Day 3 - Kielce - Kraków - 120km

Dear all,

 

I set the alarm clock for 6h25. My hosts are leaving early to work and I want to be ready to leave when they go out of home.

I ended up waking up around 5AM quite well rested and I could not fall asleep again.

Artur & Asia invited me to join them from breakfast so we spent a bit more of time chatting!

Artur, Asia & Peter Lamb

Guys, thank you so so so much for your hospitality! It was totally spot on! Cheers!!

I decided to cycle through Kielce's city center, afterall it is on the way to Krakow, my destination of the day!

Peter Lamb speeding up

It was quite early in the morning, so there were very few people on the streets.

Townhall, I believe

Central street

Going out of the city was quite simple, following some bike paths.

Clecleway to get out of Kielce

Road at the outskirts of Kielce

The road has loads of small uphills and downhills. I am carrying way too much weight on this trip and I was trying to force it a bit more, as I know that Kraków is quite far and I would like to get there before 17h00.

Peter Lamb cycling south

The landscape varies a lot, being sometimes the road through some forest and some other times on totally open fields. It is impressive the number of times that this change happens!

Peter lamb cycling through forest

Cycling in open landscape. I just overtook that truck, ahahah

At the start of an uphill

I was cycling at the road number 766 for quite some kilometers.

The wind started to increase its intensity, blowing from South, which combined to my heavy bike, me being not so fit and the hills, were making this a very hard cycling day. I was climbing sometimes at averages speeds of 8km/h, trying to make it up somehow on the descent parts and the flat ones.

Peter Lamb at the end of an endless climb. Nice landscape!

Trip has continued, sometimes taking smaller roads. I was just following the directions of South or West to make my choices. I ended up being in nice places and I found it nicer than having all the route planned. It was comfortable to know that, if the things would get bad, I would have water, food and my tent and sleeping bag, that I could use to stay anywhere.

Random road

Random road

Random roads

Random roads

The thing is: when you risk too much, either you will be in trouble, or you will be ending up having a very nice time. And, lucky it was the second option that I experienced. In fact the tarmac road ended, being a gravel road for about 3 to 5 kilometers. I did not see anyone for about 30 minutes and the landscape was so nice!

I really thought that it would be a great place to pitch the tent, for sure it would be possible to see loads of stars that you cannot see while in the city, but I really wanted to get to Krakow, so I continued the journey!

The start of the gravel road

Gravel road continues

Peter Lamb at the summit of one more climb

I ended up in a tarmac road and from there i kept taking the direction of South in smaller roads.

I could reach the road 776 that goes to Kraków.

Tired Peter Lamb at a corn field

The sun started to be setting, and I still had some kilometers to do. Every meter of climb was a total struggle, but kilometers were passing and I was getting more and more close to my destination.

Entering in Krakow is a long downhill, which was quite a lot of fun, overtaking some cars!

I had almost no baterry on the phone, so I could not have Asia's address on my gps. Finding her place was quite challenging, making some (bad) choices about routing, and asking random people on the streets.

I ended up finding her place, already way after sunset. It is a great joy to see a good friend, welcoming you once more into her place.

It was a hard day (maybe the hardest since I started bike touring) but I felt great that I have made it this far!

The link for the data recorded by Garmin device is the following:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/883285417

 

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance: 120km
• Daily time cycling: 7h25m17s
• Average speed: 16,22km/h
• Top speed: 54,26km/h
• Total climb: 1014meters
• Total distance: 315 km
• Total time cycling: 19h07m23s

That is all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter

 

 

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