It was one of those days today. Rain, all day. The cloud cover last night at least prohibited long wave radiation loss to space, making it warmer. Science innit. I remember that, because in teaching us climatology at uni Associate Professor Howard Bridgeman embedded all his teachings within stories about him trying to bang his missus. The cloud cover causing warmer nights was part of a story about how he used to take the ladies to the golf course on starry nights as a youth, not because of the romantic stars but because the absence of clouds meant it would be colder and the ladies would want to snuggle close. Knowledge is power! His story about the Minnesota cold snap that "ended in afternoon delight" was also a good one.
It rained today all day. I packed up, left and once I got going it was fine. My rain coat generally doesn't work but it wasn't too bad today. It blocks the rain, but when I'm cycling and warm up I sweat and it blocks it from evaporating. So there have been days when I take the raincoat off, which has a few drops on it, and underneath I'm soaked through with sweat. It rained enough today that it was worth wearing.
Not long after leaving I was in the middle of nowhere on a cycle path with the river on my right and a forest on my left when a helicopter came tearing over the trees in front of me. It made a hard bank to the right (back towards me) and started to drop. There is a YouTube clip from something like Top Gear Israel where the helicopter made a similar sharp bank and lost altitude and crashed. This helicopter levelled out 10 or 15 metres above the river, hovered along and banked again over me and took off. I was really happy that they didn't crash and in no way was disappointed that they were safe. I also watch f1 for the track layouts.
I kept on riding and got to a section that in other weather would have been spectacular. The road had cliffs and steep hills on one side and the road winded out over the river. I'm sure it has been used in car ads. For me today though it was a nightmare. In that section there was no cycle path. Part of the way had a cycle lane but it would disappear for a few km at a time. The road was packed with trucks in both directions going 100. The road wasn't wide enough for them and when the bike lane disappeared there wasn't even a shoulder.
It was feeling really unsafe so I bailed. I just turned off and took shelter under a railway line. I know truck drivers are professionals and have to undergo training and stricter licensing and it is their livelihood but bugger me it has almost exclusively been some of their shit driving that has put me at risk this trip. Trucks and bikes don't mix and it was ridiculous that the EuroVelo route would follow a road so heavily trafficked by trucks. There weren't even cars on the opposite bank.
I stayed in my shelter for probably 45 minutes and found a path off the road and pushed the bike along that until I got somewhere I could ride safely. Thankfully the route became segregated from the road after that.
The only other thing of note was that I saw 2 more little deer. I tried again to get a photo but was too slow. I'm determined to get a photo of a wild deer and of an eagle. I've tried dozens of times for the eagles.
Tomorrow I'll go visit Melk Abbey. It's a big deal. The tomb of Saint Coloman of Stockerau is there. I'm going to investigate whether he was indeed a saint or just a pissed up Irishman who got hung because nobody could understand him then made a saint because they felt bad. Statistically I think I already know the answer.
Photos are:
The view from my shelter
Melk abbey from a distance
A baby deer, just in case I can't get one.
No comments:
Post a Comment