Dit zijn de afstanden die er per dag gefietst zijn. Dag 4 was de rustdag.Dag 5 en 6 waren de dagen dat we rond hebben gereden in de Veluwe zonder bagage.
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Alps - Day 14 : The hidden pass
At night it had been pretty cold. The rats had luckily left us and the bread alone. The baguette we had bought yesterday had been under Bram's straps in the rain. We had put it inside at night, but the top was still completely wet. It was very gross, but we had nothing else to eat. We just put a lot of chocolate spread on top to get some energy and hide the taste.
The next challenge was putting on our wet cycling clothes. The first hour of cycling felt really cold, but at least it stopped raining. A map by the side of the road indicated there would be a store in a nearby village. When we arrived we saw a very ugly factory built over a river. Then a petrol station. It seemed like that was the entire village. In a few towns we could see the exit sign before entering, they were that small. We bought some food at the petrol station. Again the nasty croissants with vanilla filling and an infinite shelf life. Likely we won't be able to go to the bathroom for the rest of the week. That would save time we could spend cycling. There were two men and the sales clerk at the petrol station. The two guys were both drinking beer at 10 in the morning. One of them smelled worse than we did while we had slept among rats.
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After a few tiny villages we climbed another mountain. This one was pretty easy and along the way we took some pictures of the Slovenian landscape.
Slovenian hills
Slovenia doesn't have high mountains like the Alps
After the descent we arrived in a 'city'. On the map it was depicted as a large white circle. Usually, that meant a pretty big city with a ring road. Here the 'big city' was a village with barely 500 houses and one supermarket. The next town was larger and there were a lot of Dutch people. It also had a nice lake.
The lake at Jesenice.
This was one of the larger cities
In the town were lots of Dutch people
After Jesenice we followed a large road. In something that actually looked like a city we sat down for lunch. After a while a boy and a homeless man sat beside us. The homeless guy with his rats had been funny in France, but this one was annoying. He smelled and carried a cardboard box of wine and had already finished one earlier that day. He was just mumbling a lot and talking with the boy. I was glad when we were done eating.
Cycling over the large road went pretty fast, we raced back into Italy. By taking the large road we cut part of the route, including three mountains. Because of that we were a bit better on schedule. Now we only needed to climb a 530-meter high pass and then likely descend 23 kilometers to the campsite. It was around 6 o'clock, so we would arrive at the campsite early for a change. We were already at 200 meters of elevation, so the 530-meter high pass should be easy.
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After half an hour of climbing we still didn't see the summit. Apparently, we had started from a lower elevation than we thought. The summit should show up pretty soon. A while later we still didn't see it. We definitely had climbed 530 meters by now. After over an hour of climbing we saw a sign '1000 meters'. Please don't let the mountain be 1530 m instead of 530 m. The map definitely said 530 m. Apparently we still had 530 m to go, which would take at least another hour.
Bram had had enough
Just a bit more climbing
Bram said, 'you take some pictures while I continue'.
After climbing 1000 meters higher than expected, we finally saw the stupid sign indicating 1530 meters altitude.
Passo Pramollo.
The pass was 1530 meters high
For all our effort we got two passes. We found the next one on the other side of the border in Austria.
Bram at the Nassfeldpass.
Bart at the Nassfeldpass.
This is where we came from
Austria
The descent was very steep, which had advantages and disadvantages. The benefit was that we went down with top speeds of 74 and 79 km/h. The disadvantage was that we lost height quickly. With a less steep descent you can cover much more ground. We descended so far that the last 24 kilometers to the campsite were still uphill. Those last 1.5 hours were tough. By the end of the day we had cycled nearly 200 km. In the village we found a sign indicating that the campsite was 1.3 km away, then suddenly it was 1.0 km, another 100 meters further we arrived.
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The campsite was again an Alps campsite and again full of Dutch people. At the front desk, we could use free internet. The youth there only used that to write long stories on Hyves. The campsite was pretty cheap and we were given a pamphlet about separating our garbage. The only garbage we had was that pamphlet. We also got two tickets for complimentary welcome drinks in the bar. After showering we went over to drink some beer. That was nice after cycling all day. After finishing the beers we learned that they weren't covered by the tickets. At night it wasn't cold, making it one of the rare nights we slept well. We also realized it would be Sunday the following day most stores would be closed.
Distance cycled : 196 km.