Here it is — the FULL DOCUMENTARY MOVIE from my 2018 bike tour across Central Europe (Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary).
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Follow along as Darren Alff (the Bicycle Touring Pro), Kevin Burret, and a range of Bicycle Touring Pro friends and fans cycle their way across Central Europe in this stunning documentary adventure video.
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Kuya for Kuya [Â __Â ] Kuya Josie and for Kuya those are the names of two of my bicycle trained pro readers who happen to live in Vienna Austria and before I tell you about Josie and for Kuya let me take you back a little bit and tell you what’s been going on [Applause] so I’ve ridden my bicycle with the help of a couple trains from Poznan Poland to Prague in the Czech Republic once I arrived in Prague I met up with my friends Kevin Michael and Lynnae and together the four of us rode her bicycle south from Prague all the way to the
City of Vienna Austria over the course of about one week once we made it to Vienna Kevin and I met up with Josie and fukaya who live in Vienna Austria and agreed to host us at their home for two nights so we stayed in Vienna for two
Nights saw the city a little bit went out to dinner with Josie and Fukui and then the following day the four of us packed up our bicycles and began cycling south together this was Josie and Fukui oz first bicycle tour ever and Josie is just 13 14 years old she’s
A teenager and fuku yeah he’s a little bit older but this was his first bike tour as well so it was really great to have not only Kevin riding with me my friend kevin has joined me on a lot of bike tours all around the world but
Josie and Fukui as well to be joining us on their first bicycle tour ever so you guys ready to ride today yeah okay first up we’re gonna go to the supermarket I think get some food and then the river and then beyond right Hey that’s juicy done that route before yeah yeah I should know guilty twice where you were fast too Good morning dear and Alf here from bicycle train procom we are on the Euro vo6 route which is the Danube River route here just outside of being Austria now the Euro below six route is probably the most popular bicycle train route in Europe and it’s popular because it’s
Flat and it goes all the way from the border of France and Spain kind of all the way to the Black Sea in Bulgaria and Romania and it goes through a whole bunch of countries along the way and the route is very similar to what you can
See here it’s very well marked largely flat and extremely popular especially this section between Vienna and Budapest that’s really one of the most popular sections of this route to the ride today I’m on the road with my friend Kevin who’s from Australia he’s been cycling
With me for the last week we started in Prague in the Czech Republic and rode our bikes here – in Austria over the last seven days and now when we arrived in Ana we were invited into the home of Kuya and his family and they lived here
In Vienna and they kind of invited us into their home let us stay there friend two nights and now poppy Lea and his 14 year old daughter Josie are joining us on our bike ride to the east towards Bratislava and possibly beyond we’ll see how they do and whether they want to
Continue with us all the way to Budapest but we’re just going today 55 kilometres kind of keeping it short and simple and easy and we’ll see how they’re doing in the morning but it’s really fun to have the two of them on their first bike tour with us here in Austria and Slovakia
What time is it Kevin live in the clock yeah what does that mean that our report is 11 o’clock mean 11 o’clock men’s coffee yeah what else is 11 foot rain what else could possibly mean this is a great example of business placement 25 guys on that like splat section you can live
With somebody I can hear your first thing you see pull in here yeah they can’t write past Right spot for a little bite of that you can die you’ve a gun good selection now this is a joy it is truly I mean I make a check this is truly one of the joys Kotori got my weather wind in your face in your eyes like this magic what do you
Think of it the Turkish far good I think great starts yeah and I think we will make it this today yeah and then how do you think she’s doing Joe I think she’s beating us off [Applause] Getting close to the campground yeah how are you feeling gonna make it Are over in the final stretch now is just one kilometer down to the river and hopefully the campsite is open there were no signs coming in to enter the campsite so I’m a little nervous but should be good so we found this campground on the map but it’s it seems
Pretty primitive there’s no bathrooms as far as we can tell there’s a big structure that allows you to look out over the river there’s a campsite area here for a fire there’s the Danube River Kevin’s exploring up there to see if those bathrooms inside it’s a cool can
Side though cuz I mean there’s a fire pit there and that we would have all to ourselves and quiet and the river and there’s probably toilet ability yeah if you really had to go that’s true cuz over yeah I think the other campground is going to be more like a parking lot
Yeah we set up a camp and like the penny is off we can ride back and get some water so we found this really cool campsite that’s right here on the edge of the Danube River the unfortunate part is there are no bathrooms here there are no
Showers there’s a campfire pit but a sign that says we can’t have a campfire but there’s free camping and there’s no one else here it’s a really beautiful spot so we’ve decided to camp here for the night this is Josie’s like first time camping or maybe like second time camping in her
Whole life but kuia doesn’t have a whole lot of camping experience I don’t think so it should be a good first night out on the road sleeping under the stars it’ll be an interesting one for sure we’re setting up our tents now and yeah should should be good so this is your first
Time setting up the tent yeah yeah and tell me about your camping experience how much camping experience do you have zero wow that’s exciting and then the pincer onto the other side yeah so the other way yes good job depends on how hard the ground is sometimes you have to find a
Rock or something right that’s easier right fire and torture device torture device for mother yeah what does I do you know the answer what well Arnie what what you said this is fire with what the porkchop okay yeah and water higher okay I assume you’d if I get going on that
Wow how do you what do you think what does this do pounds on what cats from where here here to here and then you put the fire yes that’s waiting 20 minutes mistakes yeah what did you get for dinner what are you making Kevin okay yeah I think they use soybean because So it was a pretty good day overall we cycled close to sixty kilometers I think 57 kilometers something like that today and it was good having Josie and Fukui lip fest we were a little trade maybe they’d slow us down or something but no actually they were
Quite fast sometimes even faster than I would normally cycle so yeah it was great and then we found this amazing little campsite pretty early in the day actually this was the earliest we’ve ever finished any ride on this particular trip thus far so had quite a
Bit of time here at the campsite to just hang out no showers no bathrooms but the the campsite itself is pretty spectacular we had dinner up on this elevated platform played some games and stuff in camp talked a little bit and now the rest of the group has gone to a
Nearby pub and they’re watching the World Cup soccer game on TV I decided to stay here back at camp and just kind of hang out and watch the tents and the bikes and everything so that’s pretty much it for our first day with Pequea and Josie it was really really well and
They’re talking about riding with us all the way to Budapest in Hungary so we’ll see how they are in the morning they’re kind of doing this trip open-ended so they’re not sure maybe they will go home tomorrow from Bratislava in Slovakia we’ll probably get there before noon
Tomorrow I’m guessing have lunch the in town and then continue down the river from there towards Budapest so we’ll see in the morning if they get any sleep in their tent or not tonight maybe they’ll wake up and be totally miserable in the morning or maybe
They’ll wake up and be raring to go we’ll see this is their very first time camping Josie I don’t think has ever camped like this out in the tent before so it’ll be interesting to see how she does in the evening once it gets dark and she has to go to bed
But overall a very good day very fine and yeah it’s nice to have some new and different company with us out here on the road I want I want to hear how was camping last night yeah it was hard to get to sleep but once you got to sleep
You didn’t even wake up one was it was it scary at all sleeping in the tent like hearing the noises outside what did you hear things like that There’s an interesting experience you think you’re gonna be able to get everything back and in the bags that’s a positive attitude you ready to ride always you ready to ride I’m ready to ride also Kevin’s ready to ride so today we’re going to Bratislava Slovakia we’re gonna cross the border from Austria into
Slovakia this is Kevin’s first time in Slovakia right yep first time in Bratislava this is my fourth time I think in Slovakia third time in Bratislava but I’ve never done this route along the river here before so it’ll be good [Applause] [Applause] We’re getting close to Bratislava now we can see the castle off in the distance maybe just some other five to seven kilometers or so and then we’ll be in the city All right so we’re in Bratislava now we turned into the first shopping mall that we could find Kevin got a SIM card for his phone costume 20 euros which gave them 4 gigabytes now we went into Bella the supermarket which is also in the shopping mall here got some food
Everybody got some food for tonight and tomorrow and now we’re going into the food court to get some lunch for today so we’re really stocking up here at the shopping mall and we’ll continue from here in Bratislava down the river so what did you manage to find four lines
All of that that was like 12 things just like combining together like with small things yeah yeah I got 12 things too I got pizza two slices of pizza and two little like green salad things what do you have in for lunch over here I’m gonna have a Advocaat oh and bread bread
And cheese just had a couple of bananas retinas yeah better lately okay now get enough food to get me through tomorrow if there’s no shelter well so now the next problem is where I’ll put it all a lot of gonna eat it all over the pond somewhere in the pennies yeah
Well we didn’t stay in Bratislava very long we just kind of made a quick pit stop here I’ve got a SIM card for our phones got some food filled up our water bottles and now we’re on our way downtown Bratislava is kind of behind me there through the the arches of this bridge
We’ve done 32 kilometers to get here to Bratislava today and we’re gonna go quite a bit further so yeah here we go goodbye Bratislava back on the euro below six Danube River So we’ve left brightest lava and we’re out on this amazing little bike path that is super flat and super speedy I’m going 26 kilometers per hour at the moment was going 32 a moment ago pretty easy to go flat there’s lots of inline skaters bikers runners out here on the
Trail we are just about to cross the border now this morning we crossed from Austria to Slovakia and now we’re gonna cross from Slovakia into Hungary so we’re crossing two international border is in the single day in a very short time period and here it comes the border of Slovakia and Hungary We’re biking down this long like island that separates Slovakia from Hungary on my left behind me here the clouds and water in the distance that’s lavake uh mainland Slovakia is over there over to my right behind those trees just about like a hundred meters or less that is
Hungry we are going to cross over to hungry at some point but we’re basically going to continue down this long island for several dozen kilometers and eventually we will cross into Hungary for now however we are enjoying these scenic views along the waterfront beautiful clouds in the sky today
Really really nice whoo we’re flying we’ve gone I’m looking at my odometer now 53.3 six kilometers today and that’s in three hours so we’ve got 53 kilometers in three hours of cycling it’s pretty fast for bicycle touring and we’re able to do that because the road is flat So we just did 80 kilometres for the day just past the 80 kilometer mark that is the furthest the dozy has ever in her bicycle in a single day so we’ve were sent in some records with her she’s never been on a bike tour never gone camping and now today
She’s never ridden over 80 kilometers and now she has so a pretty good record-setting trip here for I think at age 14 so I need to interject here because unfortunately I lost some of the video footage from this part of the trip so what happened was we were cycling
Down this long like Island Peninsula sort of thing in Slovakia and the plan was to go to this little ferry landing and take a ferry boat across the water over into Hungary and right on the other side of the water in Hungary was the campground that we were planning to stay
So we made it to this little ferry landing we waited for two hours for this ferry boat to show up while we were there kevin had his coffee of course second coffee of the day I might add and the ferry boat never showed up and we don’t
Know why time of year perhaps I have no idea but the ferry boat never showed up and so what were we gonna do there were no campgrounds nearby so we basically just walked our bikes a short distance like a tenth of a kilometer down the road and found this little spot in the
Forest right on the edge of the river and that’s where we decided to make camp for the night well we waited here at the ferry landing for more than two hours and the ferry didn’t show up like the woman said it would so we’ve decided that we’re just gonna camp like right
Here behind me in these trees spend the night here we don’t have toilets running water anything but we’re gonna camp here and then in tomorrow we’ll bike 40 kilometers into town and we’ll say goodbye to Pakeha and Josie and then Kevin and I will continue they’re kind of east through Hungary and
Slovakia so the plan is one more night with no showers and no running water no bathroom here in the woods second day camping should be easier this time good anyway first you know Voila dinner well you think it does too much water that’s the story join because rice will also don’t make a man broke it much better now [Laughter] it doesn’t try it yes we keep sorry I [Laughter] can’t even keep the camera still a glass
And so I know but you know what I worry because I think a make your Good morning that’s what’s for breakfast like chicken noodle soup kind of how did you sleep last night yeah what were you thinking when you heard all that noise outside your tent really and they what are they doing yeah were you scared Kevin I was concerned since I started making farce of me that
Guy and I ain’t gonna be it was any aggression involved I would have immediately kind of made the intentions clear but I didn’t yeah I just see for the fishing really very good that’s gonna be pulling many fish I’m not quite sure thing anymore to the rivets are you did you get any
Sleep last night I slept beautifully when I slammed when you slept three directions I’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight I’ll make up words but Kuya yes how did what happened last night I think people came here to make fire and I think they were eating something
And then another car came I don’t know I think maybe they went fishing or something and then they were bothering us I guess in the end we slept well I think yeah how close were they to your tent right big five meters five meters away yeah and I saw flashlights and stuff
Where that were they shining the light on the tent or yeah kind of eyes not the intention or in the beginning so I had to get out and then had to see what’s happening in my night Sean did you talk to her I said hi hello and good night
And did they say anything I did not understand that I think they did something but I dunno okay yeah were you scared yes I think he was also scared yeah I was scared too yeah well we had quite a night sleeping on the edge of this river near the border of Slovakia
And Hungary we pitched our tents on the edge of this woods that you see behind me and we kind of thought this would be a good place to camp but at about 11:00 11:30 at night a car pulled up three people got out and none of us knew
Exactly who these people were what they were doing and they were just a few meters from our tents and I was wide awake I was scared I was thinking what is going on and they started a fire they just pitched a you know started a campfire right there next to our tents
Just a few meters away and sat there for quite a long time in silence they weren’t really talking three people and it was kind of freaky and none of us knew what was it was quite going on I got out of my tent at one point kind of
Peered around in the dark and and was watching them a bit I don’t know if they saw me or not Kevin was definitely awake and he knew what was going on there I think the Kuya got out of his tent shined his flashlight on him a little
Bit and maybe said something to him but eventually I kind of realized okay they’re just having a campfire in the at midnight and I tried to go back to sleep well they eventually left I’m not sure what time it was I didn’t really pay much attention got in their car and
Drove away then at about 3:00 3:30 in the morning another car pulled up a guy got out and at this point I was really concerned because I thought maybe it was the first car coming back for whatever they had seen in the campsite and you know try to steal our bikes or something
Like that so I jumped out of my tent very very quickly when that second car came back I fought I shined my flashlight right on the guy one of the guy that I could see at least and he didn’t even turn around he was kind of
Facing away from me and I could see in an instant that this guy was a fisherman he had a fishing pole a big big long net and he didn’t even turn when I said hey and so it was at that point that I realized we are at a fishing spot a
Popular fishing spot here on the border of Slovakia and Hungary and these people are gonna be coming to fish so I just climbed back inside my tent at that point went back to bed but it was kind of a scary stressful eventful sort of night where I didn’t get as much sleep
As I would have liked to I don’t think any of us got as much sleep as we would have liked to and today we’re gonna cycle now 44 kilometers into the town of Goa or something like that gore or where we’re gonna drop off the Kuya and Josie
At the train station they’re gonna ride the train back to Vienna and then Kevin and I will continue down the road kind of east along the border of Slovakia and Hungary on our very own so that’s what’s going on today a little fright this morning and now it’s time to pack up our
Tents and the road All right we’re on the bridge going from Slovakia to Hungary now crossing over the water and crossing over the border so in the past month I’ve been to seven different countries that speak seven different languages and now I I’m crossing the border into Hungary at this very moment where they speak a new
Language and have a new currency this is what it’s all about right here here we are where do you think are riding your bike across three countries yeah we pushed you yesterday that’s for sure it’s your third country in three days yes that’s pretty neat huh yeah how do you feel
Something big yeah so we’re in the city of guy or hungry and I’m sure I put it the name of that city so I apologize but we’re in the final five kilometer stretch of our bike tour here with Josie and Kikuyu and we’re on a nice little
Bike path here and hungry this is really nice are you sad the trip is over or ready to go home and take a shower [Applause] it’s the end of our trip gonna meet you guys yeah we’ll miss you it is great having you yeah you do another bike trip let me
Know how it goes all right getting home yeah okay so we just said goodbye to fuku you and Josie and now Kevin and I are back on our own heading east kind of following the border of Hungary and Slovakia we’re gonna put in another what 40 kilometers or so today
Yeah and find a place to camp we’re after the long day yesterday and the kind of disrupted sleep last night where we’re gonna take it kind of easy today and hopefully find a place to camp relatively early just hang out and relax This road is so nice I am absolutely flying right now going about 26 km/h and barely having to pedal at all it’s just perfectly flat incredibly smooth the Sun is out of time but those self-generated wind is keeping be cool just a really great ride right now so we’re just about
To town there are three different campsites supposedly in this town the first one is called naturae camping and Kevin and I are thinking it’s possibly a nudist resort so not sure what this first camp activity but we’re about to go and see what do you think Kevin new district nudist resort
Or now you think so yeah It’s time for Kevin’s coffee break in the afternoon it’s tea time with them alright here we are at the end of the day just finished our three-day bike tour with Takuya and Josie how did how did today go well very successful too successful we got to Eagle and had
Lunched and we routin about 40 kgs there’s nothing the morning quadfather and Darren are sort of loaded up with a bit of extra fuel and the way we went again anew yeah we sort of put it about another work 40 on here and bad 872 here nice little campground the boss here
Joseph gave me a free beer and Darren a free coca-cola and then just just now gave me a free white wine as well so yeah nice camping spot really happy good though rim the only disappointment was this place is called net Tora camping and we we kind of thought it might be a
Nudist resort or something we’re gonna get the kid off and jump in the pool with him but that was not cool and there’s no nudists kind of disappointing but you know for five euros we can’t complain yeah pretty good day overall and and like I said before
Like I’m really impressed with how Josie did in particular she liked I play she was spectacular yeah when I heard a fourteen-year-old girl be coming on the trip with us I thought it could be good could be you know yeah I thought we could be into
Some some pain but when I made it back in Vienna right the first time I thought she’s a gutsy young woman and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she really hangs in there and she really even said you know exceeded those expectations she was much much stronger and didn’t complain
Never complain I don’t know whether she was suffering at all but she didn’t ever complained she just pushed on and in fact was half a day ahead of us yeah I’m a noisy old trick bike so yeah look she did the exceptionally well and then off’ and that i’m told me this morning
That she’s planning another trip next week she’s sort of talking me into another trip next week yeah so um I suggested to him that he introduces penny as to it that might slow down a little bit yeah exactly she wasn’t carrying any weight on the dragon right
Her dad was carrying it all but still anyways very good first bike tour I think it is 1414 since Isum yeah here we are outside of Mathura camping how was your stay at the nudist resort Kevin Yeah so now we’re gonna head down the road this way for about 65 70 kilometers or so yeah kind of following the river along the border of Hungary and Slovakia We’ve stopped on the side of the road here we found a little picnic table in a park what do you have for lunch today Kevin I’m the bread roll courtesy of the The Cathy camping huh there’s two bread rolls this morning very generous offer and less I have one for lunch and I’ve got a bit of cheese and a bit of paprika spray that on just to give it a little bit more um cool I just had two coffees
So I’ve got a fare beautiful on board yeah and I need you need you which to cope with bloody trucks on yeah there’s a few trucks on this road that we’re on right now it’s not the greatest after being on the bike paths and stuff for
The last few days you know they were perfectly flat and no cars now we’re back in the street and it kind of it’s not as much fun yeah I have for lunch like some crushed tortilla chips an apple a nectar is that a nectarine Kevin I think apricot sorry apricot and
Like a half melted bar of chocolate and that’s it oh man we are living it up here in hungry Hey [Applause] are you five and I’m three or au three and I’m five I’m I want lecture I want to be number Five’s 53 this campsite
Cost 11 euros each which is the most I think we’ve paid for any campsite on this whole trip and it shouldn’t cost that much I think no campgrounds would cost more than ten US dollars we’re sleeping on the ground for goodness sakes this cost $15 for a spot on the
Ground and a shower I think you should practice setting my tent up now gotta get used to that that would be good yeah okay so we set up camp now we’re walking one kilometer into town to get some food hopefully this is vegan options well yeah I’m highly encouraged and
Hopefully it doesn’t cost eleven years [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] Good morning from Hungary I’m on the border of Hungary and Slovakia right now I climbed inside my tent last night and I had an email from Stu who works at the Dollar Shave Club and he wants me to write an article about camping because I’ve spent so much of my life camping in
A tent and he wants the article by today like he gave me 24 hours notice so I was up late working on the article here’s my computer and it’s morning now and I’m still not done with the article it’s like 10 pages long at the moment so I’m
Trying to get that done before Kevin and I leave this campsite unfortunately the internet here is really slow and I’m having a really hard time getting anything done so I’m just working from this electrical box with my laptop on top of one of my panniers this is how
Bicycle turn pro is run much of the time alright so I just finished writing this article for the Dollar Shave Club it wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be but I sent it to the guy and he wrote me back and he said wow this is great
So hopefully that’s good you’ll see my article about camping in the Dollar Shave Club news letter pretty soon I am going to check out of the campsite now campsite number 5 Kevin’s already over here waiting for me he’s been awake since like 5:30 this morning I think
It’s 10:30 now so he’s been waiting a very very long time whereas I have been up very very late he went to bed early I went to bed at like 1:30 this morning and then was writing this article all morning long as well so we’re on very different schedules one thing good thing
About traveling with Kevin is he’s a vegetarian like I am so we have very similar like eating habits the bad thing is we operate on two very different schedules he wakes up super early and goes to bed super early I stay up super late and and start you know in the
Morning super late so we’re like our schedules are way off he’s waiting for me we got to get going we got like 80 kilometers we’re gonna cycle today we’re gonna cross the bridge into Slovakia kind of follow the border up kind of criss cross over between Slovakia and Hungary just kind of
Following the border of these two countries today there’s Kevin he’s ready to go he’s been raring to go for about five hours what time did you wake up tonight or this morning a cup of tea make the remains of last night’s pizza which was last night and they’d had a bread roll
In tomato and yeah just managed to get the cafe to open to give me a good buy the coffee as well they don’t have until 12:00 that’s all under this coffee Tom so they relented and made me a coffee nice so mmm alerted the campground under
Weight a way to hold water in the shower oh yeah I’m sure they know that well she she Wow she finds surprise anyway so no worries cuz she has good yeah well the most important part of what you said there was you’ve already had Kevin’s coffee break to add the coffee break
Done I had it all on the line some over there it’s time for Kevin’s coffee break so we don’t have to do that today okay straight through the coffee break that’s how you know we’re getting a late start on to break anyway right now it’s coffee
Break okay all right I’m ready I just gotta put my helmet on here we go across the bridge into Slovakia so we’re in Hungary right now right there across that bridge is Slovakia and that’s where we’re going today just crossing over to the bridge turning right going north up along the river so
Just like that we’re back in Slovakia without any fanfare your Range Rovers around here nuts I forgot to fill up my water bottles at the campsite there so I went into like a little tavern and went in and used the bathroom and there were two doors one
For the gentlemen and one for the ladies and I pushed open the gentlemen door and it just went back into the back patio suggesting that you just pee in the back basically so I went into the ladies bathroom instead we’ve got about 13 and a half kilometers now in Slovakia now returning right
We’re going back into hungry dog barking at me going back into Hungary now it’s really hot it’s actually not that mine it’s just muggy the air smells like smoke campfire smoke in fresh-cut grass and you’re like in a here that’s what it kind of feels like it smells like right now
Just hot fresh-cut grass so we’ve just hit what is the first climb of our last several days going on the the reveal of six Danube river out it’s been super flat but here we are back in the hills one big hill today Lord Buddha suffering
I’m waiting for Kevin at the top of the hill we just climbed a pretty big hill biggest hill for the day he should be right behind me here didn’t want to go down the hill without him it is so hot like I don’t know if
You can feel my arms like how much sweat sunscreen and stuff is just coming off of me on my face I touch my face it feels like I’m going through about a millimeter of water go Kevin go you made it to the top we’re at the top at the top you’re tired
Sweaty yeah solid push yeah last because but I think a minute our capabilities can’t handle there that’s right it’s really hot I would that’s all I think about what I think of hungry is like this kind of landscape right there and like the blazing heat [Applause] probably right now we’re going downhill
For 9.2 kilometers into this town called FL or something like that and it’s actually in Seoul Tokyo so we’re gonna cross the border from hungry back into full not Vietnam all right we just crossed the border now back in Slovakia second third quarter crossing of today which country do you like more Kevin
Hungry or Slovakia he’s trying to be so nice and politically correct I like Slovakia more because they use the euro yeah we have no Hungarian money so we went to the store a second ago and tried to get some cold drinks and we didn’t have enough money in the
Hungarian currency and they didn’t take credit cards or any other currencies so happy to be back in Slovakia So we just had our lunch here in this small town in Slovakia and now we have a 33 35 kilometers I cry kind of once again along the border to the east and then we’re gonna cross back into Hungary tonight and stay in a small town there on the border so several border
Crossings today there’s Kevin just waiting I’m waiting for Kevin again yeah well if the hotel is $30 we’ll just pull out $30 you know II mean yeah so yeah we’ll see angles here we go so today is a strange little day having crossed the border so many different
Times and still gonna cross the border one more time by the end of the day over the you know right here behind me this is Slovakia and there’s a car passing so that’s Slovakia right behind me and then right over there in those fields that’s hungry like
That’s how close we are to the border right now and we can see a town off in the distance here I don’t know if you can see it but that’s hungry so yeah it’s just a strange little day and there’s Kevin criss crossing the border between Slovakia and Hungary We are approaching the city where we’re gonna be staying tonight there is no campground here in town as far as we know so we’re gonna look into staying in a hotel and I can’t pronounce the name of the city I can’t pronounce the name of any of these cities they’re all so hard
Like Terenas say and here we go crossing the border back into hungry again [Applause] as a look so we found this really nice hotel here in town but they’re all full there’s nobody here at the moment but they say they’re all full I think they have a big bus coming in later today
Full of people so yeah we got to find somewhere else to stay now Kevin we might be camping in our tent yeah all sweaty so hotel number one was a bus they’re all full now we’re going back into the center there are some places on my map
That are marked as lodging but they’re not like actual hotels I don’t think so we’ll see what we can find here I can’t see Kaveri my glasses on look how sweaty I am No so where are we right now Kevin no do you know the name of the
Town but we just crossed back from Slovakia back into hungry lie about two kilometers or something yeah and we’ve been in a town called something but we found this we’ve managed to find a hotel we owned in one place it was booked out they wouldn’t have us so we cruised
Around and we found this place that looked for all the world like it was empty in clothes but then a woman turned up and I said are you gonna root and she said was I’m gonna root so yeah so we some broken English we managed to
Negotiate a room for about 35 bucks up in the attic here very nice All right now we’re leaving Hungary first thing in the morning and crossing back over the border into Slovakia we’re gonna make two more border crossings today I believe so it’s the first of three there we are LaVon yeah last night when we were in town just kind of walking around I
Passed this building where they had some listings for houses for sale and the first house that I priced out it was in Hungarian currency of course but the first house cost less than seven thousand dollars is like six thousand seven hundred dollars the second house I priced out
With like would be like my dream house in America if you’d like to build something really big kind of like guys I’ve been in the woods sort of thing and it cost like $1,000 for like what would be my dream house in America a half a million dollars or so pretty crazy cheap
The prices are here we’re going up our first pillar the day here is about a three kilometer climb up to the top nice houses behind the air really nice neighborhood Kevin caught up to me back there I stopped and waited for him at the turn but when he caught up to me say wow you really got some fuel with you this morning you’re really really going and I thought just kind of going my average speed but I am feeling really good at
The moment actually physically you know and I haven’t felt this good for like last year’s Kevin will come up the road here behind me but yeah I’ve been feeling really well lately on especially on this trip which is something I haven’t felt on their previous bike
Tours if you watched me go to Alaska or South America recently I was really out of it on those two trips I don’t know if you could tell in the videos I was kind of faking it a little bit maybe but making making myself look a little
Happier on video than I was but yeah I was freaking out of it on those trips and the reason I was out of it is because I was diagnosed with testicular cancer like two and a half years ago and It was really hard for me the the physical part of recovering from the surgery wasn’t hard is just like the mental stuff and I think I’m still dealing with that a little bit but I feel like now two and a half years later I’m finally getting past it but what’s
Funny is like when I had cancer I was I I got the cancer at some point during my 14 month long bike tour across Europe and Asia and that’s kind of around the same time that I started making these videos actually and so if you go back to the very beginning and
Watch my vlogs from the very beginning you’re watching a guy who has cancer and doesn’t know it for the first three months or so of my videos which is really kind of creepy to watch I think I’ve gone back and watched some of the videos and when I’m feeling really tired
Or something and and I think hmm you know was there something going on there that I just wasn’t aware of but anyways yeah feeling good now that I’m two-and-a-half years passed the whole incident it’s just funny because like when I did have cancer and when I found
Out I felt really really good to like I felt like I was in the best shape of my life and then all of a sudden boom you have cancer so it’s weird because you don’t you don’t feel any different like I didn’t feel tired or anything here’s Kevin there he is
Whoo yeah yeah hey guys just ditching me now how rude is that anyways yeah it’s just weird because I felt so good and I was actually quite sick and it scares me now that I’m feeling so good it’s almost like I’m scared because I feel good that’s a
Weird thing to feel right anyways I better go Kevin’s waiting for me the road calls the open road is calling get back out there Darren stop talking ride your frickin bicycle so we are entering now the border town of Busan Slovakia and I can’t I butcher the name
But what we’re gonna do is we’re going to stop here and fill up our water bottles maybe get a little food a snack or something maybe have Kevin’s coffee break and then we’re gonna cost border back into Hungary we want to get food and stuff here because we have no Hungarian
Currency and a lot of the places I’m hungry don’t accept credit card so yeah so we want to use our euros while we’re in Slovakia to stock up and get us through the next couple hours right and country and then we’ll cross back into Slovakia later today
Let’s stock up here sorry maggots well yeah it’s good to me okay yeah But that little bridge right behind us is the border crossing between Slovakia and Hungary that car is in Slovakia we’re in hungry now this way is the way we’re going look at the road yep check their track for about two kilometers I think there’s something and let’s see
Over there that town that’s over there one of those towns we hit the road okay [Applause] We’re back in Hungary now I’m pretty sure that this will be the last time we are in Hungary we have 16 kilometers and just kind of connect across the small corner of the country this seems like a very poor part of Hungary lots of abandoned cars and stuff along
The side of the road rundown houses the people look a bit more worn themselves darker dirtier clothes are ripped so yeah this is an area off to my right is some kind of Nature Preserve it’s really beautiful actually there’s a river off to my left and over there
Across the way in the distance that’s will not yet so again we’re just hugging the border here between Slovakia and All right say goodbye to hungry for good because we are crossing into Slovakia for the last time this is the old border station up ahead there are no longer any border checks between Hungary and Slovakia because these two countries are part of the European Union so I can just
Cycle straight through here without having to check my passport We have had to stop and get our passport check your each and every one of these border crossings we’ve done during the last couple days I don’t think we would have gone this way we would have tried much harder to just stay in one the country but because we knew the borders
Were open we were willing to cross and crisscross several times across Hungary and Slovakia so now we got about forty one or two kilometers to go until we reach our campground tonight and it’s a beautiful day out here in Slovakia now We’re going off on dirt road Kevin doesn’t like these dirt roads I don’t think that way Kevin doesn’t that look fun what do you think of my shortcut Kevin passport We’ve got camp set-up cost us 8 euros tonight to camp here at this water park I don’t know what it is actually some kind of water park and campground and mini-golf place Kevin’s already gone for a swim he said that alone was worth the 8 euros I’ve
Had my shower now we’re gonna get some french fries cuz that’s pretty much all they have here that we can eat and then we’ll make ourselves some food in the campsite afterwards how do you feel after today’s 87 or or and testing it was a hot ID 7 yeah considering we did
It on the top of Avion yes be almost 70 or 77 yesterday or something I mean the heat yeah and yeah the heat sort of came back again today the last half of the day was pretty hot out there well just drinking water like mad I don’t know
That I really kept up with my hydration but yeah we’re in a lot of work neither one of us has peed in the last like 48 hours on camera but I did oh okay well you I was just saying I really like this building it’s you know light in the area
A lot of heavy timber but the sun shining in and it’s view of the pool and River down there yeah I serve french fries and red wine so it’s a odd combination which I’ve probably never attempted home but there you go away from home campsite we just can’t justify ourselves
My dad will say another song Not complaints whatever so I’m gonna I’m gonna interview you because I feel like we’ve done poor bike trips together and and still III don’t think I’ve ever done a proper introduction to who you are you know what I mean yep so who are you and how do you how do
We know each other we know each other by doing a bike trip in Switzerland yeah and meeting up there but prior to that I had actually been on two bicycle touring Pro on the web so I kind of knew sort of who you were knew your you in
Switzerland so I went to Switzerland did the swiss challenge tour so that’s kind of where it all we’re all started with yeah but okay before that I was in 2012 we met a little bike Switzerland challenged her but before that who were you wait well where are you from where do I start
Well I’m from Australia from Adelaide in Australia in the Adelaide Hills we’re married for long time 46 years kids grandkids whole family kind of structure family setup how many kids three kids six grandkids but you know I’m turning 70 this year so there’s kind of a lot of
A lot of history can’t relate the whole lot of it i mean ii when you’re 30 you can relate your history you know it doesn’t take all that long but when you’re 70 it’s a longer much longer history so yeah just lots of life experience lots of stuff that I’ve done including
You know some time in the Navy and some time away in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and all the rest of it Yeah stable stable work life and a nurse for most of it I started off as a bricklayer that was way back but you’re a nurse for most of it doing I thought really valuable and interesting work particularly the last 10 years of my working life of working with people with
HIV and people dying of various usually cancer in the last days weeks months of their lives so yeah that’s kind of where I’ve come from but parallel with all that parallel with being there you know the stock standard husband and father and grandfather and all the rest there’s
Also been a bit of me that’s been out there and Bush walking and doing stuff in the bush camping which is not an interest my wife doesn’t mind camping but she doesn’t like rough camping she much rather have kind of softer camping so that’s fine that’s fine
We do a bit of that but I’m okay with the rough stuff as well I don’t mind a few weeks away in the Australian outback in the red sand and the dust and flies and and then about I don’t know ten I’ve always ridden bike so I had bought my
First road bike in 1966 when I was in the Navy so you know bikes and I go back a long way but touring wise I really became interested in a bit I suppose about ten or twelve years ago started to think about bike touring and so I
Started to buy accumulate stuff and buy bikes and do short a couple of days here or a couple of days they’re sort of trips I joined a cycling a touring Cycling Club in Adelaide all of whom are very experienced touring cyclists so I learned a lot in a very short time
Riding with them and then it’s just really built on from there so it’s it’s you know I kind of lead two or three lives all simultaneously the life you know the husband father and grandfather and all that and then the life of being actor was doing stuff that’s a bit more
Adventurous you have a lot of interest though that are kind of outside of work and family and bike touring what other what other things are you into some point some people have joined us in life and some people aren’t I’m a joiner mm-hmm if something takes my interest
I’ll I’ll usually join a club or join a group of people who do the same thing I think the secret to living long is to do things that you’re loving a group you know do it with other people so my wife and I Becky and I have always been
Involved in that PETA group for the past 35 years or so and that’s been a big big part of their life and what do you do there Vicki’s been mainly involved in in production side particularly costumes whereas I’ve been more involved in the the acting directing set building kind
Of side of that as well but it’s it’s an enormous undertaking I mean to run a theater company is just the amount of work involved is like two full-time jobs it’s enormous and I’ve also been involved with a scientific group over the past few years that we do biological surveys out in the
Australian outback for two or three weeks at a time so that’s been a big part of my life in the past ten years at least and the physical stuff I guess the gym and the walking and the cycling you know there’s other things today yeah now mentioning which things like like your
Meditation retreat all right okay yeah I mean that goes back a long long long long long way when I was about 13 I decided that I was a Buddhist I don’t know where that came from particularly and I don’t know that at 13 I knew what I was
Talking anything about when I was talking about but I certainly told my mother hmm that I was a Buddhist and she was pretty horrified about the whole the whole thing and luckily she didn’t ask me anything about it cuz I would have been able to explain but I just in my
Some way or another in my heart or in my mind or something I knew I was a Buddhist I didn’t quite know why or how when I was in the Navy and I weigh in in Hongkong and places I saw temples and I saw monks and I knew that that was sort
Of the path for me that there was something there that I really identified very strongly with and and so I’ve been involved with a lot of tibetan buddhist centers over the years and teachers and i took my whole family do we kneel one time to to catch up with the tibetan
Lama that we knew which was a wonderful experience for everybody and then more recently i’ve been involved in the last years with an American teacher at Villa Ramsey and then I’ve done a few retreats with him now I did one in Bali we took my granddaughter and another silent
Retreat in Malaysia this year so you know by a retreat you mean like you sit there and meditate for a week yeah two weeks and two weeks of silence meditating pretty much all day I was meditating really about nine hours a day plus an interview with the teacher every
Day no food after midday on but just extraordinarily liberating amazing experience amazing the spirit and the clarity of the teaching the particular teacher that on he doesn’t call himself a teacher he kisses I’m just the guide I’m just the person to kind of steer and Steve in the right direction yeah he
Really he really is a the clarity of his teaching is just extraordinary you can’t help but make progress hmm and what about the Morris dancing oh we saw a little bit I confess to you yesterday or the day before there’s a child my ambition was to be a ballet dancer and
It never happened for all kinds of yeah just life all kinds of reason didn’t happen but many many years later when I was when I first moved to Adelaide in 1980 I I saw the Morris man dance you know they were dancing out and in you know publicly what were Morris men okay
Morris dancing is a ancient English traditional dance is danced by usually six but sometimes eight dancers with live music and it’s a it’s not like a country dance it’s more like a ritual dance there’s there’s choruses and figures and you know it’s pretty complicated kind of I won’t really go
Into it but there’s it’s all it’s all pretty complicated how to have the structure of it all so I discovered there was a Adelaide Morris Dancers and I joined the Adelaide Morris men and I’ve danced with the old late Morris man really on and off since 1980 and I’ve
Also danced for a year in England with another side there near East born and I danced as well with an of side in Hastings called mad jacks I don’t see it for quite a long time with them so yeah I’ve been around the Morris kind of world
Really I built a couple of accordions myself and and I wouldn’t say I’m a musician that I can play a few morris tunes I squeeze out a few merchants I’m here accordion mara stassi’s fans very physical it’s very social but it’s also incredibly time zoomy you know people Morris Dancers go
Off and go away all over the place dancing and it just takes up extraordinary amount of time so I haven’t been so actively involved in the past couple of years I’ve been more Mordo more into the cycling in the past couple years then then the Morris County
Split an arcane weed interest but people do it do it speaking of cycling like how do you have the time right now to be on a month-long bike tour in Europe are you retired I’m retired I’m no longer in the paid workforce and I’m also very very
Lucky in that my marriage is one that where these things are quite easily negotiated separately we do a lot of stuff together we go we do a lot of holidays together and bits and pieces together but there’s also the freedom to do things individually so Vicki you know
Vicki’s been to Europe a couple of times with her old nursing girlfriends and they go away from you know six weeks even too easily in places and that’s fine and is so ditto with me I can just start to work on something and I’ll just
Run it along run it past Vicki and we’ll just decide whether that fits for the family and that there’s nothing no big birthday’s on at that time or things that I need to be there for so we’re sort of negotiated but it there’s there’s the freedom to do those kinds of things
There’s no no problem I mean in this marriage do those kind of things has there ever been a situation where you’re away and like something happened where you wish you hadn’t been away luckily unfortunately you know nothing’s nothing’s happened while I’ve been away apart from minor plumbing issues or well
What do your family members are like the grandkids think of your bike tours do they even do they think it’s a big deal that you do this or they don’t think anything of it um they do I’m the one that doesn’t think it’s a big deal I’m
The one that just takes it in my stride and thinks oh well this is what you do just jump on the bike and ride but the feedback from them is that they think it’s you know a bit out of the ordinary for someone who’s 70 to be jumping on the
Bike and riding 80 and 90 case or riding for weeks at a time and living in a tent and so forth so I don’t see it so extraordinary I just see it as part of what I do and I just sort of cherished the time that I cherished the fact that
I can do it still and I just love doing it so you know the time will come when when I have to say look I have to modify what I do or I have to do it a bit more easily or I have to but that time hasn’t arrived yet
That’s good how do you like we’ve talked about this before but like a lot of people think that if they’re 60 or something they’re too old you know how do you know when that time is that you know yeah I think develop because there’s a difference – between getting
Old and getting soft you know like people get soft before they get old yeah yeah yeah look I know a lot of people who say I can’t do this or I can’t do something because I’m too old and I guess my body will tell me I mean I get
A lot of physical exercise and I’m fairly attuned with what my body is doing so I think that when the time comes and my body says we’ve had enough of this this is this is you’ve got a modifiable I don’t think I’ll ever stop but I think I’ll just modify what I do
And you know if I can’t cycle tour for weeks on end I might cycle – or for days on end you know if I can’t live in a tent then I might get a cabin in the campground or something I don’t I don’t know but I do
I don’t ever see a time that I’m gonna stop doing stuff mm-hmm I hate the idea of stopping stopping everything because I too old I just see okay if I can’t do this then I’ll do it in another way I’ll do something else mm-hmm what do you think of electric bicycles
Ah you know I wouldn’t be seen they don’t want at the moment but you know ask me again in ten years I decided that the best thing since sliced bread you know yeah what do you but once again there you know he’s a V I mean I in the
Touring group they were there are some people who do ride electric bikes and only ride electric bikes because they’ve modified what they do they just simply can’t get up the hills anymore they’re too you know they’re they’re you know fairly senior teenage and so you know we
Had one old guy Houston Rovers who’s silly he was in these 90s and he got an electric bike and he like in the far the last five years of his life and good on him he is still out there every day doing it and all the rest so but to get
An electric bike just because you know you’re young and you don’t like heels or something I think’s a bit wishy-washy it doesn’t really that doesn’t do much for me yeah well what is it about bike touring that you enjoy what I enjoy about bike touring is similar to what I enjoy about bushwalking
Walking in the bush for days on end or weeks on end I like the physical activity I like it arriving at the end of the day when the body’s kind of really had to work hard I think I’ve got a body that thrives on on hard physical
Work and I just like getting somewhere and just feeling a bit a bit naked at the end of the day like I put everything into it and then just the relaxation of camping just being able to set up a camp and sit around and laugh and chat you
Know crack a few jokes and just just be a bit silly and just relax and get a good night’s sleep in the tent I sleep beautifully in the tent there’s no problem with that and bicycle touring yeah it’s like push walking you know you do those sort of things in the day and
Then at night you you gather around and you just do things I like doing it with friends oh I’m not I’m not so keen on doing I have done it on my own but I must prefer to do things I love with a group so it’s a kind of that shared
Camaraderie and shared bonding that’s fantastic good morning during Alf here from bicycle time procom i am in southern slovakia at the moment with my friend kevin here in the distance we just spent the night at this campground / water park and today we’re gonna pack up our tents right now and cycle for
About 56 58 kilometers pretty short day actually to the east and there’s another campground there that we’re gonna plan to stay at tonight so that’s the plan we’re on our bikes for the next I think nine days of cycling we have 9 more days of cycling together here in Slovakia and
The Czech Republic and then kevin has to fly home so today is a short day which we’re both looking forward to I think it’s gonna be a good day here we go so we just left the water park / campground there was a whole group of people
Waiting to get in there I think the place opens at 10:00 and they were there half an hour earlier so now we’re biking about 5 kilometres into town we got to get some food neither Kevin or I have any food to eat the rest of the day anything to say given
Run a chain yeah Kevin needs more tea tea and coffee is what this guy runs on it’s nice and cool right now I hope it stays this way but I don’t think it will my I hung my shorts up my shorts and shirt and socks and everything last
Night to dry and it didn’t it didn’t so my shorts are totally soaking wet right now did your stuff dry third time Bhutan so I just went into the supermarket and I got some mixed nuts bananas multivitamin juice and a little bit of bread that’s just to get me through the
Morning kind of this afternoon in this evening there should be some more supermarkets that we can start up then for food later tonight but for now this is the food I’m carrying with me today so yesterday the roads were nice and quiet today we’ve opted to cycle on the
Highway because the side roads took us all over the place and they were mostly on dirt roads so we wanted paved road and we’re having to contend now with cars and trucks in everything and Hills I just pulled over in this little bus stop area to get some relief from the
Sun it is so hot today and it’s really humid as well Kevin’s coming up the road behind me we opted to ride up this highway instead of going on the side roads today mainly because we wanted to avoid a bunch of dirt road riding there was the
The map was showing that there was a lot of off-road riding today and I don’t think we wanted to do that so we opted for the highway but now we’re having to contend with like no shoulder to ride on very very high and lots of traffic cars
And trucks moving at high speed so it’s not a lot of fun now I’m not filming a lot because it’s too dangerous so this is definitely not the best road and I can’t wait to get back up into northern slovakia because I know that there are
Bike paths there I think it’s gonna be much more I think it’s gonna be much more bike-friendly once we get into the more tourist part of Slovakia I don’t know where Kevin is I think he must have stopped or something I hope he’s okay [Applause] I’ve been waiting here at this bus stop
For like five minutes for Kevin and he’s still not here he wasn’t that far behind me I went into the woods to pee and he may have passed me not seeing my bike here and he may have continued and I didn’t see him or he’s back there behind
Me waiting for me and I’m up here waiting for him or he’s in trouble back there and I’m just sitting here waiting for him so I don’t know what to do I think I’m gonna go back and try to find him uh more cycling on dangerous roads [Applause] [Applause] [Applause]
I’ve got about halfway back to where I saw Kevin last time lost several kilometers going backwards down a big hill which means I’m gonna have to go back up the hill now I gotta go up another hill down to where I saw him again so I’m climbing to extra no three extra
No two extra big Hills just to find Kevin where did he go I passed Kevin when we were going up the other side of this big hill and I just figured I’d meet him at the top but he wasn’t there he didn’t show up so I don’t know I hope
He’s okay I hope you didn’t you know you worried that he gets hit by a car or something going up this big hill I hope that he just passed me when I was going pee and I didn’t see him but that would have been pretty fast for him to be that
Close behind me I think so I’ve never ridden back five kilometers all the way back to where I passed Kevin on this hill he’s nowhere to be seen hopefully he’s up the road somewhere he just passed me while I was in the woods peeing but I had my bicycle at that bus
Stop he rode right past it and it’s pretty hard to miss a bright red bicycle standing on the side of the road and he knows that I stopped from wait for him at the top of hills also it would be good if the added phone turned on so
That I could messaged him and say where are you I’m just about back to that bus stop where I stopped and peed and lost Kevin I doubt he’s gonna be there I’m guessing he’s somewhere up the road probably like ten kilometers up he’s like where’s Darren
So there’s the bus stop where I had my bicycle Kevin should have been able to see me there my guess is that he was so focused on the traffic he wasn’t looking around and didn’t see my bicycle just sitting there and he probably continued up the road and he’s
Up here waiting for me some way hopefully I’m trying not to get too worried but it’s been 10 kilometers now since I left him he knows I wouldn’t go this far without you know without stopping and waiting for him he thinks I’m in front of him I don’t know
Okay now I’m in the next town called baka and Kevin is not here either like he should know that I would not go through a town like this without just leaving him behind he if he thinks I’m in front of him he might just keep cycling maybe but he you
Should also know that I wouldn’t just like fly out through a town like this without waiting so I don’t know where he is and I’m starting to get a little worried now because maybe you stopped and get it to get a coffee but I do not see him anywhere and there’s no messages
Of course from him on my phone I’m gonna stop at this bus stop send him another message so I honestly don’t know where he went it’s very strange and I don’t know what to do I’ve sent the message all I guess I can do is keep going and hope that he’s okay
I’ve gone back looking for him he’s nowhere to be found It’s not really a good predicament to be in here well I don’t know what to do I messaged Kevin told them what’s going on I am just gonna continue up the road to this town called tor Nala that’s where I told Kevin we were going to turn so hopefully he just continued
Up the road till there and I’ll meet him somewhere on the edge of town I just can’t believe you would cycle all that way and leave me behind but hit the thing is he probably thinks I cycled all that way and left him behind but I’ve
Never done that before so I mean we’ve we’ve separated by like a kilometer or something but this is ridiculous okay I just got a message from Kevin on the phone areas what happened I just get rowdy and when I got to where I thought it was as
I ran how sort of being turned off of the mmm you rode right past me though I mean I do get in front of you but not that much in front of you we arrived at this cafe was hot and sunny and now it’s pouring rain what
That’s what I wanted was a nice cottage so Kevin and I have reconnected we just had Kevin’s car what aren’t I just can’t just order it so I kind of got what I ordered you know I was like coffee and I just like swirl my fingers
To say I wanted whipped cream on top but that wasn’t exactly what I wanted anyways yeah yeah well I saw a guy that walked out of the store like thirty seconds before you arrived yeah they’ve had a cold iced coffee with whipped cream on top that’s what I
Wanted but they didn’t make that for me how much was all our drinks for how much 284 three coffee drinks pretty good and we weathered the storm there too now it’s hot and muggy again it’s pretty serious bit of wood splitting going on there enough modeling last time before a campground I’m on
Bike duty here outside the coop supermarket just watching the bikes while Kevin’s inside shopping we’re buying food for tonight and tomorrow morning and then tomorrow morning we’ll ride to another town where we’ll get food for the following days as we head up into the mountains so just
Getting up just getting up just stocking up on food for tonight and tomorrow so Kevin what you get in the supermarket Not bad but well that’s the problem don’t you find that that’s like a problem on a lot of our bike trips like finding fresh food is difficult it is yeah depending on where you are yeah but you couldn’t find a vegetable sometimes like earlier
In this trip I asked you to get me some broccoli and there wasn’t any I bought an ice cream inside the store this thing was fifty nine cents at the campground tonight have done no research on it but just by what I can see on the map it looks like it’s
Located right outside of a cave maybe a limestone cave so I don’t know how many people are gonna be here we’ll see looks pretty empty this is it Kevin but it looks like nobody is here the cave is down there I think the camping is indicated down there
Somewhere but I don’t see anyone around let’s just cruise over there first and then yeah it doesn’t appear to be anybody here there this place is cool Davis they have a swing Kevin there’s a swing up there on the hill I’m gonna try that later boy They’re the swing cabins for rent totem poles This place is like a ghost ship here there I’m sure the dog go tell somebody were here so what just happened Kevin circumstances I have no idea ven I think we’re just being told camp anyway we’d like to do whatever you like and then the hostess just boarded the house up
Yeah this woman just peeked her head out of the window yeah spoke a few words saying she just pointed over here and said yeah camp yeah all to ourselves ourselves oh no I’m not sure about what the arrangement is with his payment or whether there’s no priming or whether it was who knows
Yeah didn’t seem to be I asked I asked her in Polish if if there was a cost yeah but she didn’t just kind of shrugged her shoulders she said no no smell any lucky okay so we seem to have this entire amusement park to ourselves the woman that we just
Asked about camping just left in her car she didn’t say anything about showers or toilets or anything really he just pointed and said yeah so we’re left to explore on our own it’s kind of fun I think there’s all kinds of cool stuff around here I think she took the dog
Yeah I know this it does I said nope there’s the dog think the dog is friendly to us now swimming pool swimmer ball we got the entire pool to ourselves here what about these buildings there’s toilet right there I found the toilets outhouses two of them oh this looks like the cave that
Looks awesome these limestone caves are just like right down this trail and they probably locked up no certain no Kevin Kevin thinks they’re locked up but I’m hoping for the best I don’t know I didn’t say it didn’t look very far that forest behind me what do
You think Kevin I think it’s beautiful yeah see 80 meters to the K this will guide you meeting okay hopefully just know that I didn’t bring a flashlight though we’ll have to come back there it is yeah I think you’re gonna be right gonna be all locked up yeah velji circle on that
Yeah this is cool it’d be even cooler if we could go in the cave but everything against them and no one around that’s my favorite part yes I just think it’s so funny how like how casual they are about camping they’re just like yeah do whatever you want
You know I one time on my third bike tour I was biking from North Carolina to Maine and I asked at a church if I could camp behind the church and they like literally called the lawyers and asked them if it was okay for me to camp first
And then they said yeah yeah it’s okay yeah I’m serious here they just don’t care check this out there are all these cabins up here this one happens to be open let’s check this out okay there’s a whole bunch of butterflies oh my gosh there’s a bird birds gonna hurt itself
I’m gonna get out of here it’s really scary this is seriously like a horror movie in here okay so that is cabin number one looks like a few of these other ones are these are the back This place is totally rundown this thing is really high up so today Kevin and I got lost for a little bit I we think what happened is I went up ahead of him on this climb and I stopped at the top of the hill and I put my bike
There but just at the moment that kevin was passing my bicycle I ran into the woods to pee I think that’s what happened and Kevin didn’t see my bicycle probably because of the heavy traffic on the road yeah when your head was just down and concentrating out of context I
Wasn’t looking for Darren to be stopped I thought Darren it’d be just bearing on a head we knew he had 20 kgs to go up the road or more 25 yeah I told you that in the morning yeah yeah yeah so yeah when I came back from peeing I kind of
Waited for him thinking that he was behind me but in reality he was in front of me and so I went back looking for you and then I didn’t find you so I kind of eventually figured out like okay he’s probably uh picking up a head when I
Told him 20 kilometres up the road and that turned out to be the case and and also I sent you messages on your phone which luckily you turned on your phone and you’ve got the messages so I thought this would be like a good time to talk
About what our system is for how we attempt to not get much success yeah mostly successful for keeping together when we’re on a bike tour because we don’t always necessarily cycle like two feet apart from each other you know like we do do that sometimes where we where we’re always within sight
But sometimes there are instances when we separate just because I’m going faster and whatever it out yeah yep so what is our system do you know our system is generally the kind of stock standard one of not you know if you’re coming to any if you come to an
Intersection you usually wait for someone else if they if you arrive at a potential turnoff point you don’t assume the other person will know exactly where you’re going so you always wait it’s the same principle involved if you’re doing long distance walk in the on the trial or the Appalachian
Trail to me if you reach a junction or we stop and just wait for everybody to regroup and that essentially what Darren and I do nobody we just don’t pass major intersections we just hang about and if we get there first just wait for the other person and then we’re clear about
What we’re doing we usually run over in the mornings too so there’s usually some names of towns and so forth in in the back of my mind so Darren has the map on his phone and I just have the names of a few towns in my mind and approximate
Distances so I kind of know I’m into it whenever I’m about about there and I look at the name of the town I think yeah that’s the place we’ve gotta meet at war that’s the place we’re going to turn off that’s exactly right that is what we do we wait at the
Intersections yeah the other thing you mentioned though is like I’m doing pretty much all the navigating yeah and you’re just following you so that’s a little I mean I don’t know do you like that or no well I think it works because I I mean I’ve got the maps on my phone
Too but you can get confusing if two people are looking at I noticed a few times when we’re riding you know with Macau for example and even with sometimes the things would the maps was slightly different and sometimes I’d say different things and sometimes they give different distances that’s better in one
Person’s doing it and then there’s no confusion yeah we wasted a lot of time arguing over which route was the best way or something when in reality either one of the routes probably I would have gotten us at the same place yeah there’s a dog barking at us
Yeah so that’s generally our system boat but I think one of the things that happened today was you went past me which totally screwed with our whole system because if you’re waiting at the intersection and you think that you’re in front but in reality you’re behind then you’re now waiting for people yeah
That are in front of you sure yeah yeah you didn’t get you can get completely bamboozled though I mean I all day is that well lettin you know the couple of hours this morning I thought I was way behind there and I thought Darren was probably a k up the road
Waiting for me somewhere so I just had that in mind and I just really kept my head down and kept going I wasn’t looking from side to side I didn’t notice Darren’s bike lying on the side of the road because it was would have been completely out of
Context I was properly looking out for the odd truck that was going past me at the time with very little shoulder of road so all those things combined really meant but I just cruise past our and probably at about three K’s an hour but nonetheless I think it’s really you know
I guess to take-home message if you like you know that is if you are going to stop at a non arrange place the good thing is to be incredibly conspicuous so the people coming up can actually you know spot you really really easily yeah that’s probably the lesson from this
Morning is just make it this conspicuous as you can and don’t take a pee break right when they’re biking past because I thought the bike was pretty obvious but but I think I just our timing was really bad I thought you were further back than you really were but you were right
Behind me I think so Mike you know my mental timing was like oh I got three minutes to wait here in reality I had 30 seconds time you go to the top of the hill oh is probably a half a K behind you or six hundred meters or something
Yeah exactly right in that period so once we were separated I sent you some messages on your phone and I think the technology today makes it a whole lot easier when you do get separated cuz yep because we did a trip together in Taiwan and we had a separated day there where I
Think you missed a turn or something and we didn’t have any way to communicate because Kevin didn’t have a phone right yep yeah and and so I had a foam but I had no way to get in touch with him so we luckily found each other but it’s so
Much easier today of both people in the group have a phone and have some way to interact with one another and like I’ve told you now like I’m gonna send you a message on facebook Messenger and that’s the way that I’m gonna contact you so that there’s no confusion like him
Trying to call me or send me an email and I’m not checking those two devices you know yeah you know it’s worth spending five minutes in the morning before you leave just actually doing a little manual backup just by saying okay there’s the town and that’s the name but
Just so that those names and distances are embedded in someone’s head and they can they can recollect they can recall those that conversation so they they know at least in their mind so they’re not relying totally on the technology is relying on but the technology Anna and a
Kind of a manual cerebral approach as well just remembering so yeah the technology is like the last resort I feel like like too many people now are leading their bike tours just looking at the GPS and relying so much on the device and reality it’s more common sense and remembering their names and
Their distances like you did yeah and if you it if you I mean I on this bike that I’m riding the van Nicholas Devon I don’t have a computer so I’ve really got no idea how many K’s I’ve traveled but the more I ride without a computer the
More I’m kind of intuitively being able to pick up just how far I’ve gone with reasonable accuracy so this morning when I got to the turn the right turn off before Darren I kind of knew that’s around about this time or that’s the distance I sort of knew in my head but
That was the distance that we had to go before we turned off so there was some little kind of alarm going off in my head so it’s it’s an interesting exercise anyway to become a little bit more intuitive about how much distance you travel and you get better better oh
Yeah I’ve asked Kevin at several points throughout this bike – like how far do you think we went today or how far do you think we’ve gone this whole trip together and like you’re off sometimes by like nothing you know seriously leg ear off by nothing yesterday yesterday I asked him how far
Do you think we’ve gone on our whole trip together and my odometer on my bike computer said 960 kilometers and you said oh about 960 kilometers you know but that seriously does happen when you ride a bike a lot is you kind of just know what those distance you’re gonna
Feel the distance yeah yeah [Applause] you’ll Kevin good I might I was quite a storm we had last did you move over here during the storm are ya just in the morning well just been organizing themes everything yeah that’s right yeah the Lightning I mean it was thundering and
Lightning and right yeah it’s really crazy Yeah the ground was shaking under shot I was cool Bye-bye it has been super sunny and super high for the entirety of our bike tour here in Eastern Europe until today I’m wearing both of my jackets it’s quite cold not freezing it’s actually like perfect cycling temperatures I’ll probably take the jacket off pretty soon but I checked the weather and it looks
Like it could be raining for the next week so lots of rain in the forecast Let me down this nice flat Valley we got a bit of a hit today it’s overcast and kind of cold but now we are heading up into the mountains this next town coming up we have our first big climb of the day two big climbs today this is the
First one hopefully it’s not too bad even though I this is super steep I feel like this is the type of bicycle Turin I enjoy the most it’s like when there’s no cars Forest Road yeah We’re in this valley now and we’re going uphill very gradually but we’re also fighting a pretty strong headwind and the wind more than the hill is really wearing me out I’m feeling very tired right now we’ve only got about seven more kilometers to go now until the
Campground it’s up a big hill with switchbacks our campsite is up at the top of that hill there off in the distance straight ahead we’ve got a couple steep switchbacks to go and then we’ll be there seven kilometres away Go Kevin go Kevin go don’t say go Kevin go Kevin go whoo cheerleader almost there so we’re almost to the top what did you think of that bad boy that was one hell of a climb we’ve only gone 50 7.5 kilometers but it feels like at
Least like 112 something like that – two months – Klaus with a headwind [Applause] Mind oh yeah tired yeah yeah yeah nice couple of hills there was enough of the day I mean I had to it’s nothing the league’s if we had another you know twenty or thirty and it was on the flat I think I’m moderately tight but I don’t
Think the legs are up do it anymore hills in them yeah there’s a lot of climbing today what else did you order I did the naturalism with is that isn’t that the monkey no it’s just return it Hanna okay All right good morning it’s Saturday we just spent the night here in the pinky is that the name that the didn’t ski did he keep Slovakia yesterday we were kind of down in the flatlands of southern southeastern Slovakia and then yesterday I guess all day long we cycled up into the mountains
And now we’re kind of in touristy Slovakia we’re in Slovak paradise National Park and today we’re gonna continue through the park sign up to the north end of the park just a short like 40 kilometer ride today but it should be pretty mountainous we spent the night at this
Hotel here last night worked out pretty well I think got us out of the cold it’s pretty cold today and yeah so they should be good right here we go So yesterday was a full day of climbing lots of climbing yesterday then we spent the night at the hotel and that was nice but our state was far too short I wanted to sleep for another day but now we’re back out on the bike we’re doing a short
Day to day it’s only for T something kilometers but it’s uphill through the Slovak paradise National Park really beautiful scenery but hilly he’ll need to do on a bicycle hopefully it’ll be worth it I think you will be yesterday was pretty spectacular today should be just as good if not better so [Applause] [Applause] so we’re in the slovak paradise national park and this place is seriously like my personal paradise this is why i wanted to come to slovakia for roads and mountains and forests like this i’m really enjoying it [Applause] so we were up and about 1,000 meters 3000 feet or so and now we are going down a massive downhill and this is a whole lot of fun this is probably my favorite day of miking on the entire trip thus far we haven’t spent a lot of time in the towns
Which I like going through the town that’s pretty Tina can I steal people of the buildings right this kind of scenery is totally my type of Isaac So this is our campsite for tonight we’re trying to find a place this camp big group here is claimed all the picnic tables all right so this is our campsite for tonight and a big freakin Park established campground I don’t like camping at these kinds of places really
How far do you think we went today Kevin you looked at my odometer yeah 35 35 kilometers what did you think about the ride the ride was really nice actually I was top of the mountain there beautiful Mountain Meadows parish and coal coming down the other side though I’m still cold that’s still
We’ve had our jacket on for the last two days it’s yeah on the way they called it a number on the quad called early a stream wasn’t yeah so this campground cost us eight zeros and 20 cents each and that doesn’t include the showers I’m not exactly sure how much the showers
Are but they’re like a euro each for that as well yeah so this is it this is home for the night it’s time for Kevin’s tea break no coffee today this tea a double-double and coffee for breakfast I’m pleased with that locking date but it’s not true much more serious yeah
I didn’t have tea I don’t think until I was like 25 years old you know until I came to Europe I don’t know I don’t know a single person in America their drinks always have tea that’s part of it you come I think so you just pick up the shower things of
The office the fifty euro sensi okay heavens campfire creation in here it’s not really a campfire is it no that’s a sophisticated bit of bushwalking kit little bit earlier was it good it’s like Makarov is a it looks like macaroni and cheese like a runny with cheese and freaking which doesn’t sound
Like much I kind of wanted to get that grilled cheese and marmalade sandwich they had over there sounded really either disgusting or delicious I’m not sure it was tomorrow there so Kevin and I are in Slovakia right now in the middle of our month-long bike tour across Eastern Europe and we’ve decided
To take a rest day today by going on a four hour hike that’s a rest day for us the hike we’re doing is called suit chabela here in Slovakia and the slovak paradise national park and it’s a pretty awesome hike thus far with ladders and rocks we’re kind of climbing up this stream
And go would ya I’m Sturm lime stone Gorge as Kevin say and it’s pretty technical just lots of climbing over rocks and trees and ladders this is fun though [Applause] [Applause] so Kevin and I went on this really amazing hike today the Suja Bella hike here in Slovakia of course just as we were getting to the best part of the hike my camera cut out the battery died and there’s no more footage from the
Hike there were about four or five more steep ladder sections like you saw me climbing up at the end of the video here and that was a lot of fun but also a little scary and I was amazed that there were quite a few young children doing
This hike because there was no rope safety ropes or anything and it would have been very easy to fall I think and hurt yourself but overall a very very good hike I really enjoyed it was a lot of fun there’s a little bit like Disneyland because there were so many
People on the trail but other than that it was probably one of the most memorable things that I’ve done on this particular bike tour so glad I did it even if I don’t have all of the footage from the hike we’re gonna go to bed now
We just had dinner at one of the nearby restaurants which is really good and we’re gonna go to bed wake up in the morning we have a 70 kilometer bike ride to tomorrow through this really scenic Valley here in northern slovakia so it should be good i’m really looking
Forward to it kevin and i only have five more days together on the road and then kevin has to fly back to australia and i’m going to travel north into poland and that will be the end of my trip cycling trip at least here in europe alright back on the road yesterday we
Had a rest break here at Slovak paradise national park went on a big long hike now we’re back on our bicycles heading west towards the Czech Republic we’ve only got five more days of cycling together before kevin has to go home back to Australia and I head north into
Poland so today is our first day cycling west towards the Czech Republic and I think it will be a relatively flat day we do have a long climb for the first 30 kilometers it’s just kind of slow and gradual up hills but after that it’s a slow and gradual downhill for the
Remaining 40 kilometers of the ride so the 70 kilometers total today should be a good one here we go We have been bicycle touring in Slovakia in and out of Salah Kia for the last 10 days or so ever since we left Vienna Austria and we’re only now is just getting into the part of Slovakia that I was kind of imagining for this bike trip I really had never been to southern
Falacci much I didn’t know what it was going to be like it was a lot more farmland than I imagined so I’m really liking it up here in the north for there’s more mountains more small towns a lot more to look at the cycling here
Is a bit steeper then down in the south there’s more mountains to go over but you’re rewarded for your efforts with spectacular views I just stocked up on food in this town and now there’s some really all- rain clouds up ahead looks like it could rain here at any moment it could get very cold and very wet very very soon It started to come down now All of a sudden we have reached the steepest hill of the day this is almost so steep that I’m gonna have to get off and walk I’m in my lowest gear and struggling Kevin’s up ahead of me here walk Arisa to the shade the latest steep
Oh man Kevin that’s a killer race you to the top the problem with video is that it never makes the hills look if steep as they really are oh this sucker Kevin and i have taken shelter underneath this tree just it started raining really quickly and and we’re gonna sit here for about five minutes see if the storm passes that way we don’t get totally drenched we get just a little wet under the tree but hopefully the storm will pass five minutes we’ll
Continue on our way without being totally cold and wet so that’s the plan yeah and while we’re here Kevin will sing a song while we’re here Kevin will do it dad write down while we’re here Kevin will recite a poem this takes see you soon young those rolling in money
Those screamingly funny that worked out pretty well we just stopped under that tree for about five minutes they rained heavily for those five minutes and now the rain is essentially stopped it’s still sprinkling a little bit but nothing like it was a moment ago so that’s one strategy you can use on your
Own bike tours to get yourselves out of the rain don’t think – you about to keep driving just because it’s raining pull over for a few minutes oftentimes the rain will just come very quickly for five ten minutes you can shelter yourself stay dry and then continue down the road much better than
Writing and getting all wet and then getting all cold and being miserable I’ve learned that the hard way interesting It’s raining it’s raining again this is our town we’re gonna be staying tonight looks like an industrial logging and mining town not exactly a tourist town but we’ll see what they have as far as lodging tonight because it’s raining we’re gonna try to get a hotel or a pension or something
Don’t know what the prices are going to be like but we’ll find out all right so Kevin’s inside this hotel it cost about forty four euros for the night we’re gonna split it so that’s like 22 euros apiece this is definitely nicer than the last hotel we stayed at hi summarize our day
How was it today beautiful writing yeah lovely beautiful belly glacial belly then a high about a thousand meters in beautiful forest and I’ll be road with no cars so they wanted to get up there and then a nice descend over 25 or 30 case then the rain came and didn’t
Really stop so we kind of tossed the coin decided instead of pitching the tent and rain we’d start a hotel yeah here we are hotel something this hotel hotel I don’t I do yeah oh yeah what’s the plan now shower yeah he cleaned up good oh yeah
What dirty you know you didn’t get your copy today the company don’t want to sue it looks good I’ll trade you like half of this better half of that We just had a really good meal at LH point restaurant right in there the defrost key rattle yeah oh man it was good all of the food I feel like we’ve had on this trip has been really good for the most part except for Kevin’s noodles and beans that he keeps eating
Everything Benjamin yeah Oh cheap and easy on the ride isn’t it just let’s try a can of beans and some chilies into the pot and throw some noodle zealand wool for down at the end of the day and crawl into the tent yeah but when we’ve gone
Out to eat it’s always been good and even our campfire food is their camp food has been pretty dang good you know yeah we were talking about a dinner how like I went to South America I spent nine months there and I’ve probably eaten like two good meals you know you
Know all that time I can count them on one point yeah and here in Eastern Europe it’s just been good all right and good morning from the top ski in Slovakia you know high Tatra means we stayed at this hotel last night and now today we are cycling this direction west
For about 60 kilometers what’s the plan today but like that planned nice just to ride the short distance 60 65 something and then camp tonight yeah similar other yeah no big Hills expected there is I think a small climb we’re going around a big lake today but
Other than that it should be a good ride flat dish here we go Unfortunately it’s just started raining so it’s even colder and it was before [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] It’s very loud very hectic we’re following the river off to my right for the next 23 kilometers on this road so it’s going to be kind of heads down concentrate and get there as best as we possibly can riding along the highway when all of a sudden there was like two tooth noise
And Kevin stopped and thought he was fine but then he just stopped again we’ve got a flat tire so I’m gonna go back and help him so we aren’t sure what Kevin hit or ran over but it was a pretty loud like thumping noise it sounded like a stick
Or something yeah I didn’t see anything in the road there myself yeah there’s no like nail or something cuz it sounded like something big caught between your fender and your tire yeah and then and then that caused the puncture maybe there’s something I just found what caused Kevin’s puncture the
We ran over a nail but it didn’t go into your tire I don’t think I think you just picked it up off the road and we’re in it it went inside it spent his fender and might cause like a pinch flat or something almost so this right here
Oh yeah see I bet it I bet it just went like that like you know it got caught on the side and then to start if it’s coming so you think you fix the flat don’t want to say All right we just pulled off the main highway that road was we were traveling fast but it was it was no fun at all yeah so now we’re in ret Col vote Slovakia and we’re gonna go just try to find a store so we can get some food for dinner tonight
And then there are campground it’s just like two kilometers from the convenience store well the last three supermarkets that we’ve tried to stop that for food and big clothes we aren’t sure why they’re all closed but they are so we weren’t able to get any extra food for
Dinner tonight we’re gonna bike out to the campground now see what’s out there I doubt this food of the campground we may just have to subsist on what’s ever inside of our panniers at the moment which for me is spaghetti and some leftover stuff for lunch so I’ll be good
On your bicycle turn and you’re going out to a campground marked on a map well I’ve done no research on this campground don’t know if it’s open what’s here it could be just a spot in the grass don’t really know it could be a big established campground with food and
Entertainment and dancing girls I think Kevin wanted to get a hotel but we just had a hotel last night and this place is cool I love this kind of stuff especially if we have the entire place to ourselves for camping that’d be incredible I do see another car yeah this looks
Like an information building or something for during the tourist season there’s fresh water coming out of mountains we can sit here and have dinner Are you up for camping here you said you seemed like you wanted a hotel or a moment ago no no it’s cold in a bun with it it’s warmer here is mommy okay tomorrow night we’ll have a hotel because there’s no camping yeah you were about to cry a
Moment ago I wasn’t about the crowd there – sorry the block across the road oh is it I just I just felt like just no heels [Applause] All right so we’re back on our bicycles here in northern Florida we just left another free campsite we keep finding these things somehow first thing in the morning going up a 12% grade Oh climbing a big hill like this on a regular bicycle versus climbing on a big loaded jury
Bicycle like going em on are two very different things and it takes a lot more work to get up a hill like this la Torre bicycles sometimes my strategy is just to power myself up to the top as fast as I can but on this hill my strategy was just to
Go very slow take my time it seems to have worked I’m at the top now what’s it what’s your name my name is Tariq Mariana and you live here right to the you’re saying you wrote all the way to parents This is it Kevin how do you feel thanks guys for riding with us those fun it was nice meeting you and maybe I’ll see you on another bike trip somewhere – deal cool all right Kevin you ready we’re ready hotel time thank you all right guys thanks yeah I’m gonna
Save your poem we’ll go this way Kevin down here all right so we just got a hotel we’re at Hotel weep button shots uh Slovakia this is my little bathroom here there’s a shower in the sink but no toilet the toilets out in the hallway and where you shared the toilet with
Everyone on the hall basically so this is the little room that I got and you’ll notice there are two beds in here but Kevin is not in here we I went in and asked about the price the lady at the reception really nice but doesn’t speak a word of English she basically said
That I could get a single room this is a single room for 15 euros or she could put the two of us in a double room which is actually the same room for 30 euros so it’s the same price whether we get two separate rooms or or we sleep in the
Same level so I just say give us two separate rooms then if it’s if it’s the same price so this room costs 15 euros less than 20 US dollars and Kevin’s in another room just down the hall he paid 15 euros for his room as well
And so tonight for the first time on the whole trip we have our own hotel room which is really nice kind of nice to have a little bit of separation when you’re on a trip like this outside here to have a you open it up and you can see I don’t
Want the door to close behind me a little bit of the town here there’s nothing really spectacular going on there’s two women that work at the hotel I think just kind of watching me but anyways this place is far from spectacular but it’s all we need for one
Night this city shots shots uh Slovakia is where I came in the winter of 2013 I rode my bicycle here from Cracow Poland over the mountains through the snow and came two shots Slovakia and I rented a hotel just down the street actually not this hotel
A different hotel and I stayed in that hotel for about two weeks which is where I wrote and finished writing my book called winter cycling so shots ax was where I came to write my winter cycling book and it turned out to be a great place to come because there’s really
Nothing to do in this town when I was here I would wake up I’d write for a little bit then I’d go out on a walk go into the center of town get some groceries maybe hike up into the mountains a little bit and then I’d go
Back to my hotel and continue writing for the rest of the day so this is the place where my winter cycling book was born and it’s cool to be back here five years later or something like that seeing the place in the summer time because now all the snow is melted in
Yeah it looks a little different but it’s just as the just as gray and depressing as I remember it being to be completely honest nothing spectacular about this place other than the fact that I here before and it’s where I wrote my book winter cycling all right in good morning from shots
Slovakia we stayed in this hotel hotel EEP last night we were originally going to cycle all the way to Estrada and yesterday we kind of decided after looking at the weather report I think we’re gonna take the train to Ostrava today instead and then yeah stay there
For the night the next day Kevin will leave for Prague and then I’ll continue cycling on my own towards Poland We did it Kevin he made it – Oh Straub and we got off the train with all our stuff we think yeah it’s gonna feel weird yeah where’s Kevin where’s Kevin behind you though don’t get lost alright see you well I just say goodbye to Kevin after a
Bicycle turn with him for the last month or so here in the Czech Republic Austria Hungary and Slovakia it’s pretty strange to be back here now on my own for the very first time and basically like 45 days I’ve been on the road since I did
My bike tour in Portugal in Spain and then I flew to Poland started biking there I was alone for two days in Poland at the beginning of this kind of Eastern Europe trip but ever since then I’ve had somebody with me Kevin Fukuda Josey Michael Lynnae all sorts of
People all have been riding with me so today for the first time in a long time I am back on my own and it feels very very strange it’s kind of quiet you know so today’s gonna be a strange day for me to be cycling back on my own but I am
Going to continue cycling west and north kind of along the border between the Czech Republic and Poland and then my bike tour here in Europe for the summer at least is going to come to an end today I’m going about 60 kilometers not too far but I do have to get out of
Ostrava and I do have to go up into the mountain so it could be a little bit difficult in that regards but should be a relatively easy day of cycling yeah it’s just it’s a weird thing today to be on my own again and I’m looking forward
To it but it’s also kind of strange I think the first few moments riding out of town I’m gonna probably keep looking back to say where’s Kevin where’s Kevin he’s not there and then realising that I am on my own so right now I’m going to
Pack up my bicycle and get ready to hit the road I’m gonna eat some breakfast brush my teeth pack up the bike and then we’ll be off and just like that I’ve gone 10 kilometres I’m outside the city of Ostrava which was kind of not too bad
To get out of but it wasn’t fun either I didn’t film much because I had to concentrate but Here I am now out in the countryside so much much nicer and I should be out here kind of and go into small towns for the rest of
The day now so I’ve reached the climbing part of my ride today it’s a 10 kilometer uphill like this it might hear some clicking coming from my bike there’s a bunch of gravel in the road that’s going up into my fenders anyways 10 kilometers of kind of gradual uphill
Climbing like this not super steep I’m in my 4th gear right now but yeah just slow going luckily they’re like almost no cars on this road so it’s really nice all right so here I am inside the tent now time for one of Darrin’s tent talks
Haven’t done one of these in a while now is the time I am finally back out on the road on my own and because there’s no one around I feel comfortable talking to the camera for a short period of time let me talk a little bit about today
Today was kind of a short somewhat boring day actually kind of a one of the most boring days scenery wise from the entire bike tour just riding through lots of farmland areas and I didn’t really film a whole lot because there wasn’t really a whole lot to see just
Farm lands fields a couple little towns and that sort of the thing so that being said I think tomorrow looks really interesting because we’re getting back into the forest the area like I am in now this is the kind of stuff that I really enjoy and I’m gonna be crossing
The border in two days back into Poland and that’s when I think things will get interesting again so stay tuned I think the writing tomorrow will be really really good now that I’m back on my own what is going to be happening what’s happening is I have rented an apartment
In Poznan Poland which is one of the cities in the world that I’ve kind of discovered that I really enjoy and I’ve made a bunch of friends there and so I’ve decided this year to go back to pose and Poland and kind of use that as
My home base for the rest of the summer so I’ve rented an apartment in Poznan for one whole month starting on July 8th and ending on August 7th and then I fly back to the United States after that my sister is getting married in September
So I gotta be back in time for her wedding so I have like nine more days that I basically have to kill before I can check into my apartment in Poznan Poland so what am I going to do during those 9 days well I’m gonna go on a little bike
Tour here in the northern Czech Republic and southern Poland I’m gonna basically slowly criss cross my way across the mountains here and then make my way to the city of wroclaw which is kind of in southwestern Poland and from there I’m gonna jump on a train
And go to pose and then good morning it’s 10:00 a.m. I’ve been very very lazy today this is the longest I’ve slept in in a long time because it’s my first day alone and I’m camped out in the forest I can do whatever I want and today I just
Wanted to be lazy so it’s 10 a.m. I’m gonna get up and start packing right now it was a good night had some deer come up to the tent last night and start barking when they saw my Tenten they got a little scared it also got a little
Cold last night so I’ve got my jacket on now but overall pretty good night just gonna pack up and get going it’s really windy outside and I just checked the weather and the wind is blowing at about 30 to 35 km/h today so it’s gonna be a
Windy one shouldn’t be too cold or rainy but the wind is definitely going to be a factor having to climb uphill first thing in the morning is not my definition of fun but to climb uphill on cobblestones oh my goodness this makes it so much worse
There we go just a moment ago as I was cycling down this road a car with two guys inside pulled up alongside me and they rolled down their window that scares me a little bit I’m always afraid that so that all that always scares me a little bit because I’m afraid they might
Have a gun or something but the guy rolls down his window and he says something to me in check and I have no idea what he’s saying obviously so I say I say suppression they’re aluminum which is polish for I’m sorry I don’t understand and and I say I speak English do you
Speak English and the guy says oh yeah I’m trying to find some city around here you know and I say I’m sorry I don’t know I’m not from here yeah and that was the end of the whole interaction but I’m always surprised this happens quite a bit actually and
I’m always surprised when it does because right in this big red bicycle with all of my human possessions on it you would think that people would know that I’m not from around here but that apparently doesn’t seem to be the case for some people they just can’t tell that I’m not a local
Going up another Hill here it’s gonna be like this all day long I think just up down up down up down over and over and over again today is my first full day since leaving Kevin in Ostrava in the Czech Republic yesterday I left him I spent 90% of yesterday by myself but
Today is the first full day I’m 100% on my own and I’m kind of surprised how quickly I’m getting back in my groove because sometimes in the past I’ve struggled after riding with other people and then being back on my own to kind of yeah I get back in the groove of things
And to be comfortable back on my own again but right now I feel really good really nice lake over here and I think part of that is just because oh no more cobblestones did you see the Fox he had something in his mouth like a mouse or
Something like that scared him away but Fox so this big patch of grass that you see behind me is the designated camping place up here there’s one other person camping I don’t see any signs whether it costs money whether there are toilets there’s a blue building over here I’m
Gonna go check out looks like it might have toilets maybe even showers there’s a sign at the entrance to this place saying that they have showers and bathrooms here and these are the buildings but I have a feeling they’re locked yeah I don’t know why they’re locked but that sucks would have been
Nice to get it to get a shower all right so this is my free campsite for tonight at the base of a ski resort here in the northern czech republic there are no utilities here no showers no water no bathrooms nothing but there is this pond
Behind me and there is a flat spot to put my tent so i’m gonna pitch my tent now it looks like it could rain at any moment so i want to get my tent up pretty quickly and jump inside It is really cold today my hands are frozen I didn’t even bring gloves on this bike trip because I thought it was going to be warm this is beautiful right here So I’m off the main road now as you can see a little Forest Road kind of cutting through the forest here This road is amazing really beautiful forest lots of people out into Sunday so people out picking berries and mushrooms people on bike rides and hikes and this road I did not originally plan to cycle at all it just turned out this I decided to go this way and it’ll probably turn
Out to be the best part of my day overall really beautiful Look straight ahead you can see I’m just about out of the mountain it is nothing I’m still in the Czech Republic right now but decent afield for right there about three meters away that’s Poland right there ladies Poland I’m that close I think I can almost reach reach over my foot out I’ve been pulling that so close am I just following the border right now for about
15 more kilometers and then I will actually cross over into Poland this road crosses right now the border between the Czech Republic and Poland Well it’s time to say goodbye to the mountains that you see behind me the Czech Republic’s been really nice Slovakia amazing Austria Hungary now it’s time for some bike touring in Poland there’s a little bit of children here there is some tourists off to my right then kind of check it out but
Haven’t anything good yet I’m just gonna ride until I see some forest that I like so this is the spot in the forest that I found for tonight not going to get a shower tonight again there are mosquitoes everywhere so I’m gonna have to be very quick setting up my tent
Tonight so I’m just gonna set it up and dive inside here we go Okay I’ve got the tan towel set up I’m just gonna jump inside okay so I’m in the tent now I set that up super fast and just dove inside because I was getting attacked by the mosquitoes they got me on the ankles I think there
Might be one in here still that was the nice thing about being up in the mountains even though it was really cold like last night there weren’t any mosquitoes or there were a few but not very many here it’s really bad I can’t get it off because
It’s I’m so sweaty it’s stuck to my arm oh nice bear yeah I got bitten by mosquitoes it’s about five o’clock at night right now my plan is to basically just spend the rest of the evening in my tent I’m gonna pop out I got some water
Before we got to the campsite here so about my water bottles and so I’m gonna take like a little birdbath just like wash my face and arms and legs and stuff but in order to do that I have to get outside the tent so I’m gonna do that in a second
Maybe I’ll just chill here for a minute but I’ll do that in a minute and then kind of set up camp inside the tent I haven’t even blown up my sleeping matters or you know unfolded my sleeping bag yet so just gonna hang out for tonight and yeah avoid these mosquitoes
As much as possible I am in like a cool little forest here so hopefully it won’t get too hot especially in the morning there’s no one around as far as I can tell so we’re doing a little stealth camping but yeah should be a good night three days though without a shower And so just like that my 2018 Central European bike tour across Poland the Czech Republic Austria salokya and Hungary came to an end the next morning after spending the night in my tent I packed up my things pushed my bike out through the forest cycle a short distance approximately like 80
Kilometers or something like that into the city of wroclaw poland i rented an apartment there for like a week and then i jumped on a train and traveled here to pose in poland where i’ve rented another apartment on Airbnb so that was basically the end of my bike tour in
Those few countries here in Central Europe and overall it was really an amazing experience I don’t know if I necessarily captured the true essence of this bike tour on my videos I think in a way like with a lot of bicycle tours the experience itself was better than any of
The photos or the videos that I created on the trip it’s my turn is like one of those things that you got to get out there and do it yourself and I think this part of the world in particular is a place that is enjoyed best in person
So if these videos interested you in any way in conducting your own bicycle tour in Central Europe I highly recommend you get out here for yourself I think he’ll be surprised at just how amazing this part of the world truly is that being said if you want to learn how to conduct
Your own bicycle tour and adventures my name is Darren elf and I am the bicycle turning pro and for the last 10 years I have been helping people all around the world learn how to conduct their own bicycle train adventures whether you want to go bicycle train in Central
Europe or anywhere else in the world I highly encourage you to visit my website at bicycle tour and procom pick up a copy of my book the bicycle train blueprint or go through one of my video courses which will teach you everything you need to know about how to conduct
Your own bicycle train adventures anywhere in the world once again i’m darren alf from bicycle trainer comm thank you guys so much for watching and I hope to see you on the road sometimes sin bye-bye bye-bye