Hello again,
The last time I left you I was in Villach. Since then I stayed in a small village near Ferlach and in Lavamund (right near the Austria-Slovenia border) before finishing the cycle trip in Maribor (2nd biggest city in Slovenia) where I stayed two nights to recover - that was another 200 kilometres (out of a total of about 450km). I managed to avoid the rain although it was grey most days until I got to Slovenia when the weather improved. Thanks to those that expressed concern that I might have ended up interned in an Austrian refugee camp with all the issues here. But there was only half a dozen Austrian border police and they we more interested in who was coming in (which was basically nobody) rather than anyone leaving.
The village near Ferlach was interesting, from the bike path there was cart tracks to follow zig zagging in and out of corn fields until I came to this place which I thought was in the middle of nowhere. Well that's what I thought until I had a walk around this remote village, only to find a major road at the end of the village with a supermarket and a mercedes car dealership. Later on the other side on the village, I found a freeway leading to a major border crossing with Slovenia. There was a first though - it is the only hotel that I had a view of a corn field from my window. I could literally reach out and pick the corn from my window. Austrians don't believe in wasting space. This is where I got sick for a short while - I blame the counterfeit peanut M&Ms that I bought at the supermarket - I knew they were too good to be true.
Lavamund was a surprise - a very small and cheap but quaint place right on the river. It was probably the friendliest place I stayed at, the German only speaking cook/cleaner persisted in trying to carry on a conversation with me in German although my vocabulary had reached its limits very early on in the conversation. It was a long ride to Lavamund (70+km) but thank goodness it was mostly downhill at the end. The last day to Maribor was longer (around 80 kilometres), harder (a lot of climbing/walking but the downhills were great) and was probably the best day scenically but the most frustrating. Frustrating because the Austrians and Slovenians share different philosophical approaches to signage. The Austrians leave it to no chance: when there aren't signs there are arrows painted on the trail indicating which way you need to go. If there is any possibility of taking a wrong turn or ambiguity, the Austrians will put a sign there. Even so I took the wrong turn a couple of times. The Slovenians like to make it more challenging for riders, more of a puzzle. I think the people putting the signs up think it is actually one of those adventure races where you have to find the checkpoints (the signs being the checkpoints). Rather than put signs at intersections or where the correct path was not clear - they would put the sign down the correct trail a bit. So the process was were the route was not clear to look around and see if you could find one of the blue signs in the vicinity, if you did, you went in that direction but if you didn't you took your best guess and hoped to find a blue sign eventually. Ironically, there was better signage between villages where there was really only the main road to follow. But around major cities like Dravograd (near the border) and Maribor a mimimalist approach applied. Through some miracle I managed to follow the correct route through Dravograd - despite it zig zagging all over the place and following the least obvious route. Maribor was different, with 12 km to go I thought it would take 30-40 minutes at most - 90 minutes later I finally got to Maribor. I lost the trail at least three times and again through some miracle manged to stumble back on to it every time. However, it was the best scenically, because the trail climbed high above the Drava River on occasions, giving great views, and a lot of the towns were actually on the river and in Slovenia the Drava actually resembled a river rather than a canal as in some parts in Austria. In Austria a lot of the towns are some distance from the river as it is used for hydro power so the river and dam levels fluctuate, with the trail being on top of the embankment separating the river from the fields.
That's all for now!The last time I left you I was in Villach. Since then I stayed in a small village near Ferlach and in Lavamund (right near the Austria-Slovenia border) before finishing the cycle trip in Maribor (2nd biggest city in Slovenia) where I stayed two nights to recover - that was another 200 kilometres (out of a total of about 450km). I managed to avoid the rain although it was grey most days until I got to Slovenia when the weather improved. Thanks to those that expressed concern that I might have ended up interned in an Austrian refugee camp with all the issues here. But there was only half a dozen Austrian border police and they we more interested in who was coming in (which was basically nobody) rather than anyone leaving.
The village near Ferlach was interesting, from the bike path there was cart tracks to follow zig zagging in and out of corn fields until I came to this place which I thought was in the middle of nowhere. Well that's what I thought until I had a walk around this remote village, only to find a major road at the end of the village with a supermarket and a mercedes car dealership. Later on the other side on the village, I found a freeway leading to a major border crossing with Slovenia. There was a first though - it is the only hotel that I had a view of a corn field from my window. I could literally reach out and pick the corn from my window. Austrians don't believe in wasting space. This is where I got sick for a short while - I blame the counterfeit peanut M&Ms that I bought at the supermarket - I knew they were too good to be true.
Lavamund was a surprise - a very small and cheap but quaint place right on the river. It was probably the friendliest place I stayed at, the German only speaking cook/cleaner persisted in trying to carry on a conversation with me in German although my vocabulary had reached its limits very early on in the conversation. It was a long ride to Lavamund (70+km) but thank goodness it was mostly downhill at the end. The last day to Maribor was longer (around 80 kilometres), harder (a lot of climbing/walking but the downhills were great) and was probably the best day scenically but the most frustrating. Frustrating because the Austrians and Slovenians share different philosophical approaches to signage. The Austrians leave it to no chance: when there aren't signs there are arrows painted on the trail indicating which way you need to go. If there is any possibility of taking a wrong turn or ambiguity, the Austrians will put a sign there. Even so I took the wrong turn a couple of times. The Slovenians like to make it more challenging for riders, more of a puzzle. I think the people putting the signs up think it is actually one of those adventure races where you have to find the checkpoints (the signs being the checkpoints). Rather than put signs at intersections or where the correct path was not clear - they would put the sign down the correct trail a bit. So the process was were the route was not clear to look around and see if you could find one of the blue signs in the vicinity, if you did, you went in that direction but if you didn't you took your best guess and hoped to find a blue sign eventually. Ironically, there was better signage between villages where there was really only the main road to follow. But around major cities like Dravograd (near the border) and Maribor a mimimalist approach applied. Through some miracle I managed to follow the correct route through Dravograd - despite it zig zagging all over the place and following the least obvious route. Maribor was different, with 12 km to go I thought it would take 30-40 minutes at most - 90 minutes later I finally got to Maribor. I lost the trail at least three times and again through some miracle manged to stumble back on to it every time. However, it was the best scenically, because the trail climbed high above the Drava River on occasions, giving great views, and a lot of the towns were actually on the river and in Slovenia the Drava actually resembled a river rather than a canal as in some parts in Austria. In Austria a lot of the towns are some distance from the river as it is used for hydro power so the river and dam levels fluctuate, with the trail being on top of the embankment separating the river from the fields.
Wildlife
Disappointingly didn't see a lot of wildlife. Some waterbirds on the river in Austria and a squirrel in Slovenia. Probably what I saw most of was black or grey cats - sometimes they were in the middle of nowhere. Also some cows, pigs and chickens when I went through villages. What there was a lot of - in Austria particularly - were pests: thrips and mosquitoes. I spent a lot of time at night in the hotel rooms hunting mosquitoes - sometimes I was awoken a few times each night and the hunt recommenced. In one hotel I had wasps coming in all the time and I would open the window to let them out. I am no expert but wasps are dumb. Certainly flys by comparison are geniuses. Despite me opening the window for them, they still couldn't work out how to get out and kept on banging against the glass.
At the dam at Lavamund they provided one of those fish ladders for the fish to get around the dam wall. I am no fish expert but I have a few questions:
- How do the fish know where this ladder is (it is only a few metres at one end of a 50m long dam) - what happens to all the fish at the other end of the dam, how do they know there is a way through and do they just turn around or give up in despair? I think there is unnecessary stress there for fish
- How do the fish know how to use this ladder? And anyway if they do manage to fluke it the water going through it looked pretty rough to me and the poor things would probably be battered to death or at least be concussed. I think a more organised form of transportation should be considered.
People
Saw a woman in Villach who looked about 70, with a walking frame, and a fresh tattoo. She obviously hasn't given up the dream. The drivers also seemed more aggressive since I left Villach. But the Slovenian tractor drivers didn't seem to be as aggressive as the Austrian ones - probably because the Slovenians can only afford small tractors.
Breakfast at the hotels was always entertaining. When you see how people struggle with machines, such as the coffee machines, you realise that robotics has a bright future.
Austrians
They don't seem to believe in public toilets, certainly in the same way we do. Also I like their approach to public transportation: they will put in a station for a small village but they don't compromise the speed of the train line, which goes along the valley, as the station is usually located 1-2 kilometres from the village.
Lessons Learnt
- Carry less
- Pack clothes that don't crinkle
- Pack for all weather conditions (it was colder than I thought it would be)
- Cycling is easier than walking (except for steep hills)
- Walking is more flexible as you don't have to worry about lugging around a bike when you arent actually using it
- Pay more attention to where you are going as it is easier to take a wrong turn on a bike than walking
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