I woke early, said my goodbyes and skedaddled. The riverside track was in poor shape, not helped by the many speed bumps. Eurovelo6 threw up a big surpise as it funnelled me into dry muddy farm track and then…nothing. I spent an hour fighting through thick undergrowth until I intersected a paved road, blood oozing from my legs. GPS confirmed that indeed it was the official route. I can’t recommend it. Better to stick to the main highway around these parts, even though it’s busy with speeding trucks bringing ore to the massive steel mill in Dunaújváros.
I soon passed an English lady running with a trailer from London to Katmandu. Holy shit, that takes balls! She looked to be struggling and I stopped to offer her water, but she declined. I can’t help but think she is taking a massive risk running on this road, but I admire her dedication.
Soon, a good cycle path appeared which took me to Harta, from there was was head-down on back-roads, where I made serious pace, all the while avoiding the massive potholes. When I reached Fokto, the route turned to gravel for about 15km, which teally tired the legs.
But then, thankfully, came a nicely paved track on top of a dyke, where again I could pick-up up speed. That took me all the way to Baja. Must say, I was really pleased with myself for getting this far, especially in the heat. I had to take-on salt at one stage to balance the huge quantities of water I needed to consume, but I felt pretty good after.
I was a little shocked to see on GPS that I had cycled 148 km!
Parking-up at the local campsite, I hit Baja to find somewhere that would serve me halászlé, a regional catfish/pike/carp soup laced with paprika. Several people had told that Baja does it best. I only found one place that had it on the menu, but they weren’t serving it tonight. Nor anything else, except fried cheese and flat beer. I picked-up my supper in a supermarket and retired to my tent.
Serbia tomorrow! They do fish soup there too 😉
