Nice cool
evening last night, which meant we all slept well, but woke up to a clear sky
with all the tents and left-out laundry covered in the heaviest dew imaginable. No sun up at 6am to dry things, so we just
shake out the fabric, roll it up tight as possible, and know that we’re
spreading out the whole mess of material again this afternoon.
Lovely
countryside to cycle through, large fields of corn in flat river valleys alternating
with hay and grain crops in the smaller farms up against the hills, low
mountains in the distance covered with small towns and tall church steeples. Very romantic to look at, great to cycle
through. Peter & Killian (IRE)
putter along with me for awhile, but Peter pulls ahead to make a phone call,
Killian drops back to ride with a larger more sociable group. Then I catch up to Mark (USA), Nelson (CDN),
and Aaron (USA), which works good for awhile but we cruising along a level road
between the fields and the hills when we come to an intersection where there’s
no flagging but Mark wants to turn uphill; I suggest the main road is straight
ahead, Mark’s comment is “If Dave wants to go that way, maybe we should take
the other road”; since this is obviously not a productive conversation, I head
out solo.
Riding
groupings have changed quite a bit since the sectionals came/went in
Budapest. Married couples continue to ride
together because they’re used to each other’s pace and adjust daily to whoever
is feeling stronger or weaker. Groups such
as “Cindy & The Bandits” have now broken up; Wayne (AUS) rides further back
with John & Peter (USA), Kevin (AUS) rides ahead by himself, Mark (USA) has
now started riding with Nelson (CDN) and Aaron (USA), Cindy (USA) is now riding
with Chris (CDN) so the two of them are usually in camp before anybody else,
set up their respective tents and just disappear. Peter (IRE) has slowed down since he was
joined by his son Killian (IRE), so it’s easier to keep up with the two of them
– Peter is the one with the innovative thinking and route planning, Killian is
the ‘sociable cyclist’.
This morning
was a good day for wildlife. Large buck
deer jumped out of the cornfield to my left, leaped across the road, and
stopped facing me from the harvested field to my right. Later on a hawk was perched on a wood
cross-bar on a hydro pole eating his breakfast, probably a mouse. Two great blue herons were checking out the
hay windrows in a field, looking for snacks; haven’t seen any storks for a few
days so I’m wondering if we’re too far south for their breeding grounds.
40.5km to Oplotnica
and the start of a nice climb into the hills, 10% grades and large overhanging
trees, then just past the summit the lunch truck is sitting at 59km to catch us
on our long cruise down in the next valley system. Celje is a decent sized city, but the
flagging has stopped; I waste about 15 minutes trying to figure out where to
make my right turn, when Vilma & Peter drive by in the van shouting out “This
way”; apparently they were shopping and didn’t realise that I would be passing
by so quickly. Trying to follow Peter’s
advice to follow the bike path, I get detoured and lost in the streets of
Sempeter and realise that it’s sometimes easier to just follow the stupid
highway – heavy traffic and all.
Left turn
off Highway #427 towards Prebold, then a turn into "Dolina Camp" which proves what
you can do with a house and a large back yard – put in a small swimming pool
and turn the entire area into a campground.
Several Nederlander vehicles and tents have found their way to this
corner of the world, we back-fill the rest of the available open space. No thermal springs or water park today, but sometimes
there’s nothing nicer than an afternoon in cool fresh water, exchanging cycling
‘war stories’ and other remembrances.
The nearby Tus market proves that Slovenians know how to make great
chocolate milk; I buy a 1L container then head down to the nearby village
stream to do a quality test; five minutes later I’m back in the store to buy
another 1L container. My, this stuff is
good!
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