Day Fourteen - the penultimate push.

It’s somewhat ironic that barely had I finished the sentence “a planned 95 miles into Slovakia” in yesterday’s blog, that Marc and I had a conversation about whether that was indeed the right plan. The challenge is that there are something like 200 miles, as the Danube flows, between our campsite in Vienna and our finish line in Budapest and we have 2 days to get them done. In addition it would appear that campsite per squ mile is significantly lower in Slovakia and Hungary and where we can actually see them on Google Maps it’s not at all clear what the quality is like or in some cases whether they are actually real campsites at all.

Our agreed plan when we leave camp, having removed all the Gary’s from our baggage, is to follow the Danube to Bratislava and then stay West of the river to Gyor where there appears to be something real and vaguely adequate. It’s not the “original before we started” plan but on balance it feels like the right one.

Once we have defenestrated all of the “Gary’s” from our tent (there were gazillions) we headed south along the seemingly never ending Euro Velo 6 route.

Within five miles of leaving the rain descends yet again followed quickly by yet more thunder and lightning, and then proceeds to follow us off and on for the rest of the day.

We pause briefly for second breakfast in Heinburg and then continue to push on. Just before 1100 we arrive in our fifth country, Slovakia, and make a small detour to check out Bratislava. We also decide it’s never too early for beer and pizza.

Over third breakfast / first elevenses we discuss options and “the plan” and agree that if we can it would be better to crunch out more of the remaining miles today and have a relatively easier, more celebratory day tomorrow. Instead then of heading to Gyor we train our sights instead on Komoram, some 40km further east. It’s the right choice because it means less miles tomorrow, our grand finale. It does however mean quite a lot of miles today to a campsite which may well be a figment of Googles imagination.

Once we leave Bratislava, Marc has finished his walk of death onto a glass platform and I have finished my Princess Leaia impersonation what follows is the longest, straightest, flattest cycling grind I have ever experienced. It’s over three hours of mindless same old scenery and flatness and it is relentlessly monotonous.

The pay off for the monotony is that it is fast and we crash through the miles like no other day.

Eventually we reach Komarno (the Slovakian side) and pick up supplies and then cross the bridge into Komarom ( the Hungarian side) and reach our campsite around 6pm….not only is it real but it has beer, it’s stopped raining and they have a space for us. It has been a massive day though …110 miles our most yet.

As we sit preparing our final TMAAT pasta meal we start to reflect on what has been a truly epic challenge and adventure. It is our penultimate day, we have arrived in Hungary, our sixth country and we have cycled over 1100 miles. Honestly I am starting to think we might truly be amazing.