Donauradweg: Viziru - Danube Delta
Viziru - Brăila - Tulcea - Danube Delta
I got an early start today, heading towards Brăila, where I took a ferry across to the right bank of the Danube. The landscape on this side was a beautiful mix of marshland and rolling hills, perfect for cycling. The roads were great, and I could often use the momentum from downhill stretches to glide effortlessly. While doing a routine check on my bike, I noticed that, for the second time on this trip, the screw securing the rear brake had worked itself loose and was on the verge of falling off. After tightening it and giving the bike a quick oiling, I had another mechanical issue when the front derailleur cable snapped, forcing me to replace it.
Later in the day, a thunderstorm that had formed over Ukraine passed ahead of me. Thankfully, I only caught a few drops, but it must have rained hard as the roads were left wet and partly flooded with mud. At one point, while descending through the muddy patches, my narrow front tire (25mm) lost grip, and I had to rely on balance to avoid a fall. By evening, I camped once again near the road, pushing myself to cover as much distance as possible so I could reach Constanța, my final destination, the next day.
Donauradweg: Novo Selo - Belgrad
Novo Selo - Belgrad
In the morning I was bitten by lots of mosquitoes while preparing to continue my journey. Just as I was getting underway, my trusty GPS device (Garmin Dakota 20) encountered an unexpected issue: a firmware bug (out of memory), which prevented it from booting up. Luckily, I discovered that a simple reset trick – clicking into the upper left corner during the boot process – resolved the problem. I recovered as much data as possible using my tablet and transferred the planned tour back to the GPS device, allowing me to continue navigating along the route. This experience taught me an important lesson: from now on, I'll always archive my track recordings daily to prevent losing them due to lack of memory.
After this brief hiccup, I had a wonderful encounter with a friendly Serbian family who welcomed me with open arms. They kindly offered to refill my water and invited me to join them for a traditional Serbian lunch. Feeling refreshed, I continued on to Novi Sad and eventually Belgrade. Just after I had exceeded
100 km there were a few hills with a rough gravel road and a construction site, which slowed me down a little. On the way my chain once jumped off the smallest cogwheel in the back and was stuck so, that I had to unscrew the carrier a little to get it out again, because the carrier's screws stick out a little. To prevent this in future and to protect my chain from now on I did not use the smallest and the largest rear cogwheel anymore and adjusted the limit stop of the rear derailleur accordingly.
That evening, I was looking forward to resting in Belgrade. My host provided me with valuable tips for exploring the city and once again let me feel the Serbian hospitality, when we cooked together in the evening.
Transalp 2013
Diese Etappe führt von Trafoi aus auf einer Passstraße mit unzähligen Spitzkehren hinauf auf das 1000 Meter höher gelegene Stilfser Joch.
Von dort geht es über den Umbrailpass weiter auf den Bocchetta di Forcola, dem mit 2768m, höchsten Punkt unserer Tour. Die Abfahrt vom Bocchetta di Pendolo mündet von einem wunderschönen, sich in das Tal schlängelnden, Trail in einen Schotterabhang mit recht grobem Schotter, bis man letztendlich in Bormiò ankommt.
Das Etappenziel Santa Caterina Valfurva erreichten wir am Spätnachmittag und somit hatten wir die am Vortag verloren gegangene Zeit wieder aufgeholt.
Everest Basecamp Trek (EBC): Dingboche - Lobuche
Surkey - Cheplung - Namche Bazar - Tengboche - Ama Dablam Base Camp - Pangboche - Dingboche - Lobuche - Gorak Shep - Lobuche - Dingboche - Namche Bazar - Lukla - Surkey