Now there is a surprise!!
No plans to go to Austria at all!
But looking at the route…this made sense!!
On the map…a straight line westwards..sort of! (…sorry…Strava failed today!)
The day started….
….with a stiff climb up to the border! With wonderful peak views of the adjoining mountains…
….and so to Austria….
….and over the Wurzen Pass…
Followed by a seriously steep descent!
Actually steep descents like this are always disappointing…for you have to brake all the way…and make no distance at all!! A 500m descent at 2% is an easy 25km! At 18%… it is all over in 3km!!! Alas!
And so down to the valley of the Gail river in Austria!!
Which we followed for the rest of the day! For a full 110km…and we have not finished yet!
What a beautiful ride though….
For the first 40km or so we followed the main road… not too busy and quite wide…
..but then we fell upon the most wonderful bike path for the next 40km…….
Glorious..!
And then it was back to the road….!
What great variety…..even though we never left this one valley!
We came across a lot of these signs…and we were both wondering!!
A prostrate guy in a top hat????
But no…obviously when you know…a guy in a traditional Tyrolean hat…who is standing up(!)..when the barriers a in use!!!
After the 80km mark…the road started climbing quite steeply!!
But it was just lovely!
…deserving of beers at 100km or so!!
And on….and up!! Have a look at our ascent…..
Batteries were draining..bodies too..so we opted to stay here at Obertilliach. No pre-booking…so we felt lucky to score a two bedroom apartment right here!!!!
Since we left Croatia..prices have gone bananas!! Accommodation in Ljubljana was surprisingly expensive…& round here too!!
Anyway…today we negotiated a great price…breakfast included!!
What a wonderful place!! Sitting at around 1500m.
Beers….pizza…..and an early night!!
I must admit that with my saddle sores (still very sore if you’re interested!)…I have been spending a lot of time taking weight off..standing on pedals…& I am well knackered!!
Great day though…!!!
(& ..Corey has left New Zealand!!)
PS….today is 21 June. And in exactly one year’s time….on the longest day….Iain and I are hoping to arrive at Nordkapp, the top of Norway…and the end of the STONE ride itself (long way back though!)…so I could not resist the temptation of seeing what the weather might be like! “IF YOU SEE KAY”!!!
The temperature etc is bad enough….the “feels like” bit is a whole lot worse!! OMG….is this really a plan?
