Lovely, long, quiet night, no drip-drip on the tent fly, in fact the stars were showing through when I made my "midnight walk". Always nice to pack up a tent that isn't soaking wet, and since I was under the trees there's not enough dampness to worry about.
Coffee and porridge for breakfast, time to make and pack a small sandwich lunch, and we're off by 7:30am. Back along Road #180 to Road #132, and then we resume the southwest quest towards Warsaw. Peter McCartney catches up to me and me become a tandem team, he's slowed down a bit for me and I've sped up a bit for him, so we're both taking the lead for 2km intervals and moving right along. Those dense forests have given way to farmland but there's not much to take photographs of.
We turn left on Road #135 and the border posts come into view - one customs guy with a baton at the Polish frontier, but he doesn't want to see any documents from us, probably making sure those trucks have paid their road taxes.
Peter stops to exchange currency at the Kantor because Poland has decided to retain the "zlotny" rather than switch to the Euro. I soldier on alone for awhile but then pull over to wait for Peter to catch up, and when he does Chris is right on his rear wheel, so I join in and bring up the rear position. These two guys are far stronger than me over the long haul, so after about 10km I mutter an exhausted "Good luck" and drop back to nurse my bruised ego.
Lunch is at 70km in a small road leading into the bush. A Polish cyclist comes along the road and we wave him over to join us for lunch. Nobody speaks Polish and he doesn't speak a word of English, but two Slovaks and a Hungarian provide enough breadth of knowledge that we're soon all laughing and pointing at our bikes, our food, and his equipment. What a hoot!
After lunch I solo the last 13km through the forests and lakes, over the bridges, into Augustow, a resort community. With the one hour time change between Lithuania and Poland it's now only 10:30am in the morning, "Hotel Augustow" doesn't want us, so I jump back on the bike and go exploring around town. Pick up some 'zloyts' at an ATM, there's a market in the middle of town with a bike shop where I get some shifter cables and chain oil, check out the boat cruise departure times, then back to the hotel for the usual shower, laundry, etc. thing.
Interesting things have been happening this morning. According to the roommate schedule that Gergo had drawn up for the "singles", tonight I was supposed to be rooming with George (Swiss) and Mark (USA) was supposed to be rooming with Chris (Canada). However, Mark (USA) apparently told Gergo that he would NOT ever be a roommate with Chris (Canada), went into George's room, messed up the bed that was supposed to be allocated me, spread his personal effects around that room, and then left the building. Wow! Open defiance of Gergo's authority, and something that is never supposed to happen on a TDA tour. Stay tuned...
Headed over to the dock to take the cruise boat "Swodboda" gives a 2hr40min tour of Lake Necko, then Lake Biale,
and then through a manually operated lock into unnamed lake #3.
I introduce myself to a group of World Catholic Youth delegates from Zambia who are getting ready for the impending visit of Pope Francis.
Back to the hotel for blog and internet time, rider meeting at 5:45pm, supper of chicken breast & potatoes plus numerous salads. No, we're not starving - not even close.
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