened as always. I have a ridiculously big new horse-shoe bag which looks silly, but was still too small to take all of my camping crap... so I had to attach yet another dry-bag to the silly big horse-shoe bag. Additionally, I have noticed that my petrol tank overflow pipe is blocked / kinked so any excess rain / petrol is unable to escape from the tank. It was too late to fix it. All previously untested which is not ideal just before setting-off on a 3500 mile journey...  I was busy on Friday night, but managed to get a few hours of sleep in before reluctantly getting-up at 3.30am for an appointment with the Channel Tunnel. When you're planning a 700 mile day, you've got to get up early! That said, chunnel was busy and there were delays. Not great when you have to hang around in the sun with all your bik...
Read more