8 June 2016 (sunny and hot) 53km

Another lovely day dawned – for us this morning it was 5.45am and already there were fishermen assembled at this lake.  We had a peaceful sleep but it seemed someone had been around our tent and left a fishing line caught on one of the front pegs all the way round to the back of the tent.  Whether it was intentional and left there by human hand, who knows, but we were glad to be leaving. 

A lovely spot ruined only by people - rubbish left laying around and maybe a sinister element?

We had a coffee, some cashews, half a bun each with jam on and a banana each to keep us going until we got to Prievidza, our next major town about 30 km up the road.  We started off on the main road which wasn’t too busy yet and had a nice wide hard shoulder anyway.  Cruised along for about 3km, enjoying the cool morning breeze on our faces and the warm morning sun on our backs.  Then came the hill and along with the hill, our beautiful hard shoulder disappeared.  Add to this an increase in traffic, especially trucks and our lovely morning soon deteriorated into a fight for our lives.  Every time we heard a truck approaching from behind us, for self-preservation we just stopped and pulled ourselves and our bikes as far over off the road as we could.  It was especially tricky on corners and places where there were crash barriers.  We would wait until it was all clear, then jump on our bikes and pedal like hell uphill until we had a place we could pull over into!  Adrenalin pumping stuff I tell you!  After 4km of uphill nerve-wracking riding, we had 4km of downhill where we would fly down the hill as fast as we could until Pete gave the warning cry of “Truck coming!” when we would pull over into the next driveway or similar until it had passed.

We got to the town of Handlova and pulled into a gas station where they often have free wifi over here.  We were going to google another route but the gas station attendant told us there was only one road.  So we consoled ourselves with a machine coffee (very nice) and half a Bounty bar before setting off again.  We were back on the flat now though and with the flat, the hard shoulder had returned so we actually had a blast riding the last 16km to Prievidza – well except for about a km of uphill when we were nearly there.

The church at Prievidza

We had come to this area because there is a castle at the small town of Bojnice, just west of Prievidza and we could see it perched up above the towns from about 5km away.  But first things first, we needed another breakfast so after a visit to the supermarket, sat in the town square and tried to upload the blog.  The free wifi was rubbish though

A nice little corvette which caught our eye

so we gave up and pedalled out to Bojnice to have a look at the castle.  Bojnice is a lovely little town and they had classic cars on display which Pete enjoyed looking at while I finally uploaded the blog with a good free wifi connection. 

Bojnice Castle

It is an extremely picturesque castle, beautiful from every angle.  So we decided to head to the campground and get showered and then return so we could walk around it unencumbered by bikes and feeling clean.

The view as we cycled to the campground

The campground was only three kms up the road, literally UP the road.  We’d just been saying what a nice change that you didn’t have to pedal up a bloody great hill to see this castle when bugger me, you have to pedal up a bloody great hill to the campground!  All 3 kms were uphill so we had showers and enjoyed the clean effect for the rest of the afternoon at least, knowing at the end of the day we would be drenched in sweat again after returning from a good look round the castle.

The campground was empty apart from one other small tent. The season over here runs in July and August, but I did think we would see a few more people here. This is such lovely countryside and Prievidza but more especially Bojnice are nice towns. Bojnice is more of the village feel although they obviously know how to cater for the tourists and it helps to have a ruddy great castle on your doorstep to help you do that. But as well as the castle they have a zoo and a water park and not only gardens but park areas with walking tracks and mountain bike tracks as well. Cap that off with a very attractive tree-lined main street with all the cafes, bars and hotels and you’re on a winner. Like I said the countryside is lovely and from up high in the hills, where this site is, you can see for miles. After setting up tent, getting showers and doing some washing, we wandered down a forested area across the road, to a lookout, with a prime view of the castle and surrounding area. The platform itself was only finished this year and makes the best view possible. 

The campground was very high up!

Snapped off some shots, then back to the tent for an afternoon snack whilst letting the clothes dry, before a trip down the huge hill we’d slogged up, to take more photos of the castle. Hey….you’re only here once, may as well make the most of it. After taking different angles in a changing light, we went to Mc Donalds for something to eat and to charge the laptop. Spent a good hour and a half in there mapping out tomorrows route and catching up with messages. Down the road to a supermarket, to pick up breakfast, or part of it, before back on the snapshot trail. 

The only disappointing aspect was that they don’t actually light up the castle at night, like the Budapests and Durnsteins etc, instead they just have spotlights on certain parts, but alas for us it didn’t have the same aura. 

So, back up the hill, where Julia downloaded the photos before we turned in about 10.45pm. At 1.05am I was woken by a group of noisy bastards in a car, which had pulled up opposite the camp, on the track to the viewpoint, who decided that the entire region should be awake. This went on for an hour and the owner was having words with them, obviously not strong enough words, as they continued until 2am. My solution for people like this is simple and I’m amazed it’s not used more often…..shoot them in the head. It’s quick, the problem disappears straight away and they don’t do it again. I believe it was carried out in days gone by on mass scales, but others got upset….Anyway…room for thought…!

View from the lookout before bed