Day Twelve
Suza, Croatia
102 miles. 879 ft climbed
Hungary is famous for its love of paprika. Todays route took us through the centre of the paprika growing region of the country, Kalocsa. In addition to paprika it is also a major religious and teacher training centre
Taking a bit of a detour to see the town we were able to enjoy seeing all these elements in one go. NBJ Tours have had previous with nuns as Chris, Brian & Mike will testify having come across some in the depths of France many years ago. Here we saw this cycling nun pass in front of the cathedral where a group of primary school children were about to be taken into the museum. As she went passed, the teacher nodded and they all waved and said hello, and the nun waved back. How good to see such respect
Once again we were up with the lark and after our hearty porage we were off again at 7.30 in the knowledge that another 100 mile day awaited.
Passing the soviet era war memorial we hit the road for our first mini leg of 16 miles to a ferry across the Danube. Nigel, Monica and the camper taking a different route.
Arriving at the ferry terminal after about an hour we were the only passengers for the voyage which we had to wait 20 minutes. Our cruise ( Linda please note) lasted around ten minutes as the ferry had to fight the current as the other side was upstream a little. it cost us €10 and we all felt it was sound value for the cruise but it confirms we are not in the market for a longer voyage.
We met Nigel & Monica for breakfast around another 7 miles on just before our detour into Kalocsa.
We went past several paprika fields and the one above had workers at the other side who encouraged us to get off and help them. As mentioned above we enjoyed our trip into Kalocsa, Nick even getting his museum fix in the Paprika Museum.
Leaving Kalocsa we could have almost thought we were at home when we spied a Tesco superstore!
For once the wind was slightly in our favour and although still warm the temperature was manageable with some cloud around and the thunderstorms stayed away. This helped us average 15 mph despite some gentle riding around town and the slow ferry rides.
The riding today was therefore much better and we only had a couple of bigger roads and lorries to worry about for short stretches. We did as ever have long straight roads or paths as has been so typical of this trip.
We did go through a few small villages which barely seemed alive, but it was good to see real life as we saw very few cyclists en route today.
An interesting note was that everyone’s drainpipe lead out across the path and into the ditch at the side of the road. Not something we’d ever seen before.
Lunch stop was on the levee before Baja where we made another detour to see the town
This is pretty small town around the size of Tonbridge which has been both Hungarian and Serbian throughout history.
Leaving Baja we ran along the Danube for a period before our final tea stop by the next ferry crossing. Nigel decided he could not risk the camper on the steep slope so would add some extra miles to his route to the campsite. . It turned out to be a bit more extra as he ended up having to go into and out of Serbia in order to cross the river and get back into Croatia!
We did not have the same issue but on getting on board the ferry were asked for our tickets which we should have bought at the kassa, although not signed. Initially the crew said we could wait half an hour for the next crossing, but common sense prevailed as we were not about to get off and one of the crew accompanied me to the kassa on the opposite bank to pay. This only cost €4 and as I was given change in Forints gave this to the helpful crew member.
A ten mile ride to get to Croatia followed and although it was evident that the border control was significant not long ago we were able to pass without stopping in the Schengen zone. ( unlike Nigel in Serbia, which we will have tomorrow)
The only hill of the day came just before the campsite and with it was a change in agriculture as we saw many vines and signs for wineries.
From the top of the hill it was only another two miles downhill to the campsite which was welcome after the second hundred mile day in a row. We have now completed over 1000 miles since leaving Mulhouse.
Beef stew for dinner and cards followed as we were back in our usual campsite routine. It has to be said that every site where we have stayed has been clean and the facilities have been what has been needed after a hard days riding.
nbjtours 