Torrential rain throughout the night and the ground below was sodden. Once again, I am so grateful that my tent is such a good quality one because inside, everything is completely dry.
The forecast for today was also pretty grim but I have now found a great weather app called Weather Radar which is scarily accurate to within 15 minutes on what is happening weather wise. I can't believe I have never heard of it before.
However there is no way I am going to stay in Passau for another day, as lovely as it is. So I packed up, waited in the dry restaurant section for an extended break of an hour where there would be no rain, and took the plunge. Destination Linz, only 85KM.
I bumped into Michael as I left and we both set off down route 130 and within minutes we had crossed over into Austria.
We only knew this from google maps or Kamoot. No big fanfare, no signs at all and all we could find was a weathered statue of some king holding Christ on a cross by the side of the main road, so we took some pics. Even in the crappy weather, I was so happy to get country number 6 under my belt.
I was starving hungry so we stopped off for a plate of ham and eggs, always a perfect breakfast food I find. And onwards we went, past the small but atmospheric Pyrawang branch church.
We spent the morning ducking in and out of various logging contractor work sheds or indeed any place when a downpour started to happen. Michael was an expert in predicting weather patterns, being from the west of Ireland and along with Weather Radar, we dodged quite a few super wet bullets. But no denying, it made for a grey day. Fortunately the road surface was amazing and this is something I will always remember about Austria. It really has THE most amazing roads and cycle routes, in perfect condition.
Given the dismal weather, we abandoned the idea of making it to Linz and tried to find accommodation. We went through the village of Wesenufer which would have been idyllic in any other conditions and although there were loads of places, everything we tried was shut.
We pushed on, determined to take the first place we could which was more of a leisure park with camping attached called Freizeitanlage Schlögen. The only rooms available were super expensive for what we needed, but there was space to camp. We only had about 20 minutes before the next downpour to get our tents up in our allocated space and needless to say, we were the only people camping. Still, the place had a decent bar and restaurant overlooking a marina.
That night we ate at the restaurant which was surprisingly good and I had my first bottle of the local wine, a cheeky Grüner Veltliner to accompany a hearty meal.
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