Zebegény to Budapest Hungary vis Slovakia 71 km 43 miles
6 October, 2023
Today I awoke a year older.... 64 yrs old now, and certainly old enough to know (alot!!) better.... rubbish!!, but yesterday's 75 miles was rather taxing, further compounded by wild camping, and thus going to bed without a shower, or facewash, or tooth brushing means waking up under such arduous conditions does not make for an attractive prospect for me or Paul, but needs must. Wild camping does look considerably more glamorous before, than after the fact! Without all the 'creature comforts' of (....no, not a 5 Star hotel...) a standard campsite when arrived at between 4 and 5pm, a late arrival to Le Camping Sauvage, with just enough water to prepare your dinner, almost guarantees a less than perfect night's sleep and a feeling of 'death warmed over' upon awakening!
But indeed, today being 'my day' my spirit was bouyed above what otherwise might have been expected! Tea, coffee, granola and yoghurt later I began to feel slightly more human. And thus the routine began again.
It was quite chilly and Paul was launch ready, so we bid farewell and off he went. I took a further 40mins to gather my Genie into her bottle. But some benefits come from a later departure for me. First and foremost is paintakingly getting everyone into it's now standard travelling location.... well everything but my spoon which seems to have gone missing.... possibly it's lost, but chances are it won't emerge from the Genie's hiding spot til I get home, that's the product failing to put it where it belonged.... so now I am totally spoonless, which makes eating cereal, soup or anything liquid most interesting indeed. I'll probably buy another one to hasten it's return to normal duty!!
As it is my birthday, I rode at a steady pace to probably just hold my deficit position to Paul, but I never closed it over today's distance. Furthermore, I was hampered by acute calorie deficit, and as such I not only stopped for cakes and coffees, but also a BigMac, fries and a coke on the outskirts of Budapest. A BigMac, I must have been desperate!
The going was very good for the first half of the day, then it deteriorated somewhat on the approach to Budapest thru the 'burbs', then it got both scenic and manic upon entering the city proper. Never did the situation gets as bad as yesterday though, that was indeed rather horrid!
By being alone I did detour from the straight route to hit a couple of favourite spots from my visit some 20yrs ago with my family! I enjoyed my rolling arrival to Buda which included stunning views of The Parliament Buildings, and a ride over the chain bridge! Kiwi Rupert offered to take a photo of me with the river backdrop. Next was a bicycle crossing of the iconic Chain Bridge, thst was so cool!!
I was soon at the campsite and found Paul. I set up camp swiftly, took a (very!) long hot shower to revive myself then dressed, had a beer at the campground and we headed straight into town to celebrate the occasion with a slap up meal. We decided on an Italian restaurant that Paul reccied on TripAdvisor. It measured up to it's On-Line reputation and we had a great meal that Paul most generously treated me too!! What a great friend he is!!
Exhausted and very tired we walked and Metro'ed and walked back to our campsite and turned in at nearly midnight!.... and proceeded to sleep like the dead!!
😴😴😴
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