Day #4 How I biked through the territory of cows and shits

Článek je k dispozici i v češtině 🇨🇿.

When I was getting up I didn’t know that one of the hardest parts of the race was just ahead of me. I ate some food, bought rations and went to Slovak Paradise. It was a real paradise to look at, but also hell of a rough terrain.

The first part brought me to the land of flies. Millions and millions of flies. It was crazy. They were attacking me in groups and there was no defence. I looked behind me and there were dozens of them chasing me. Next time I’ll have to take a spray. Finally, I lost them on a downhill—they stayed there waiting for other bikers.

The land of shepherds

I biked through a lot of meadows where there wasn’t even a little shadow. I was really slow and I had to push my bike on most roads. I could hear the bells of cows. There were no buildings and I couldn’t find any source of water. I was so thirsty. Based on my map I thought that:

It will go downhill soon
There will be water

But none of this was true. A headed to powerplant Čierny Váh and it was on a big hill, one of the toughest pitches in the race, which ended with a lot of stairs. But the view was really beautiful.

Finally, there was the downhill I was looking for. I got lucky and found a river where I refilled on water. Now I was looking forward to a good meal. But in this race nothing goes as expected… I got a flat tire. I was quite scared, because I have never changed the inner tube before. Fortunately, I watched a youtube video about it before the race. Yes, I’m really a conscientious biker.

Heading do the bike service

Because I couldn’t find a hole I decided to change the entire inner tube. I removed the rear wheel and regardless my doubt I made it. But when I was trying to put the wheel back on the bike I realised that I have no idea how to. Thank God I met a villager who helped me do it. Yes, I’m not a very professional biker…

Great, I was back on track. And after five minutes I got flat tire again. I removed the rear wheel and realised that I had a hole in my tire. I fixed it somehow in the same way as the inner tube but it was just a temporary solution. I was hungry, exhausted and demotivated. At last, I was lucky that Liptovský Hrádek was very close. I went to Vitalit Sport and they were very helpful. The tire was replaced in a minute and I could continue on with my journey. Thanks!

The water attack

I spend about an hour in the town to regain my strength. It was a mistake. I was caught in a heavy storm when I was leaving. After I found shelter, it stopped. Typical… I wanted to continue, but the rain came back and I found another shelter, because it was better than to push the bike in the rain. I stayed next to the church in Liptovský Ján.

Shelter next to the church in Liptovský Ján

When the rain became lighter, I continued on. I wanted to make it to Liptovské Klačany, the last civilised place before Low Tatras. Heavy rain returned after a few kilometres and the night brought fear. I found a tourist shelter and I wanted to spend the night there.

Among the bears

A local was wandering around and he asked me if I really wanted to spend the night there. I nodded nervously. He told me that there is a bear with cubs nearby so it’s a really bad idea. I made a quick decision that I don’t really want to sleep here and nothing in the world will force me to. I packed up my stuff and moved to the centre of the village Závažná Poruba. I found shelter there and went to sleep.

After the end of the race, I found out that bears are common in the village and they get close to homes and look for food in garbage cans. Yes, exactly the place that I was sleeping next to…