17th May (cold, cloudy with rain at times) 70 km

We sit here in our tent.  It is 8.50pm and we are at a camp ground in Waging am See. Today we covered over 70km, but what nice riding, some undulating, but no large hills to contend with, which was great after our extended stay at Harald and Elvira’s.  The disappointing aspects of this camp are that they charge $45 per night and they have no kitchen…?

Harald, Elvira, Pete and Julia

Today we bade farewell to a couple who have really looked after us during our stay with them. We got their names off the Warm Showers website but didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for.  As it happens we discovered two very nice and generous people who we hope will come and stay with us in New Zealand and be happy if we called them our friends. A great time was had by all of us over the three nights we were there with lots of laughter, what can be better than that! So…this is for you Harald and Elvira…..thanks once again for the hospitality and the hilarious story about Benton Hot Springs…!

Once awake, I began yesterday’s blog, while Ju did some Yoga and packed up some of her gear. She then took over loading the photographs from yesterday whilst I packed some of my stuff and looked at which shots we were going to put in the blog.  Elvira had been out to an appointment and I’d been talking to Harald about his work as a photographer. He is very good and I enjoyed seeing how he puts it together. At 10am, with Elvira having returned, we all sat down for another delicious breakfast.  But all too soon we had finished and for us it was time to leave. We had been looked after so well, we positively had to drag ourselves away.  Harald cycled with us for the first 8km to guide us out of the city, but not before showing us where they used to live. A beautiful home where they sound like they had a lot of fun.  Still, the house they have now is lovely.

Harald and Elvira's old house is the pink one on the right - beautiful!

Our way out of Rosenheim was mostly cycle tracks and eventually followed the railway line and the edge of the lake.  It had started off quite cool today but a little hill climb soon saw us shed our jackets and long pants.  The forecast was good and we were looking forward to seeing a bit of sunshine today.  Well, we hadn’t gone far when we noticed a big dark cloud looming to our left and as we pedalled in a nor-easterly direction, it appeared to be gaining on us.  As we entered Thalkirchen the cloud reached us so we sheltered under a big oak tree and donned our long pants against the sudden drop in temperature and put all our waterproofs on. 

Elvira had given Ju an old pair of waterproof shoecovers so she looked slightly more stylish than me with my good ol’ plastic bags.

It was by now bucketing down so we decided to stay put for a while and a Polish bikepacker pulled up under the same tree.  Had a bit of a chat to him but he only stayed for five minutes and soon after he left, we braved the elements as well.  The worst was over so we didn’t get too drenched.

The route Julia had mapped out with Harald was excellent and we enjoyed a lot of quiet roads and stopped at Rimsting to visit the supermarket.  After purchasing lunch we rode to a nearby bus shelter and enjoyed ham, cheese and tomato buns with a cup of coffee and a sweet pastry – delicious!  Shortly after that we rode along the lovely bike track alongside the Chiemsee – or lake.  Had to slow the pace a bit as it was a wet gravel track that would throw mud all over our gear if we rode too fast.  But it was lovely – as were the views over the lake.

A typical countryside scene

When we reached the north end of the lake, our route took us over quiet countryside and through the odd patch of forest – all on bike paths or quiet roads.  A very enjoyable ride!

When we reached Waging am See at 7.30pm, we set our tent up efficiently then went for showers and cooked dinner – herrings with white sauce and pasta.

The night was cold so we snuggled in our sleeping bags while we had coffee and wrote up the blog.  Hoping to leave here fairly early tomorrow so we can have a good look around Salzburg.