{"id":314,"date":"2015-07-17T11:44:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T16:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/rickpress\/?p=314"},"modified":"2024-06-17T18:57:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T22:57:27","slug":"6-inches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/6-inches\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Inches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crossing into Hungary meant crossing a time zone, so I now wake up every morning at 5 am, probably the light. In a hostel or hotel it’s a lot easier to roll over and go back to sleep. Camping takes longer to pack up, as I hang everything up to completely dry, but I rolled out of the campground at 8 am.<\/p>\n

The best kind of days starts on flat, dedicated cycle path,\u00a0and the first 20 km went by in the first hour. Then I found EV6, across the same dike system as before, but with flat, perfect, undamaged paved cycle path and clear signage, so navigation becomes much faster. A major cycle path also comes with benefits.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I cruised effortlessly along at 27 kph, I realized I had something else as well – TAILWIND! Tailwinds make everything better, with one exception – heat. I lose the breeze I generate by\u00a0 moving when the wind pushes me along. I can’t dawdle in a tailwind. Then again, with a tailwind I don’t want to. The next 40 km flew past.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Then I lost EV6. Well, I hadn’t lost it, I just hadn’t expected a downgrade to grass track. A grass track that I could maintain speed only exactly in the smooth 6-inch rut – very challenging. Too challenging; at the next opportunity I switched back to highway. Almost immediately I realized why EV6 chose the track over the highway. The narrow highway had no shoulder, and heavy traffic. At the next opportunity I switched back to EV6. Following EV6 continued until the next city, where EV6 became the strip road directly on the Danube, a road since time immemorial, with a great view, and absolutely horrible, rattling me apart at speed. <\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Normally I would just downgrade my speed, take the day slow, and trundle alone. Today being a tailwind day, not only did I feel the need for speed, but slow meant stifling heat, and I still had 30 km in my plan. I switched back to highway. The highway provided a 6-inch edge, where the asphalt over time sloshed, leaving a section cars didn’t drive on – a challenging shoulder. With traffic screaming past me, I flew down the highway 30 km, surviving to the turnoff to the campground.<\/p>\n

I made amazing time today, and arrived at the cutoff for the campground at 2pm. I likely could have made Budapest, but I had yet to reserve a hostel, and with the intense heat today (yet less than forecast tomorrow!), I felt beat. By 3:30 I had the gear unloaded, the tent up, and headed for a swim in the lake. Stunningly hot even now, I think I’m headed back that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crossing into Hungary meant crossing a time zone, so I now wake up every morning at 5 am, probably the light. In a hostel or hotel it’s a lot easier to roll over and go back to sleep. Camping takes longer to pack up, as I hang everything up to completely dry, but I rolled … Continue reading “6 Inches”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-touring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3966,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/3966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irelandbybicycle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}