Advertisement
Traffic Mayhem
Q. So how do you merge 7 lanes into 1?
A. Badly We had a very early start this morning. We had breakfast at 07:00 and were on the road for 07:50 heading out of Kaunus and south.
The starter was a real wake up call, firstly over a load of cobbled roads and secondly up a fairly steep hill away from the river that runs through Kaunas.
Then we entered some typical country roads with gentle climbs heading for the Baltic Highlands where Vilnius resides.
We had about 90+ miles to cover today and needed to be in Vilnius for 17:00.
The day started well and got better, we made excellent time and with regular breaks had soon put 30 miles under our wheels. This ensured we pasted Preniai very quickly and headed out on the A16.
We hit the highlands with a vengence after about 30 miles and started to encountered long inclines with rolling "interval training" roads on the tops of the highlands.
After a toilet stop on one stretch I found the other two a mile or so ahead and saw them cresting what looked like a reasonable length hill as I started at the bottom. I hit the hill reasonably well but
seemed out of my stride all of a sudden. I dropped into 1st and was about to take it easy when I got my wind back. I slowly climbed through the rear gears (keeping the front in 1) and suddenly found myself doing 15 mph up a fairly steep and very long hill. Where this energy came from I am not sure, probably a combination of new wind and Torq energy drink. I pushed on and realised that this hill was very very long, but I kept going from strength to strength. I pushed past the other guys and the mini bus at 21 mph and kept pushing fast to the summit which I reached in excellent time. It was with a feeling of joy that I crested the summit and relished this new burst of energy, coming as it did after 400 miles of riding.
The guys also got a burst of speed and soon joined me to continue our ride to Vilnius.
The weather turned slightly bad on the way to Trakai, but it was nothing too bad, just a cold light rain.
We stopped in Trakai to eat and had a conincidental encounter with
Goal Achieved!
We arrived in Vilnius in high spirits having completed our 450 mile tour! a local who recognised our event and had donated on Global Giving. Pure coincidence but it provided us with an opportunity to say thank you for the support and gave us extra impetus to push on and complete the day with a burst of energy.
We left Trakai behind us on a long uphill, after which we soon came across the Vilnius city limits and the city sign (where we stopped to have our photos taken).
We then headed in to Vilnius proper, which was where the fun really began. We were on a main approach roaded to the "Centrus" when we heard a loud voice boom out behind us. It turned out to be a police escort for a huge load that was tearing up the middle of the highway at what felt like breakneck speed. We dodged this and watched it head through the traffic, only to realise that the whole road was coming to a standstill. In order to stay with our escort vehicles we had to get stuck also. It turned out that the next junction was basically trying to get 7 lanes of north bound traffic down to 1 lane!!!!!
Eventually we
Castle? What Castle?
So we rode past this spectacular view before lunch and somehow missed this beautiful castle on the lake. Imagine our surprise when we cycled back after lunch and noticed it :-) made our way through this mess and then the rain really started. We headed further into Vilnius and then turned a corner to find a huge descent before us. Let's just say that this was a wet, slippery, bumpy ride at about 30 mph through the worst of Vilnius rush hour. Al's life flashed before his eyes more than once before we reached the bottom. Then on the ride through Vilnius Centrus we were nearly wiped out by a couple of buses, the odd car, pot holes etc. All of which decided to try and make the end of our trip an unpleasant one.
However the spirit of Rugute looked after us and we made it through to Green Hall exactly on time and were greeted by a fantastic welcome party and a "Finish Line" to cross.
We spent the greater part of the evening in the office answering questions and having a great time, before retiring to our hotel. Tonight we stay in the Novotel in the center of Vilnius. The hotel have donated the rooms free of charge, which is a fantastic gesture that I must mention and thank them for.
Tomorrow we head from Green Hall (Upes Gatve) to the local Hospital, where Rugute have their lodge. This will formally conclude the whole trip and give closure to 9 months of my life which have gone better than I could have hoped.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Nick
non-member comment
Great blog
Enjoyed reading your blog John. Thanks for organising and 'leading'. Don't forget to cut me a disc with all the photo's please. Love Nick. x