Over the border I was again on a dedicated tarmac cycle track and was making good progress when at 40 miles in I came to Zahorska Ves which is another border town where a small ferry operated to the Austrian village opposite. I thought how strange it must have been when this river was the Iron Curtain and what it must have been like to be stood here looking at the west just there across the water.
I stopped and had a pizza at a strange restaurant come cigarette discount shop as whilst I was eating the "small pizza" which was the size of a cartwheel people were coming in an buying 10-20 packs at a time, obviously some connection to being so close to the border and the relative duties charged I guess.
I continued making good progress whilst digesting my lunch until I whizzed past a sign that looked a bit battered. I wondered as I ploughed on if someone had altered it a suspicion which grew as no more signs were to be seen and the tarmac strip ran out at the bottom of a dyke the path on to of which was barred. I pushed the bike to the top and there was a drainage canal which stood in the way of progressing but checking my map saw that if I backtracked I could get on my original route that seemed to link up again with Route 13 further south.
I started to retrace my route but soon realised that this would in fact be a 1-2 mile detour so faced with that decided to take the farm track which must eventually lead to a crossing point which fortunately it did and I was back on track.
Eventually, I reached the point where the river I had been following all afternoon Morava (Czech) or March (Austrian) reached The Danube.
This was a landmark moment for me as I would now be following The Danube river for the next few hundred miles first to the capital Bratislava and then on through Hungary, Serbia and Romania.
I had a room booked that night so put my head down to reach it as soon as possible in order to get the most benefit. With the river as my guide I pushed on and reached Bratislava by 4pm which was not bad after 67 miles. I took a few shots of the city below but having worked there 2-3 days a month over a one year period I knew the place well so didn't dwell. I climbed the hill to my hotel on the outskirts of the city where I followed my physios advice and jumped in the sauna and then had an early night.
The day I had a leisurely morning catching up on uploading photos and writing this blog and then set off at lunch time.
On my way out of the city I called by to look at Eurovea which was the large mixed use project I managed when I was out here. It was good to see the place had matured but a shame that the proposal to have boat moorings along the river had not materialised as they were still double parked in the city centre.
I crossed over the Danube and headed east along an engineered section of the river where it had been diverted into large lagoons which are used for hydro-electric generation. It's a bit lacking in scenery but does give you a nice very flat surface to ride on and I was cracking along.
I remembered the last time we cycled this route we rode past a corpse they had fished out of the river. I thought how you would not stand much chance if you were to fall in with the embankment at a 45 degree angle unless you were able to swim to one of the set of steps every 200 metres or so.
I was pushing hard to reach my objective of the day to reach the end of this section where there were huge ship locks and a cafe so I could stock up on food but when I got there the cafe turned out not to be there any more.
I soldiered on to the village of Sol where the shop was shut I remember it was Easter Sunday but I was able to buy a bag of crisps which with a sandwich I had made at breakfast became my dinner and with 40 miles done it was off to find a camping site for the evening.
The town names in this region are dual as this was part of the enlarged Hungary which was cropped back at the end of World War One. However many of the residents consider themselves to be Hungarian and so the Hungarian place names continue to be retained.
I wanted to camp next to the river so looking on the map I was about 200 metres from the shore so set off down a dirt track to find is this soon became really rough paving it was difficult to cycle on. I stopped to take a photo but never got that far as I was engulfed in mosquitoes and did a quick about turn and got out of there.
Thoughts of camping by the river were quickly extinguished! I looked inshore for a spot and soon found a field below the embankment I was cycling on with a road down to it in the distance. I dropped in and it looked to be cultivated so not suitable but whilst I was weighing up the area I was again attacked by mosquitoes and made a hasty dash for the escape road which turned out to be made of pea gravel the cycling equivalent to a tank trap which I had to get off and drag my bike through whilst being bitten to death and saying a few choice words.
Skin so Soft applied it was third time lucky when I took the next road and when far away from the water and found a spot with a survivable insect count.
The next morning I woke up to frost on my tent so put my kit out so the rising sun by the road could dry it out, you can also see my solar charger out bottom left which is topping up my phone.
Right Hungary was the target today 60 miles away and after a delayed start to dry things off, I was back on the cycle route but they had decided to make this section out of the same pea gravel I had struggled thought yesterday. This slowed me down from around 15 mph to more like 5, what were they thinking? Eventually I found a side track other cyclist had cut and managed to navigate this without plunging right down the embankment.
The road surface thankfully improved but the next challenge was a growing headwind which according to the forecast was going to be gusting 30 mph and in for the day.
With no breakfast the empty light was flashing. When I hit a main road I found a garage where I parked up next to a fellow biker much to their amusement for a coffee and selection of muesli bars.
I stopped in Karmano in the hope of buying some supplies for a picnic further down the route but all the shops and supermarkets were shut this being a Bank Holiday. So I had an ice cream which didn't fill me up so I went round the comer to the next cafe and had another as there were no towns shown on my map until the end of the day.
I pushed on into the increasing headwind only able to make 7-8 mph on flat tarmac compared with 15 yesterday and wondered if I was going to make Hungary today at all. I stumbled across a buffet restaurant which was open and had a quick refuel of goulash then was able to hit the last 20 miles with more gas in the tank.
At 10 miles to go I could see the enormous dome of Esztergom Basilica in the distance but tried not to look as the lack of progress was demoralising. I was popping haribo like a 12 year old and head down into the wind.
I eventually started to drop back down toward the river I looked for some currency exchange but no joy and was soon on the bridge with a close up view of the dome I had been looking at for the last hour and a half and into Hungary!
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