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route like normal adventure bikers ? Idiot !
Rivers ran across the road , complete with their own oil slicks . An abusive bus driver had shouted at me to move my bike and drenched body out of the shelter of a bus stop . I ’ d cursed everything and everybody , including my phone which had by now stopped working altogether . I ’ d cursed myself , motorbikes in general , and the European Union in particular .
Squeezed in under a railway bridge , I ’ d wrung out my sopping gloves , and flipped a virtual coin . South , into Hungary , or continue west towards Bratislava and the Adriatic .
Bratislava won , and curiously , as I ’ d headed west , the sun broke through the clouds , the roads dried , birds started singing and I ’ d felt almost … happy .
Then , within half an hour the sun was fully out and , mapless , I had lucked onto the best , most challenging and enjoyable road of my trip so far — the Cesta 75 from Lučenec to Patince . It was sublime .
Massive Carpathian canyons , twisties , sweepers , cliffs , river crossings , forests — all laid with tarmac to die for , and an up-for-it Audi A3 showing me the way . The Audi driver obviously knew the road like the back of his horse , and kept to at least 140kph , everywhere . Absolutely everywhere .
I ’ d tailed him for about sixty kilometres , but then his local knowledge , and bravery , prevailed and I slipped back . The grin on my face nearly split my helmet . Stopping for a sandwich , still soggy , by the side of a tinkling stream , I ’ d relaxed into a gentle pootle as I ’ d continued . Luckily , as just down the road a group of police had been busy pulling over all of Mr Audi ’ s friends on a particularly go-faster stretch of the C75 .
As I ’ d rolled west , the canyons
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