Day Eleven - and yay, let there be all the weathers

Whilst our campsite just south of Linz last night might very well be our favourite of this adventure so far the weather is far from endearing. Shortly after we set the tent up and begin our daily quest for food the heavens open….and I do mean open. It is a full on biblical scale thunder storm that lasts at least two hours. There is thunder, there is lightning and (and yes occasionally v v frightening) and more rain than I thought possible. Each time the rain winds back from lobbing skips of water at you (this proper meteorological term don’t you know as patented by John Kettley) to merely pointing a hose pipe directly at your face (Wincey Willis in case your are wondering!) it ramps up again to “skips”.

Whilst Marc and I shelter in the relative comfort of an undercover outdoor BBQ area we both express concern for our faithful partner “Mutha Hubba” the tent. He (she, they?) has been through a lot and never once let us down but surely this level of meteorological beating means the end?

In a very small break in the quite frankly redonkulous weather we make a run for it to see how bad the damage is. On the positive side the tent is still there, having clearly not been washed away and it also appears to be still standing. Regrettably there has been what might best be described as “a breach” and everything, so sleeping bags, mats, clothes, towels, my already very limited number of pants are all somewhere between “moist” and “sodden”. In other shock news we both subsequently have an utterly miserable nights sleep made more miserable by almost continuous animal snuffling (yes I know that sounds weird). I am almost 100% certain I didn’t imagine it but something came up close and personal to the tent in the middle of the night presumably attracted to my pheromones (or perhaps more likely food?). I have told Marc it was absolutely definitely a bear although privately I think it may have been a squirrel.

Anyway….we wake up at the usual time and whilst everything is still sodden the weather appears to be “adequate”.

We head off at quite a pace and within an hour find ourselves arriving at another ferry crossing that doesn’t actually start running for another hour. Rather than wait we take a 5 mile detour along a super sketchy main road but safely pick up the EuroVelo 6 route and carry on with our day.

Oh I forgot to mention that yesterday as we are cycling along quite quickly along the same EuroVelo 6 route (definitely check it out on line…super easy to follow and mostly traffic free) we saw a bunch of school children with their teacher taking classes outdoors, presumably because the weather was still lovely at that point. As we approached they all started shouting in unison “Ab Steigen, ab Steigen” which in the moment we both took to mean they were congratulating us somehow and celebrating our achievements with “OMG you guys are amazing, what a couple of heroes” and so Marc and I both laughed and waved as we flew past. Later we learnt what they were actually saying was “slow down and get off your bike before you kill a child you moron!”

Back to today….around 10 o’clock we felt spots of rain  falling from above and then, once again the heavens opened and drenched us in another thunderstorm.

We sought shelter and second breakfast in a very posh and very expensive café (yes we got a lot of stares!!) where I had an omelette and Mark had scrambled eggs ( essentially these are of course the same thing so I apologise for the specificity….it felt important as I typed)

We wait as long as we felt we possibly could before being actually physically evicted but then eventually we had to set off into the rain. Unsurprisingly it was as miserable and wet as you might expect but then as I always say, within about five minutes you can’t get any wetter. We cycle through another torrential downpour for about 2 hours and then slowly but surely the storm passes and turns merely overcast.

We pedal on heading into the Wachau area of the Danube, which apparently is a UNESCO site, and is undeniably beautiful. As we reach the last 10 miles of our 80 mile day the clouds magically lift as if to herald our arrival and we land in our, quite frankly perfectly chosen, campsite at Rossatz around 4pm. As the sun now makes a return appearance we get a chance to dry all our kit out (regrettably dry does not necessarily equal less stinky) and relax in one of, if not the, most perfect spots we have been too so far

Day eleven is over then and we are now within striking distance of Vienna (aaah…pew pew!) and finally a rest day. Bring on tomorrow!