day 51 - 54 km
Pernitz - Reichenau
Yesterday it was around twenty degrees, today it is thirty. Wonderfully warm, really a different feeling. After Andrea’s breakfast, we are on our way to the tree bike that is at the Pernitz town hall. Daan is cycling with the tree bike this morning. It goes straight uphill. How beautiful the landscape is in the morning sun. The higher hills with the rolling fields and the picturesque villages we pass through, what a treat. At “Imker Waidhofen”, Anton Postl – Zwinz in Miesenbach we stop and at that moment Sanne arrives with the bus. The honey is a fine example of local produce. We have already climbed quite a bit and the tree bike has trouble with the long inclines. We need to pause to let the bike cool down. And there comes Richard, he has picked up the trailer that was left at the bottom of the other side of the mountain yesterday. We bike on, it goes up and down, and we ride on until Puchberg am Schneeberg which is quite touristy. A little further on we stop where Sanne is talking to the family of the mayor Peter Mayer of Marktgemeide Winzendorf-Muthmannsdorf who are hiking from this spot. What a coincidence. They are very enthusiastic about the tree passing through Europe and we exchange our cards. Another nice contact. From here Sanne bikes along and Daan takes over the car. What a beautiful weather and it is quite quiet for a Saturday afternoon. But there are many motorcyclists driving fast. So be careful. We have lunch in the field where Richard takes drone shots as we cycle away. From here it is mostly downhill, or at least not steeply uphill. And that’s nice. I noticed yesterday that something wasn’t quite right with the rear brake and now, by five o’clock it is, the brake is really starting to have problems. It’s making a strange noise. And that’s on a Saturday night. Now what? We stop after covering fifty kilometers in Payerbach where Daan and Richard are waiting for us. A man approaches who loves our tree bike. He knows, how could it be otherwise, a friend who has a garage, lives in the next village and is willing to help us with the brake, even on a Saturday night. How lucky we are. We cycle for four kilometers without using the rear brake. And the man where we should be is already in his garden waving at us. The wheel comes off and indeed one brake pad turns out to be out. How that can happen is still a mystery to me but fortunately he can fix it by replacing one part and also checks the other wheel which turns out to be fine. The brake works again and then the next challenge presents itself: the bike won’t start for a while. How can that happen again? We have no idea. We run through all the options and find no solution. I still call Luuk from Cargo Cycling, and he too has no idea at first glance. He will look into it tomorrow, on Sunday. We can’t go any further and park the bike in the garden of the guy who also helped with the repair. We also leave the trailer here. The garage man, I don’t even know his name, wants nothing for the repairs. We give him the Forest Book and are very happy that the brake works again. Top. We drive together in the car over the mountain, which we were actually supposed to drive over today, to our place of stay half an hour further up in Mürzzuschlag. Sanne, who had driven ahead, has dinner on the table. What a fine arrival, here we will stay for two nights. I wonder if the tree bike feels like cycling tomorrow. We will see.
Sun June 1 - day 52
Reichenau (Mürzzuschlag)
This Sunday we drive around ten o’clock from Mürzzuschlag towards the tree bike in Reichenau, it is already at least 25 degrees. We follow the route that we also want to take later with the tree bike with the highest point being 1,070 meters. Reichenau is at 520 meters according to our garage man who turns out to be named Rup Meixner. In other words 550 meters of climbing. That’s going to be quite a tour. At least that’s our plan. It goes differently. A nice exercise in moving along. At the tree bike we place the full battery and just like yesterday, unfortunately no response. In the next two hours we try, or rather Rup tries, everything but we can’t solve it, it’s probably something small that we overlook, it’s usually like that. And let’s face it we are also extremely lucky. This Rup is even helping us on Sunday, tomorrow morning he is gone early but he is leaving his toolbox in the garden so I can grab what we need, after I talk to the mechanic from Cargo Cycling tomorrow. And well, after almost 2,000 kilometers something is allowed to go wrong. Let’s hope we can fix it together so we can ride again tomorrow. That would be great. And if not, the schedule will be adjusted. We still have some days to spare before we arrive in Nova Gorica on June 14, at least that’s the plan. We ride back to Mürzzuschlag, over the mountain again, there are some pretty steep parts, I can understand the tree bike not being in the mood for that. We drink a Sunday cup of coffee somewhere and are back at our accommodation around two o’clock. A “free” Sunday afternoon. The clouds are increasing and the temperature is dropping, there is even a big shower. Good for the trees. From Christian Cummins of FM4-radio Austria we receive a short video that he will use for the socials of the radio program “The Morning Show”, where we come in over the next few days, at least that is the plan. It’s a nice mix of the interview with footage I sent to him. He’s totally a fan of our project. Great. At the end of the afternoon Nanja joins us, a friend of Richard’s from Holland who has lived in Austria for years. She is coming to bike with us for a few days. We have dinner across the street. Very cozy. The conversation is of course also about the tree bike, that we hope the bike will work again tomorrow. Would be very nice.