Roommate comes into the room just before 6am this morning, having slept somewhere else for the past three nights. No way that I had a 'single room' because (a) I couldn't lock the door at night (just in case he came back after I was in bed or arrived before I woke up in the morning); (b) roommate was a registered occupant of that room; and (c) I always had to be aware that somebody else had a key and could come into the room at anytime (sort of put a crimp on my evening cross-dressing fashion show thoughts). But the break was still a nice change from Monday afternoon when he trashed the room and then disappeared.
Convoy assembled in front of the hotel and departed just before 8:30am, crossing the river and then heading southwest through the Budai side of the city. Gergo loves convoys because it eliminates the need for taping, and eliminates the possibility of riders getting lost in the myriad of streets leading out of town. At the 7.4km mark he waves us forward and then pulls off to load his bike into the van, so he can ride ahead and tape the rest of the day's route. As per usual, a TransEuropa2016 rider knows that s/he is on the correct route because if the wind is in your face then you must be going the correct way; today the wind is SW15kph so the riding is normal and tough.
Today's itinerary suggests that we're going to climb over 1,000m today but the grades are short (<1km), not very steep, and frequent. Largest film studio in Hungary is off on our left hand side.
Rolling farm land all the way, the harvest is well in hand, and most of the fields have straw that's been bailed into the big cubes.
Lunch at 71km is on the edge of a field of corn. There are a few small towns along the road, but nothing like the high density of population that characterised the country of Poland. Sun is hot and beating down, hardly a cloud in the sky, temperature around 30C, and I'm sucking water out of the Camelback at an alarming rate so it eventually runs dry, and at 105km I stop for a 1L bottle of Coke to carry me through.
As I reach the bike path around Lake Balaton, I encounter Cindy/Kevin/Mark who are asking directions from a local and following him inland. However, my 'gut instinct' says that if we're aiming for a campsite that's on the lake, just keep to the roads close to the lake until you reach the day's travel distance, so I barrel along willy-nilly and arrive at Yacht Camping at 128.9km - pretty close to the theoretical 130km and by 2:40pm too.
TDA has been given six separate sites, each about 8x10 metres, which by European standards is lots of room for parking, cooking space, and 20 tents. I set up my tent in a corner, lock up my bike, string up my clothes line, shower, laundry, refill my Camelback, and then head to the supermarket for some grape juice. Riders keep arriving throughout the afternoon, setting up their tents and going through their destination rituals.
Rider meeting at 5:45pm with one direction (viz. turn left at the gate at cycle for 75km and follow the bike path), one destination (Hotel Helikdon), and the announcement that there will be no flagging. Supper at 6am is chicken and rice (which is getting blah and quite monotonous) but the corn-on-the-cob is excellent. Now, as the sun sets behind the hills, it's time for blog and photos.
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