Day Thirty-Five

16/06/25 - Day Thirty-Five


The day the rim failed. Broke camp and set off at 8.20am. As I set off this morning I wasn’t too hopeful at what the day would hold. My mood from last night had lingered: I felt flat, low and wasn’t particularly enjoying myself. That’s when I thought to myself, f*ck it, why don’t I just double down and try for 100 miles today. Nothing like a big goal to occupy the mind, push out any room for negative thoughts. 

I was still toying with the idea and liking it more and more, when someone greeted me from my left. It was a nice Slovak called Juraj, he was on a short 2/3 day tour of his own. He liked to return from Germany to his homeland often, for bike trips. We spoke for a while about my journey and about the best traditional Slovakian food I must try whilst I was here. Then he powered on ahead. It was shortly after this that I realised the extent of the headwinds behind me. I spun up to 19mph with ease and cruised along. Hell yeah! We’re in for a great day now, the remnants of my dissatisfaction but a whisper in the wind. 

Reinvigorated, I effortlessly bit off 16 miles. If ever there was a better song than Roving Falkirk Bairn - Brogeal, to get that feeling of adventure within me, I want to know it. I passed into the comically (excuse my immaturity) named village of Horný Bar, and then that’s when it happened. I first noticed a worsening of my rear wheel rubbing against my frame and something felt off. I bent down, fearing the worst, and inspected my rear rim. Yup, it’s buggered! Cracked. Not good. The nearest bike shop was 9 miles away. Not far considering, but it was 9 miles back on myself. No one ever likes going backwards, it breaks momentum and just doesn’t feel nice. Especially at walking pace, hah. I failed in my attempts to hitch a lift along the A road to śimarin. After, 4 miles, I couldn’t bear walking pace anymore, and tempted by a smooth road, gave it a shot riding again. Slowly. Taking extra care not to go over any tiny bump. It held up for about 2 miles before I caught a flat and was back on the walking shift. 

Arriving at the bike shop I showed them my rim and they understood the brief. It wasn’t long before I had myself a new back wheel and cassette to go with it. Cornell was most impressed by my journey and we chatted with the limited English he had. He was a lovely man and we laughed a lot! Then as I went to pay, he produced me with some energy bars and an inner tube on the house! Heart warmed, and bike good to go I set off again. 

I was soon back at Horný Bar - thank you tailwind - having covered 34 miles to travel 16. The rest of the days riding was a breeze (no I’m not sorry!). I still managed to crunch out 50 miles of progress, stopping just before the next major town, as I needed to replace my chain tomorrow and my chain tool had broken. Broken trying to break my chain ironically. Annoyed, but relieved it wasn’t in the middle of the desert that I had discovered this! I managed to set an early camp right by the river again, so now two nights in a row I go to bed feeling fresh and clean.

 

Morning camp spot

 

Tehehe

 

Whooooopsieeeee

 

Lovely folk

 

 

 

Bossman sorting me out with some snacks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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