The last couple of days in Croatia were rather sweet and allowed me to enjoy small trips around as you saw in my previous posts. However, Croatia got really angry on my departure. I manage to load my bike in dry weather and drive the first km without drama but the more I get closer to the Slovenian border the darker the weather gets, making rain ready to begging at any chance given. I am prepared for that, dressed for that and keep my camera in my luggage as I knew from the start there were wouldn't be much to capture.
Especially as I am crossing that dense forest near Bela, there isn't much difference than what an open space looks like a couple of hours after the sun is down. To give you an idea about how dark the day is, it's the first time that I am experiencing my phone dimming while driving in daytime due to lack of light (and auto brightness of course).
The Slovenian border looks like a ghost town as there's no one there but the rain is here finally. Not a surprise but not welcomed either. It rains all the way through this narrow part of Slovenia and I make the miserable km up to Austria is kinda shitty weather. Otherwise this ride would be quite the opposite - Slovenia is a biker's heaven.
At the Austrian border there's just one guy watching the (rather low) traffic, I nod at him, he nods back and...hello Austria! Austria's hello is even heavier rain. The whole thing feels like trying to make it to the top of my "worst rides ever" list as the weather shows no signs of mercy in the foreseeable future. As I ride West parallel to the Slovenian border I start looking for a gas station in order to find a dry spot and text my next host about my arrival. Even though I ride on the 69 there is no fucking gas station for many km. Not the kind of 69 I would like to have at the moment by all means. Finally my luck shows mercy and I find this one:
Have you noticed something? Have you clicked the link? Yep, it's "temporarily closed". I mean, that's even better for me as my bike has very long range and I just need a dry spot at the moment but imagine if I was low on fuel as well 🙂
Even better, despite being closed there's still some napkins left here!
It doesn't show in the pictures but it's still raining a lot:
I'm undercover here trying to text my host after a couple of hundreds wet km:
It doesn't make much sense to wait anymore cause there's no signs of better weather coming up so I climb on my wet bike again, semi wet myself as my rain gear starts to fail. Not my boots though which for the second time they stand the test of rain! I take a route West of Graz and the 77 road leads me up in the mountain where it not only rains even heavier but fog starts to build up. As if things are not shitty yet, I have a lorry in front of me which doesn't go slow enough to overtake him in this winding route. From one hand it is nice to have a lorry in front of you cause it can't break better than you and you have time to stop in case of a collision plus it is going to eliminate your "enemy" in case of a collision but everything else sucks. It blocks your field of view and (worst of all) it generously offers you a dirty spray of water from the road.
No difficulty competes the fog I meet at near Gaberl pass though. I have to drive on 2nd gear cause visibility is down to only a couple of meters. I can only see the first 2-3 lines that divide the lanes and that's it. Hoping there won't be a disoriented driver coming towards me from the opposite lane that will offer me the last seconds of my life I start going down North to the other side. After a few km the fog starts clearing up, the rain not as much. Finally I manage to make it to Knittelfeld at my host's place in one piece and I'm more than happy about it.
It still rains but not too much so I text my host Markus to come out and help me with my wet hence heavier luggage. I couldn't have better hosts here than him and his wife Claire. I asked for a place to rent in Styria and they offered to host me instead. Super cool.
What you see below is one of the goodies I get offered at their lovely house as I now look like human again with dry clothes:
Put your hands together for Markus's mum cause she made this delicious dessert. Markus takes care of the alcohol later and introduces me to frozen bits of granite as a substitute for ice cubes:
Pretty cool I must say. It might be a casual thing in German speaking areas but I didn't know it (now I bought myself a set too). You may wonder what we're drinking so there you go:
It's a Slovenian/Croatian thing (can't recall which of the two) that I must say it's really nice. As if this wasn't enough Markus grabs a liquor made of pine which is super nice!
I'm dry, warm, and just tried several tasty things for my first time. Can it get any better? With hosts like Markus and his wife Claire probably not. Super appreciated after such a hard riding day.
I'm falling like a brick on my bed hoping tomorrow weather will allow me a walk around to see what is what.
See you on the next one!
"It doesn't show in the pictures but it's still raining a lot"
ReplyDeleteHonestly it looks as wet as it can be, sir , I believe you 🤣
As for the drink, I thought it was scotch. But thats just because I like that...
💤the drink probably helped you sleep like a brick too.
Ty for the post, fun reading!
Gabrel pass in freezing cold and mist was the craziest part and one of the craziest I've ever done. No visibility, high altitude, I was taking those switchbacks/hairpins up there not knowing if a truck will come out of the cloud last minute to eat me alive. Lovely hosts at my arrival BTW.
DeleteAlso BTW, this point of my trip marked the time a cancer patient from that area started following me. We used to be in the same platform were I was blogging then. She told me that my posts helped her turn her thoughts into positive directions and help her battling the cancer. Felt priceless to me. I quit blogging there sometime months later and another bunch of months later I learned that she lost the battle. Wonderful person, imagine she even found contacts for me around Graz Austria in case I needed something. Few people like this are still alive.
Youre a great one. Your blog's ARE very soothing to read. Mostly because you write so smoothly and you effectively tell good stories. Consider it a gift. When I was sick (not cancer) I often had those bloggers or YouTubers I really liked usually humorous ones, to pull me through. I think your person , just in case she would die, she wanted to do the best things possible for the people around her, even if they were only to be contacted through the screen. o help everyone I can, as well. If I'm capable. I can't live or sleep well if I don't, even if I get nothing in return.
DeleteThanks for your kind words.
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