Mohacs to Osijek

That was a hard day, and one of our longest at 88km. We started early, at around 8am, to try and beat the worst of the heat, and headed out of Mohacs on a nice bike path along the river. We then hit the main road, thankfully not to busy, to head to the border crossing between Hungary and Croatia. This was the first time we'd had our passports checked on the bikes, and was a pretty smooth process. The only quirk being that the Hungarian border guard wanted to see a copy of James' Australian driving licence - we think for his collection, he told us he'd never seen one before. James got it back thankfully, although we'll be closely checking speeding and parking fines when we get home!

Crossing into Croatia, the friendliness of the locals was on show, as everyone we passed wanted to wave, and the drivers were giving us heaps of room, as well as lots of waves. We came upon our friends from yesterday who had gotten away before us but had stopped to put on sunscreen. Amateurs, we did ours before we left! We had a bit of a chat and recommended our hotel for tonight (they are also finishing in Osijek today). Shortly afterwards was a relatively serious climb, taking us up to overlook the Danube valley. Sadly we could not enjoy the descent which was at 10% gradient but on cobblestones. Lots of work on the brakes for that one...

Shortly afterwards we headed to the flood dykes for the rest of the ride into Osijek. This took us through some lovely country, a nature reserve peppered with hunting lodges - including one that Tito used when he needed a weekend off. This provided us with views of lots of the local wildlife, we saw a few snakes, a lot of frogs (don't know why they were on the path) and plenty of birds. The highlight was stopping to watch a wild sow cross the path with her piglets.

The lowlight was the effect the extended time on gravel had on our legs, wrists and bums. We were dusty tired and sore by the time we reached Osijek at around 2.30pm. However, our accommodation is excellent, they have provided us with a welcome drink (James had beer AND slivovitz), and we are sitting here composing this entry in a lovely little private courtyard (partaking of ice cream again). James is considering another of the beers. An early dinner and bed will follow, with our last proper long day tomorrow.

Relive 'Danube day 27'