28 Sept '23 - Vilshofen to Feldkirchen an der Donau 104km 64miles
Away about 9am this morning making for coffee in Passau 24km away. The going to Passau was gently rolling, but once we hit Passau everything changed. In fact, everything changed about 5 times today!
1- to Passau 20km - gently rolling @ 17 km/hr countrified trails.... last of the very frequent large power generating hydroelectric dams here
2- Passau + 40km - dead flat to -1% @ 25km/hr wide river/roadside trail... river cruise ship territory
3- 60km to 70km - Hilly roadside trails as riverside too inaccessible as banks becoming rocky and erratic, but wildly scenic.... until....
4- 70 km to 95km - Loop Zee Loop Riverside trails so beautiful that they are almost beyond description! Sharp sided tree covered slopes often on both sides of the now lazily meandering 'semi retired' Donau
5- 95km to Finish - Dead flat Austrian farmland, but winds still allowed 25km/hr!!
Camped out on a very beautiful swimming lake in Austria! Outdoor open shower (😳......🤣🤙), but it had fully equipped loos and WHBs!! Dinner was a variation on an old Mother Bergson favourite of Ham, Leek&Cheese sauce paired with alcohol free Claushaler beers! WTF....?? All 5🎇 !
We met a couple of really nice Czech guys this afternoon cycling from Passau to Bratislava! Pavel and Jonso... Paul&John.... they simply couldn't imagine how we were doing what we were! Bless them, they said we were an inspiration to them as Ben Goodyear was to so many of my contemporaries at 'The Lazy K!! It feels deeply rewarding to have some 37 years old guys show such profound admiration for what can be done by some 60 somethings..... as I always say, if the mind is willing the body can be dragged screaming and kicking to the end...but no more.... it seems to always be the case.... so I am most anxious to see what the body says at the end if this adventure!!🤔
More about the river..... semi retired?? You ask.... well yes, the frequency of power plants has dropped from every 8 to 10kms to now, almost 40kms. Passau marked the end of the muscley Donau, and now she's gentler and more preoccupied with the leisure industry vis-a -vis cruise ships. Certainly the surrounding countryside remained quite challenging but the the lady (River Donau) herself has taken on a aire of gentle sophistication of late. Starting at 671m AMSL, we are now over 700kms downstream and she is now flowing quite gently at c. 300m AMSL, still with over 2,100km to go, she may yet become even more gentle, and retiring! And I like to think that I do know 'Retirement' as one knows a 'Gute fruend'!
#LuckyToBeBornToBeWild
TTFN
Doug&Paul
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