Day nine - ok it’s hot…we get it!!!

I can’t deny we were feeling really rather satisfied with ourselves….we are ahead of schedule, we have survived one of the most insanely hot days ever, we have done the hills and fully expect from here to Budapest to be flatter, if not “flat”, we have struck gold with the campsite on the edge of Regensburg and the TMAAT pasta is a particular tour de force this evening. Given he is using just the one pot and a tiny lightweight gas stove it is genuinely remarkable what Marc can cook up. Last night we had pasta with mushrooms and prawns and peppers with a side note of mustard and it was off the scale!!

When we are all done we take a short (very short, like 50m) stroll to see the sun setting over the Danube…..life feels good right now.

We are both awake before 430 (usual combination of bird song, discomfort and tinkle time) and then instantly move into our now almost automated routines as we we deflate sleeping pads, get water for tea, pack up and wordlessly pass our one tube of toothpaste from one to another.

We have had some practice now so by 615 we are on the road again. We have set our sights on a campsite just North West of Passau which according to the Garmin is 75 miles away (pah!!!! What an absolute joker!). For the first 30 or so miles progress is pretty good. Yes it’s already heating up but moods are buoyant, our pace is good and we are feeling confident that after the last three days today will be a relative breeze.

After nearly four hours it’s clear that despite the relative flatness today, it is not going to be a breeze, in fact very far from it and the heat is going to be even worse. We are all too soon in the day constantly pausing to find shade and to rest and take on water.

The rest of the day is a relentless cycle (no pun intended) of pedal, pause, recover and repeat as we move from shade to shade. We often can only pedal for 3km before we have to stop and recover ….its hideous and excruciating and desperately, desperately slow which is far from ideal when what you actually want, what you need is for it to be over and to be over quickly.

The entire valley, certainly where we are are today, seems to be devoted to crops of maize, corn, wheat and other stuff that I don’t really recognise or understand. We are particularly intrigued to come across a tractory tent contraption which has half a dozen “labourers” laying down on their front picking whatever crop it is as the tractor moves slowly over the land…..it must be gruelling in this weather but I would swap in a heartbeat.

Towards the end of the day I honestly feel like we might both be experiencing some level of heat delirium as we have a quite sincere conversation about the challenge of navigating all the way here from London and decide that henceforth I will be known as “Fernando Hernandez de Monte Cristo Alan Magellan.

We collapse into a supermarket about 10km from our final destination to pick up supplies and in another sign that our mental state is probably not ok I take a ride, with authentic beep beep noises, in a supermarket trolley. No we are very much not ok but thanks for asking.

I can honestly say, and this is not my first “tough day” today is the most challenging, most demanding and most cripplingly exhausting I have have ever experienced …I am done.

We finally arrive at our campsite around 5pm after an 88 mile 10 1/2 hour torture. Once we have settled and had a chance to recover we come up with a plan for tomorrow which regrettably seems to include even more cycling….when will it end!

Finally, and it is genuinely not fishing for a sympathy vote, but just getting this blog, such as it is, written and uploaded on any day is a challenge. It is rather a labour of love but at the end of what can often be 8 or more hours in the saddle it can be really challenging to pull it together, especially after days like today where i would very much like to curl up in a little ball and weep. We feel committed to doing it and it can often take a couple of hours (yes I know….can you see the 2 hours worth of quality?). That has to be worth at least a fiver of anyone’s money in my book so, if you have read this and have still not donated, now would be an excellent time please and thank you.