Budapest

We arrived in Budapest two days before Angela after an easy ride through Austria and Slovakia, along the Danube Cycle Way. The weather had improved vastly since I last wrote on here and the snow was a distant memory.

In southern Germany we had five days of cold conditions with fresh snow every morning. This made for unpleasant riding conditions on the slushy roads, with a couple of days where not too many km's were clocked. After the snow we had some rain but once in Austria the weather improved and has been on our side since. The last two weeks there hasn't been a cloud in the sky and spring has come on very quickly, all the leaves are out and the woodlands around Budapest are carpeted with flowers.

The riding has been fairly easy going with around 90km covered each day without particularly early starts.
The day after we stopped for beers in the hunting cabin we rode just ahead of a dark black sky for a few hours pleased that the snow couldn't catch us. Unfortunately after a rest I realised I had dropped my woolly hat and so back tracked for a few kilometres only to find that the hat was sat on my back panniers all along. With the clouds now threatening to catch us we sped down a big hill and cruised away pleased with ourselves only then to realise that Huw's rear rack was missing a bolt. So the snow came and we sheltered at the local supermarket and drank tea and ate lots of cakes while all the shoppers gave us funny looks!

Cycling through Europe has made me realise how impoverished the UK is in regards to it's natural history. I've seen many plant and animal species that are either extinct or very rare in the UK. I saw my first Camberwell Beauty flitting along the banks of the Danube in Austria and in Slovakia saw 15 Common Swallow Tails in a few hours. Fritillaries are everywhere and the commomer Nymphalids are around in very large numbers. Every valley in the German hills has its resident pair of Buzzards and kestrels are everywhere along with Red kites. Its been a pleasure to see Red Squirrels, wild Boar and Red Deer. There seems to be plenty of Beech martens but unfortunately the only one we saw had lost a fight with a car.

In Germany we saw the first signs of beavers and couldn't believe it first that they were so far north in Europe in such numbers and that they could chew down such large trees. Following the Danube they are present even in the large cities such as Wien and Linz. They were introduced in the 1960's and now there are 250,000 compared to the four in the UK. I didn't actually see any in the flesh until I was fishing in a big pool on the River Traisen. Two young beavers, perhaps just a couple of months old popped up only ten feet from my feet and played before climbing onto the bank, oblivious to my presence . They wrestled for a minute and then dived back in and disappeared under the bank from where they had come.

The fishing hasn't been great, actually its been abysmal! I have tried maybe ten times along the way in various rivers, mainly with lures and have had no success which isn't surprising as its been very cold. One night I had a lovely run at two o'clock in the morning using a big piece of salami as bait. By the time I had extracted myself from my cosy cocoon and got to my rod the fish was probably a few kilometres up the river. You've got to try though! Hopefully now with the better weather the water will be warmer and the fishies will be in a mood for feeding!

During the last two weeks of cycling I decided that my frame was a little small as I had been getting neck pain after around 40-50km each day. I checked a few shops in Germany for a larger one but none kept anything in stock so my father very kindly arranged for a Thorn frame to be sent to Budapest from the UK. Andras at O G Bike Shop received and held the frame until I arrived. Thanks very much mate, its much appreciated. (n.b if you need a bmx come see Andras as he's the man to talk to). I planned to build up the new bike in a park but when we were renting a bike for Angela we met the delightful Imre and Györgyi at BikeBase (www.bikebase.hu) who offered me the use of their workshop.

 This was a great help and made things much easier. (if you need to rent a bike or flat in Budapest come see these guys). We also rented a flat from them and had a very comfortable stay. Thanks guys, you have been very kind and I hope I can repay the favour one day. Thank you also to Attila from Bringavilág Sportközpont bike shop for suppling new bike bits and generally being very helpful.


The new frame feels very much better and with other minor adjustments gained from the experience over the last two months, it should make everything a bit more comfortable for the ride down to Turkey, through Romania and Bulgaria. The best bit though is that I now have a ferret sitting on my handle-bars to show us the way as we keep getting lost!