7:10 am. We wake up to the tune of the Pirates of the Caribbean. I am usually awake by this time of day but for some reason I was still sleeping when the alarm went off. I assume it is due to the demanding past couple of days. But we are on holidays or what? 🙂
On the way to breakfast I took my panniers down to save time and to avoid carrying everything at the same time. But my happiness is quickly ruined as I exit the building. Rain is pouring and everything is wet. We can forget the Nockalmstrasse. At least I brought in my rainsuit from the topcase. During breakfast we chat about the options. If it doesn’t stop we buy stickers and take the motorway as we all agree. Not a nice ride but at least it will be quick. We can still be happy as we didn’t see rain so far. We also chat with some other guys who arrived yesterday. They only begin their trip heading for the Boden lake so we wish them well and hope for a better weather.
Having finished our meals we notice the rain got even harder. We dress up and head for the highway. Or the nearest petrol station to buy the stickers. No luck at the first station though as they only have bi-monthly biker stickers for €10.99 (they also had 10 days car stickers for €7.49) so we moved on to the OMV station and bought our 10 day passes for €4.40 and headed straight for Judenburg where the motorway starts. Our itinerary for the day was S36-S6-A2-A4-M1.
Unfortunately the storm followed us throughout the trip. We stopped twice for fuel and to grab some food. The rain was pouring from all sides and was combined with strong wind. The rainsuits were of no real use. At every stop we had to put on new clothes (socks, t-shits and even underwear). My wallet and phone got wet as well. At the second stop Attila decided to push on and make it home as quickly as possible. We said farewell and hoped he’ll make it home safe if not dry.
Guts were above 110 km/h while visibility was very poor due to the constant rain. The news later classified it as the storm of the decade. It followed us all the way to Biatorbagy – some 22 km from Budapest. We stopped there and waited for John to catch up. He didn’t. He just waved at us from his bike and pushed on. So we fuelled up and bid farewell to each other while I put on my dry gloves. It was funny as we rode in a temperature around 10-11 degrees but as soon as we left the storm behind we welt the air warming up to around 18-20 degrees.
Once at home I parked the bike and hugged my kids and wife. I took a shower and changed into comfortable clothes. Just as I headed downstairs the storm arrived…