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11. - 15.05.2012 Budapest - Border Serbia 265 km
Sonja:
After breakfast and saying goodbye to Frida we hit the road again. Our first mission was to find our way out of the urban jungle and back onto the bike path. After having mastered this task, we had to find one of the many blue fountains, which exist in every Hungarian village, because Frida had given us the hint, that you get there high quality drinking water for free. Since the thermometer continually climbed towards 40°C and our water consumption increased accordingly (about 6 liters per person per day) we made extensive use of them. The water was always wonderfully cool and delicious.
The next morning, Olli was just about to unpack his "garden hose" to take a leak, as he almost got knocked over by a deer which suddenly jumped out from nearby bushes. Pretty much traffic in the forest early in the morning. On this day we almost suffered a heat stroke. By 8 a.m. our thermometer showed already 25°C, at 9 a.m. we had 30°C and finally at noon it had 40°C and we had to lie down in the shade. We were close to the boiling point and dragged ourselves from fountain to fountain, happy about every shady little space. In the evening I even had a slight sunburn.
That night after dinner we went to the shore of the Danube to wash the dishes and the strong wind there almost knocked us over. The waves were so strong that Olli had trouble to wash the dishes while maintaining the balance. We had not noticed the storm before, since our tent was completely sheltered between dam and forest. In retrospect, we learned by email from Frida that there had been a stormwarning on the news and that she was really worried about us.
We shouldn't have cursed the heat so much during the last few days because the next morning it started raining and we only had icy 15°C. We had no desire at all to ride in this weather and only climbed out of the tent in the afternoon when the storm clouds had cleared off. During a small snack on the lawn we were suddenly startled by the sound of bells. About 10 cows strolled grazing in our direction along the dam together with their cowherd plus dog. Oops, we are probably in the middle of a cow pasture! But the cows didn't care about us at all. Cowherd Bela simply led them around our tent in a wide circle. After a while we stroke up a conversation with Bela and, thanks to our dictionary, it turned out, that he is not a cowherd at all but a big farmer with 100 cows (raising of calves) and 40 Welsh ponies and he's also exporting peppers, spinach, dill and parsley. In the evening he took us to his farm to show us his calves, we got fresh cow milk, tasted pepper brandy (delicious but hot) and watched the spinach processing. Afterwards he drove us in his car to one of his cow herds in the forest, we passed his pony farm and collected wild garlic. For dinner we then cooked this garlic in the fresh milk and had pasta together with this delicious garlic cream sauce. Yummy! We were so grateful because Bela also let us fill up our water bottles and stock of gasoline (for the stove) and even supplied us with toilet paper.
Bela assured us that it would not rain the following day but after 2 hours cycling it started pouring down. We wrapped ourselves up in our rain gear and fought through the 10°C cold waters over soaked sand tracks. Here we met the hiker Rosario from Italy who walks in several stages from the source of the Danube all its way to the Black Sea.
We had planned to cross the border to Serbia that day but the rain finally prompted us to spend another night in Hungary. During a short rainless interval we pitched our tent once again directly next to the embankment in the middle of Danube-Drava National Park but with a safe distance to a swarm of bees buzzing around on the lawn. Around midnight we were suddenly awakened by strange noises from the forest directly behind us. A few meters from our tent a herd of wild boars rummaged grunting and snorting through the woods. That made us feel a bit queasy and although Olli desperately needed to pee he waited until there was nothing to hear anymore. What a thrill during our last night in Hungary! What will be awaiting us in Serbia?
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