Wow. So much has happened today and we’ve lived through so much ‘weather’ it feels like it might all have been a dream! It was a positively idyllic start to the day, with bright skies about the yurt. (PS. After an amazing sunset last night, the central skylight in the roof was brilliant for star gazing!).
The breakfast porridge was delicious and the farmer gave us a box of boiled eggs as we left. Perhaps he knew what we were in for!?
Although I started the day off riding in shorts, it was too cold for hanging around long in Rackeve, thanks to the northerly wind. We crossed the river and headed out of town along the eastern bank.
It was a pretty ride, with loads of nice riverside houses.
The trail stayed by the river and soon passed through Domsod.
Here, things took a turn for the worse weather wise. I exchanged shorts for thermals, trousers and waterproofs as it actually started snowing!
Last nights winds caused some damage on the farm where we were staying - there was plenty of evidence of the storm as we rode along.
The initial snow blew through quickly on the wind and we carried on in bright weather.
Around mid morning, the trail turned to grass as it followed the top of a dyke. Good views, but hard going.
As we rode, it became clear that the wall of weather was catching us up!
Huge clouds were passing by and clearing dropping their loads all around us.
Finally one caught us up! We took a short cut off the dyke to get to a road, as there was no where to hide up on the dyke. However the recommended short cut from our cycle book was terrible advice. The road had lorries thundering along it at high speeds in both directions. It would have been fool hardy to try and peddle on it and there was only a steep verge on the potholes edge. We tucked into a well placed bus stop to consider our options as hurricane blew through with accompanying blizzard!
In the end we decided to do a longer (but much safer) route, rather than risk the road, or the difficult riding in the grassy dyke. It turned out to be much longer than anticipated, but did afford us a nice place to rest for some food.
Soon after, we experienced another snowstorm.
The a brutal solitary 5km straight line across exposed fields.
As we rode, this was the view to the east…
While at the same time, this was the opposite direction! Incredible scenes!
Sadly for us, the snow hit hard from the side and then, full on in the face! Around 15:30 the skies went dark as dust and soil blew off the fields creating a dust bowl, following close behind, the clouds unleashed a raging snow storm, with the wind plastering us with snow as we pressed on, leaning heavily over into the wind, to avoid being blown off our bikes!
Eventually we reached a few trees that offered a little glimpse of shelter.
After a scary but unavoidable 500m on the main road, we rejoined a farm track, that completed the ‘two sides of a triangle’ extra 15km detour! Tough going and with tired legs but it finally began to look like we might make it despite the snow continuing to fall.
In the next village there was a small shop but no cafe (we were hoping for a hot drink!). With only 4km to go and a return to blue sky, we peddled the last bit feeling deliriously tired.
Arriving at our B&B was a delight. The husband spoke no English, but his wife was a former language teachers and she soon had our bikes in the garage and us up to our very warm room. We clearly looked a bit ragged as she soon returned with some homemade macaroons and coffee!
Just what we needed to perk us back up and revel in our achievements. The kindness of strangers and a mug of warm liquid. Bliss. As we sipped our drinks, snow, once again started battering the windows! We didn’t care, as there was a sauna in the bathroom, so we spent the next little while warming up nicely in there!
What a day!
Total ride: 64km (should have been just under 50km!!)
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