1-6-0-0-0

This post is about a 30km walk from Korneuburg to Pischelsdorf. It’s hard to find a place to sleep and I end up crossing the 16,000km mark.

I woke up at four when I was still dark, then again at five when the sky started to turn to a lighter shade of black. When I got up at six, I felt smashed. I still had to get used to sleeping in my bivouac sack.

Wilson

The morning was quiet and green. When I noticed a public fountain I filled up my water bottle. I didn’t stop or sit down anywhere, though. I wanted to make as much distance as possible before the rain.

And then I saw Wilson. It was a ball, not exactly the one from the movie Cast Away, but it also had the letters Wilson printed on it. I kicked it around a few times. Cast Away was at once great and terrible. It was great for the acting, the storyline, and the cinematography. And it was terrible because of the product placement. And by terrible I mean t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.

The part about Wilson, the ball, who became Wilson, the friend, was true, though. I gave the ball a goodbye kick. Then I asked the Caboose if she was ready to go, took up her handlebars, and continued walking.

the rain

The rain started coming down shortly thereafter. I dressed the Caboose in her rain covers and me in my poncho. Then we stomped through the rain.

After a few hours, we reached an underpass under a bridge. It was the first opportunity to rest. I took off the poncho and my windbreaker and laid down on the ground to do my exercises. At this point, we were almost 20km into our walk, and I felt tired. There was a town at the other end of the bridge. I looked up a few guest houses there and phoned them, but they were all either booked or expensive.

no place to sleep

When we reached the next village, in a few hours later, I was optimistic that I would find some accommodation there. There were, after all, several guest houses on the map. But no. They were either booked or expensive, or nobody was home. So all we could do was continue walking.

It was then that it dawned on me that I would have to do the dance. The 16,000km dance. I checked my GPS, and it was true. An additional 28.5km from this morning, and I would have to do it. We were now 26km in.

the dance

I tried to find a place to sleep in a farm, but nobody seemed to be home. Then I went to a dog school, but the owner told me that he had a couple of animals living on the premises, so I couldn’t spend the night there.

And so in a brief window of time while it wasn’t raining, I reached the 28.5km mark, the spot that marked 16,000km on The Longest Way. And I danced.

pictures

the walk from Korneuburg to Pischelsdorf:

leaving my camp near Korneuburg

the view from the Danube

roadside water fountain

far right propaganda stickers

better

swan

Wilson + Caboose

these look like holiday homes

view across the Danube

Caboose on the bike path

I sit in the rain.

rain on the bike path

Danube bridge

lunch break under the bridge

monument in Tulln

Tulln

pizza

night club near Tulln

28.5km until the dance

no more bike path

farm in Neusiedl

16000km on The Longest Way

guesthouse in Pischelsdorf

workers’ boots in my guesthouse

my room in Pischelsdorf