10th August 2018 - Cowshed in Austria

Kms today = 210

Kms to date =7,057

The weather this morning was looking a bit ominous with black clouds on the horizon. We left our luxurious accommodation at the "Farmhouse" around 9am, dropped the keys off to Pavlik and headed for the butcher shop in Vesili for our usual breakfast of soup and whatever was on the menu. This time it was schnitzel. After breakfast we said goodbye to Max and Jirka and Danny and I headed to the "Cowshed" at Wald am Schoberpass in the Styrian Alps, Austria. Because of the insidious road closures we took a few wrong turns but not many and we were soon on the road to Linz. It started to rain so we donned our wet weather gear. The Austrian border passed without us seeing it!! As soon as we crossed the border the roads improved dramatically and we got on an Autobahn. Then the rain got steadily heavier. We stopped at a service centre to have something to eat and buy a Vignette for the bikes. These are used to cover us for travel on the Autobahn. It cost €5 for 10 days. Whilst we were eating we got talking to a couple of english blokes who were heading for Speilberg. They had had a pretty rough trip from the ferry in Zebrugge and were soaked. Back on the bikes we headed on the Autobahn towards Graz. It started to absolutely piss down and visibility was bugger all. I just followed a white line on the road and Danny followed my tail light. We were only doing 100kph and the rest of the traffic were fanging past us at warp speed. There were lots of tunnels through the mountains and they gave us some relief from the rain. Suddenly we arrived at a toll plaza, we had to pay €5.50 for the tunnels. The Vignette we had bought only covered the road??? As we didn't realise there would be a toll we didn't have any cash to hand so we struggled through our wet weather gear to find the money. The cars behind weren't too impressed but I didn't give a sh?? as I was absolutely soaked. The rain didn't let up as we left the Autobahn and took a B road to Wald am Schoberpass. I had a text from Colin that he had arrived at the Cowshed and could we bring some beer. Fat chance!! I checked our hosts instructions once more on how to get to the Cowshed from the village. We had to turn left at a house called Jodl. We rode down this rough road which we thought was correct and met a local woman leaning on her balcony. We asked if she knew Karl (our host) but she didn't. We rode further down the road and it came to a dead end. This can't be right I said to myself through gritted teeth. I called Colin and solved our problem, we should have turned left BEFORE the house named Jodl. Back we went and took the correct track down a steep incline in first gear and brakes on hard. Eventually we saw Colin's bike so we knew we had arrived. It was still pissing down. Colin had opened up  the place and turned on the hot water. Danny and I gradually divested ourselves of our wet gear and found a heater to dry it out. Unfortunately Danny buggered his leather gloves by putting them directly on the heater. I was remarkably dry once I had taken off my Goretex jacket and pants. They make you feel that the rain has got through but it is only the cold you can feel. We couldn't find any towels, soap or rubbish bags so I called our host Karl and he explained were to find everything. It was too wet to go to Gasthoff Fink for a feed so we commandeered some freeze dried spaghetti carbonara, chocolate, coffee,  grissini sticks and beer. It filled the gap nicely. We watched the European Athletic championships on the TV before hitting the sack (I found a sleeping bag under one of the bunks).

Our bike park outside the Cowshed.