Day 68
I had spent the night in the town of Satu Mare close to the border crossing with Hungary. I had read that Hungary was open for transit only and that Slovakia were testing people at the border for the alleged virus. I expected to encounter lots of ongoing insane procedures and laws being implemented by border officials and the possibility of being turned away at either or both of the borders. The next morning to compound my potential issues it was cold and raining heavily.
The Hungarian border was hassle free and within 5 minutes of hitting it I was riding away in torrential rain. The rain had softened the rich yellow coloured soil that had been deposited by farm vehicles from every field entrance along the road for some 30 miles (50 km) till the motorway in to a thick clinging mud. By the time I had ridden more than a few miles the bike was covered in it. As the motorways in Hungary had been designated as the only roads to be used for transiting the country, I had no option but to use them. I rode along often deserted stretches of motorway in the driving rain for hours, the temperature never got above 4 degrees celsius and I was not enjoying it. However, once North of Miskolc the weather cleared and the sun appeared. By the time I had reached the Slovakian border the skies were clear but it was still very cold.
The Slovakinan border on the motorway was just a sign at the side of the road and nothing more. No border guards, no checkpoints, no madness, nothing. So I rode on sticking to the motorways as I wanted to transit the country as quickly as possible. By late afternoon I was approaching the Polish border. I exited the motorway just East of Poprad, South of the Tatra mountains, the very tops of which were shrouded in white cloud, and headed for Poland. Near the Polish border I stopped to photograph the Slovakian countryside in bright winter sunshine.
Again, the Polish border was only marked by a sign at the side of the road and nothing else. I took the road along the edge of the Tatra mountains and skirted along the Northern foothills till I arrived at Zakopane where I would stay for the night. Zakopane is a ski resort and has some of the most beautiful and ornate wooden houses that I have ever seen.
Day 69
I spent the night in a very nice small hotel which I got for about 25 Euros and the next morning when I got up everything was covered in in a thick white frost and icicles hung from the edge of every roof.
I delayed my departure for a few hours to let it heat up but although the frost has gone where the sun had struck it, in the shade it was still present. On loading up my bike I noticed how dirty it had become due to my sustained travel in mud and rain the previous day.
I bit the bullet and headed off North down the hillside in the direction of Kraow. After two hours of riding on fast roads interspersed with roadworks and diversions, I arrived at my destination for the winter, the city of Krakow.