Sunday 26th October 2014 - Up early, misty cool morning. Reckon on leaving about 9.30am. Have shower, pack up and its 10.30am. Urgh, where does the time go in the morning.
Shoes and socks thoroughly dried out overnight, so feet not too cold this morning.
Back onto the road. Bit of sun trying to peek through. Mist all around in the distance.
Basically stayed on road 51 for most of the day, through Dunavecse, Solt, Kalocsa to Baja.
Need food. Only had a snickers and packet of chocolate biscuits for tea last night and a cereal bar this morning.
First town shops are all closed. Oh yeah, it's Sunday. Petrol stations are open, so buy a mars, bounty, kitkat, peanuts and a bag of fruit and nut mix.
Find the Eurovelo sign just beside the road after Solt and chance it. Nice smooth tarmac running parallel to the road. Great.
Through a couple of villages. Single storey houses along the roads, all with a yard or garden. Most with dogs in them. Shops all closed.
EV route then goes off back toward the river. I don't. Stay on road as it's straight and direct and I don't know what the EV route will be like. Don't want more gravel or massive detour.
Road is mainly flat and very long. Mostly pretty decent, but then there are sections that are really bumpy and full of holes. Concentration levels high to avoid the pot holes and the cars. Although, not sure if it is because it's a Sunday, but traffic isn't actually too busy. Most people give me plenty of room when passing too.
The speed the cars go on the badly surfaced parts of road, I think being a car mechanic in Hungary would be a good job to do, I'm sure they have plenty of work fixing suspension.
Also there are loads of Suzuki Swift cars here, I think they're built in Hungary. It was the first car I bought, with my student loan whilst at uni, so it's funny to see so many of them here.
There are also a lot of signs for deer every km or so. For miles and miles. Have no eye deer where they'd be living though, as it's all open flat farmland. Saw a fox run across the field beside me at one stage. It was doing about 25kmph. Not much other wildlife about.
100km of straight flat road, with only the odd town or bend. Black clouds following me, but it stays dry. Long day.
See some paprika factories and lots of it hanging up drying around houses. They like their paprika here.
Into Baja. Some great looking buildings. As I had stopped, taking photos and looking at map, a girl with a baby on her back approached me.
She asked if she could help. I said I was either going to the hotel or the camping. She said the camping was open. Decision made. Chatted with her, really nice girl with brilliant English. Said she has a few friends in Istanbul as well she could put me in contact with if I needed. She also offered to show me where the campsite was and if I was staying to meet for lunch tomorrow. I declined, as didn't want to put her out of her way tonight and I need an early start tomorrow, but it was nice of her.
Got her email address, but since I've been blocked out of my emails, for logging in from so many different countries, I'm not sure I'll be able to contact her before (if) I get there.
Camping was 1800HUF, a room was 3300HUF. Worked out about £8 for sleeping indoors, in the warm.
Worryingly there is only one clean sheet for the bed. The pillow case and duvet cover are already on them. I wonder how long they've been on for? Think I'll use a sheet from the other beds to protect me from the duvet and one to go over the pillow!
Went out to the restaurant next door. Had a slap up meal of duck, cabbage, potatoes, salad, beer and coffee for a tenner. Fab!!
I also realised, two days later, that the clocks went back. Coming out of Budapest I saw a clock on the street and it was a hour behind. Just thought it was an old clock. Then this morning, I couldn't believe it took me over an hour to get ready. Plus I thought it was bright really early this morning as well.
My watch was still on old time, but my phone had changed by itself when on WiFi in Budapest. Haha, took a while, but I figured it out!
The only important times of each day for me though are sunrise and sunset - time to go and time to stop.
Day 58 - 26.10.14
Szalkszentmárton to Baja, Hungary
9.30am to 4.30pm
4h 51min cycling
102.2km
2749 calories
376 metres asc
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