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Maybe my best and most beautiful slovakian biketour was finished in the last day before arriving at Budapest in 1998 because of a fault in manufacture in the tyre.

Crossing the Carpathians by bike 1999

Gyorgyigabor
2004-02-05 19:58:20

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to between trees. Rolling down on the descent I had to push the pedals to avoid feeling the cold. I planned, or thought about the rainy route to Hungary consciously: to avoid getting cold I didn’t want to rest more than 10 minutes at every stop. Coming closer to Donovaly the weather didn’t change. I was cycling in a rainy, cloudy, grey weather. The temperature in the 960m high situated village was only 8 degrees centigrade. In the buffet I asked two cup of tea which I took into my hands and with it and with drinking it I hoped I would feel the warm. Arriving at Banska Bystrica the rain finished, southwards the clouds seemed to be lighter, but the temperature wasn’t warm. I walked a little in the main square and bought a delicious baker’s ware that gave me later much energy. Because in Zvolen there was about only 17-18 degrees and the sun could hardly go through the clouds I continued cycling towards Hungary. (Next to the town I met the missed guy, who decided to wait for the others). Sometimes I calculated how I could arrive at home. I tried it. Between two mountain-ranges towards the hungarian border it started to rain again, so I had not too much mood to stop. I had to move my feet not to feel the cold in the wet shoes. Although the rain stopped after a time, I lost the right way before the border and besides it started to rain again. I was continuously losing my power. As I decided to cycle home, at the border I changed my clothes to feel dry ones on me. There was no reason to spare with the dry clothes. Between Rétság and Vác I needed my last power to climb the 4 one and one kilometer long hard climbes. The ferry goes in every hour so I had to hurry to be there on time. On the climbs I realized sadly how much slower I was comparing to other occassions when I was cycling on a shorter tour with a small pack. After the last descent I was going with 36 km/h to the ferry: I had time for a short lay-by, because I lost the right way again. My sister was waiting for me with warm supper at home; my parents were on holiday outside of Hungary. I finished the series of the five Tatra-tour with an unforgattable, remarkable long day; I cycled 253 kms (130km in rain)

During the 11 days I was biking 1122,38 km with 7584 m heightdifference.