So, after a night of light rain, but no more lightning
strikes, at least that we were aware of, I finally woke at 4.30am after a
disrupted sleep, but a dry one. Our covered deck which also acts as a viewing
platform for this football clubs facilities, served its purpose. Decided that
as it was very early we probably had until 5.30am to play with before we should
make a move and ride on. Julia cracks open the laptop to finish last night’s
amazing lightning ride, which although at the time was a bit stressful, due
mainly to fading light, was also spectacular at the same time. Coffee brewed
and we’re half way through it, when, bugger me, no sooner has she begun typing a
guy on the other side of the pitch, on the gravel road, comes slowly wandering
along. He then proceeds to duck under the railings which surround the field.
“Here we go “ I said to Ju. But no. He doesn’t come over, instead he lays down
on the dugout bench and curls up for a sleep. It’s 5.10am in the morning and it
makes you wonder what he did last night?
Back to typing, convinced now that we’d survived a close
call, when ‘I don’t bloody well believe it’ a guy pulls up in a car. It’s now
5.30am. We quickly set about packing up our gear, which, other than the tent
was all there was left. He came right down our end of the facility to put some
gear away and when we gestured about the rain, he said not to worry, that we
were fine, in his own language of course, but we all got the picture. Talk
about get up early around here! Tent
packed away and suddenly the downpipe which we’d been sleeping next to,
overflows, straight onto the concrete where the tent had been ten minutes
earlier. If we hadn’t been disturbed, the tent would have been soaked. The rain
was chucking it down by now, but our guy had gone, old sleeping beauty was
still sprawled out in the dugout, so we decided to hang about, ready to go when
it stopped.
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| No photos today as we didn't take any - so some more of the Rocks 'cos they were awesome! |
Today, our destination is Prague, but me thinks that unless
we have a drastic change in the weather, it will be a case of hopping from one
shelter to the next. And that, good people, is exactly what happened. The
weather that we had done so well to avoid yesterday, finally caught up with us
today. Hadn’t been going a few kms, when the heavens opened and sees us take
shelter in a bus shelter. Not a bad one either, room for the two bikes and two
adults. We did have an old lady join us for a while but she was catching a bus
on the other side of the road and got soaking wet after leaving us to cross the
road in the pouring rain. Not too far on it was a case of take cover or suffer
the consequences. This time we decided after some time to have breakfast. The
temperature was also dropping and a cool wind was blowing around our lower
legs. No sooner had we made a dash from this one, when we got caught and just
cycled to the next town as fast as we could looking for shelter. That came in
the shape of a supermarket as they normally have overhangs somewhere in the
building. Here we donned our wet weather gear, after buying our lunch and took
off toward Prague, now definitely convinced the rain was in for the day.
Further on, yet another stop, but things were about to turn to custard as we
began to enter greater Prague. Had decided to follow the bike signs as they
would take us straight past the camp we wanted, but as per usual, you can only
follow signs that are there. So now, the trail has ended, we have no decent map
of the outskirts and all roads appear to be big and very busy. Kept retracing
our route to see if we’d missed something, but by now, we know what these cycle
trails are like….great when working…but take a piece away and all hell breaks
loose. Ended up on a muddy track which we knew was wrong but we were so
frustrated we tried it anyway for a bit. Solution….when in doubt, find a Maccas
and get googling.
After an hour eating and hunting trails we were none the
wiser as our previous thoughts were correct. No sooner had we started again
than we were lost. Seemed no logic to this place. And when Pete gets pissed
off, he pisses Julia off and now, not only are we both fuming with each other,
but we’re still no closer to a camp site. Had a couple of locals give us
directions along the way and they were great, but it was ages before we finally
found route 26 and that was by pure luck. The other night in camp we’d spoken
to Urac who had told us not to attempt cycling in Prague. Man, can we see why.
We nearly gave it away and left the city, only we wouldn’t have been able to
find our way out. Around 4.30pm, two physically and mentally exhausted cyclists
rode into Camp Dana. Booked a room for the night as a reward, wanted three, but
he’s full, so we may look elsewhere tomorrow, or we’ll be camping. Ju showered,
I wrote the day’s events and we both had a beer, before getting some badly
needed washing done.
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| Feeling human again after a shower - time to update the blog |
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