What a wet and miserable day!

Last night it started raining and it hasn’t stopped yet. This morning the river next to the camping site was a wild brown current charging down the valley.

I woke up during the night and discovered that my feet and sleeping bag were soaking wet. While I was sleeping I pushed with my feet the inner tent against the soaking wet outer tent, and you campers will know what the results was. The inner tent got soaking wet, and so my sleeping bag as well.

While packing up the tent the rest of my gear got soaked as well. The glamorous mornings of riding a bike and camping …

I started riding and immediately the visor fogged up (correct English?), so up the visor went and the drops of rain and cold air bit into my cheeks and eyes. I stopped at a filling station after 3 km’s and stood next to the dripping bike. My only thoughts were ‘how on earth can one ride a bike if you can’t see the road ahead of you?’.

It went like that for the next 160 km. It was Monday so the big trucks were back on the highways. If they hadn’t sprayed me with water in the right lane I was in the in the way of the much faster cars in the left lane. And it was cold …

At Linz going down to a tunnel the rear wheel of the KLR suddenly slipped and I corrected it, just to slip again! My first thoughts were oil? Diesel? Flat tyre? And as I entered the tunnel and rode into the warmer air the visor went white with fog, even the two mirrors. The result of suddenly riding into warmer air. I had to open the visor again and ride like that in a tunnel filled with moist and diesel damps and soot. There was no possibility to stop with three lanes of vehicles coming up behind me. Fortunately the wheel wasn’t flat but I realized that the riding conditions were getting worse and I had to get off the road.

Around 2:30 I pulled off after deciding that it was not worth chasing the day’s planned destination. Tomorrow I have to read Wroclaw in Poland, and the weather forecast isn’t good for the Czech Republic that I still have to cross. Even cooler weather and more rain than today is forecasted for tomorrow.

And I dropped the bike for the first time. I tried to put it on the centre stand but my feet slipped, so Bang! it went down on its right side.

Today I questioned my sanity for riding alone and heading for Russia.

I had some remarks about the flies of last night. I added two photographs.

“In the beginning God created the fly, and then forgot to tell us why.” J

01 wet wet wet

02 flies everywhere

03 the reason for the flies