Distance: 135km
Elevation: 189m
Around 5:30 am I couldn’t sleep anymore. I was wearing my full clothes inside my sleeping bag and was still freezing.
When I looked out of my tent, the lake looked majestically with the midst floating above him.
A little later, the sun rose above the horizon warming me as I had my first cup of coffee.
This view was definitely worth it. After my morning routine, I was in the saddle around 8 am looking for a gas station to top up my supplies. It took me about 20km to find one.
The sun was shining from a crystal blue sky.
While my first breakfast is normally whole wheat and healthy I often have a craving for a second breakfast of a different kind when I am cold. This time, these were 3 hot dogs, 2 snickers, and some fizzy drinks. Delicious.
I felt great and was singing and humming. The back roads had no traffic whatsoever. I was all by myself.
My route followed the river Druva which separates Croatia and Hungary here.
I saw dozens of storks in their nests and on the fields. Also, I saw some huge birds of prey and bumped into a fox strolling down a road. Also there were all sorts of colorful birds including a lot of pheasants (Fasane). Also, Cuckoos were to be heard all day long.
When I reached 100km, I got tired and I noticed how my mood had changed. There were clouds in the sky and the wind came from the East again. That typically means rain and cold weather. Also my mood got clouded.
In the afternoon, I went over the border into Hungary, my third new country on this tour.
When I was taking the selfy, my brand new glasses fell to the pavement creating a nice scratch on one glass. Grrr. Did not add to my mood.
I found a nice place to eat in Barcs on the Hungarian side. I had a Cheeseburger and a Greek salad. Wonderful.
The Hungarian side was even calmer in terms of traffic. I cycled another 30km through beautiful nature and had some serious talk with myself about my cloudy mood.
Finally, I arrived in a small village with an unpronounceable name. It had a Dutch camping site in it that was run by Leo, a 76 year old guy from the Netherlands. He had bought the place 9 years ago after he had retired and his marriage back home went bust.
All signs were only in Dutch, even the website. After I had enjoyed a nice warm shower and set up camp, Leo invited me on a beer or two to his porch. His dog Doris was adorable.
He was almost deaf, so it was easier to yell a question at him and listen to him talk than the other way around. He was a chain smoker and worked his way to a bottle of red wine.
He did not seem to be happy here. He complained about the work ethics and reliability of Hungarian workers and how the neighbors talked about his girlfriend who was half-gipsy.
I was enjoying a cold beer that he had offered me as a welcome drink and listened to his stories.
In the Netherlands he had been a successful hair dresser with several salons and an expertise for curly, Afro-American hair. He even had written a training manual about it which he proudly shared with me. Back in the days, this expertise and reputation had gotten him invited to conduct trainings in all sorts of countries.
Now, he was about to sell the place because it was too much work for him alone. He had a bad hip and could hardly walk. Then he was planning to move to Portugal were he owned an apartment, maybe together with his Hungarian girlfriend. He left that part open.
After listening to him for a quite a while, I excused myself around 8pm. I sat by my tent and watched the sun go down when I got a call, from Tabea, Carolin and Kathrin who were celebrating Mother’s Day together at our home. That lifted up my spirits.
By 9pm it was dark and I went to sleep.
There was a forecast for rain on the next day and I was hoping it would not get too bad.