With the usual hustle and bustle of 20 cyclists preparing to get away for a day’s ride we got ready to leave our hotel Korbielów on day three of our expedition glancing hesitantly at the dark sky and early morning drizzle. In fact, those still frantically searching for pieces of kit needn’t have bothered, as in keeping with all great adventures an executive decision had already been made to give it 15minutes till the rain cleared up. This proved to be a good choice as almost exactly 15minutes later, the rain lightened up and we were able to set-off towards the Slovakian border, in a fairly dry state.
Having spent 30minutes climbing up to the Slovakian border post, the majority of the morning was then spent cruising through the Slovakian country side and then around the ‘Jez Orawskie’ a large man made reservoir north of the town of Tvrdosin. Whilst the morning largely passed without incident, we were briefly treated, during our breaks, to both the world’s most efficient car park attendant, who monitored our every move while leaning our bikes up in a local town square and also the world’s least efficient team of road workers who took approximately 20minutes to simply upright a new road sign – still leaving half the panels missing!
Not long after our encounter with the road-workers, we crossed back into Poland and were now on the home straight, heading up the road to the picturesque town of Zakopane. After the gentle climb up to the end of the valley we reached our destination, all be it with a clash of bikes between two Cycle Poland veterans. Luckily no major injuries were incurred and we continued to our hotel, arriving at a record early time of 2pm!
Arriving so early provided the time to see both the sights of Zakopane and fit in the prescribed ‘recovery beer’, as well as some traditional Polish cooking in the form of a late lunch. In some cases this did include at least three main courses; carbo-loading ahead of tomorrow’s 140km!
Having spent 30minutes climbing up to the Slovakian border post, the majority of the morning was then spent cruising through the Slovakian country side and then around the ‘Jez Orawskie’ a large man made reservoir north of the town of Tvrdosin. Whilst the morning largely passed without incident, we were briefly treated, during our breaks, to both the world’s most efficient car park attendant, who monitored our every move while leaning our bikes up in a local town square and also the world’s least efficient team of road workers who took approximately 20minutes to simply upright a new road sign – still leaving half the panels missing!
Not long after our encounter with the road-workers, we crossed back into Poland and were now on the home straight, heading up the road to the picturesque town of Zakopane. After the gentle climb up to the end of the valley we reached our destination, all be it with a clash of bikes between two Cycle Poland veterans. Luckily no major injuries were incurred and we continued to our hotel, arriving at a record early time of 2pm!
Arriving so early provided the time to see both the sights of Zakopane and fit in the prescribed ‘recovery beer’, as well as some traditional Polish cooking in the form of a late lunch. In some cases this did include at least three main courses; carbo-loading ahead of tomorrow’s 140km!