Motorcycle Explorer February 2015 Issue 4 | Page 57

After almost 200km of sweating like a fat kid climbing stairs we passed a swimming lake near
Sittersdorf which was just too tempting to miss. It only cost 3 Euros per person to access the
Sonnegger See: a small well-kept lake which is bordered by changing rooms, toilets and
restaurants. This is as close as land-locked Austrians get to a seaside resort; catering to
humanity’s ingrained lusts for sunshine and water. Within seconds Sam and Kimberly have torn
their swimming costumes from the luggage and bombed into the lake. We spent several hours at
the Sonnegger See which was extremely relaxing, but still left us with many miles to travel.
In the late afternoon our journey resumed on the ‘Southern Styria Loop’; a scenic touring route
which runs around the south of Austria and northern Slovenia. You could tell how important
bikers are to the local economy by the massive stainless steel sculpture of a happy couple riding
a motorcycle erected in the middle of one roundabout. The route was also peppered with less
festive markers to the same activity. It was impossible to miss the memorials to bikers who
didn’t make a particular corner: sometimes with a buckled wheel or bent forks used alongside a
framed photograph to mark the spot of their demise. Besides acting as tributes to lost friends
and family, the intention was obviously to make other riders slow down and consider their own
mortality.