Day 20 – Lokovica to Slovenska Konjice – 70km

Day 20

KM – 70 (should be 60 but took wrong turn due to not being able to navigate properly in the rain)

Saddle Time – 4 Hrs

Avg – 17.5

Lokovica to Slovenska Konjice

Well from a perfect day yesterday to a terrible, wet and gloomy day today – Welcome to Europe Red.

I just finished packing up my tent and it started pouring down. The people next to me and I sheltered everything and packed up under the closest shelter. We shared breakfast and coffee which was really nice and then I donned on my high vis waterproof gear, turned on all my lights and took off. I aimed at doing 60 but was flexible due to the rain. I was not in the best of moods to be honest and I think this was due to a few things. At the beginning I was singing in the rain and at the end I was yelling into it saying ‘SURELY THIS IS THE LAST SWITCHBACK SURELY’ ha ha. I had to stop so many times and not due to sheltering from the storm but mainly to relocate myself as my handlebar bag was covered in the rainproof thingy and I had to stop, uncover, relocate, cover and set off again. I did about 10km too much.  That doesn’t sound like much but it is when you’ve decended down a 10% gradient hill and had to re-climb it again. Could’ve been worse. It bucketed down and I think that I was feeling a little fatigued from the last few days of hills. It wasn’t food, water or my back so perhaps some was mental but some was a touch of fatigue.  That’s ok though – it’s aaaaaaaal part of it isn’t it?

I learned one lesson today – My decision making skills are MUCH better after a shower, food and shelter. You don’t realise that sometimes. Anyway – I only took one photo as I didn’t want to take my camera out of the waterproof bags and it was the fact that I REACHED 1000km TODAY WOOOOT WOOOOOT – That was a big pick me up. This is now my biggest bicycle I have embarked on so it is a real confidence booster.

Coming near the end of the day there was no where to camp and I didn’t pass any supermarkets today so I had real basic rations but it was bucketing. I done some reading a few nights and they have certain cheap hotels here – just a room really and a shower – not as cheap as the one in Razdrto but 30 euros game me space to hang all my wet gear and fiddle with my bike a bit. The front wheel had a bump in the tire that I can’t work out why and the gears kept skipping a little – I think I fixed it but we’ll see tomorrow. Of course when I got to the ‘pension’ they call it here – it stopped raining hahaha that’d be right. They have internet here but it’s not working for some reason.

Until tomorrow friends n fam zzzzzzzzzzzz

Today’s Map

Sorry only one photo today but it’s a gooden

Most k’s on a tour – ECSTATIC!!
ride time – 59.2 Hours
Total K’s – 1019