It was so hot last night that my deodorant melted. This was a sure sign that it’s too hot to be cycling, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. So at 06:30 am I crawled out of bed, had a shower, dried myself in front of the fan (for some reason my B&B didn’t provide a towel) and then loaded my stuff into my panniers and onto the bike.

I had arranged to meet Dylan at the local Tesco’s where we purchased bananas and water and set-off on day 2.

Tesco’s in Hungary looks like Tesco’s in England, but all the food (I mean everything) is totally different, so its quite a surreal experience and as Hungarian is a completely alien language, buying stuff like water is a bit ‘hit and miss’. This time I was lucky and as I twisted the cap, there was no hissing sound and no bubbles!

The road out of Rackeve took us along the river through a pretty section of holiday houses and it was a relatively pleasent morning, however despite the nice view, the track was pretty hard-going as it was seriously bumpy and we were both bouncing off our saddles for the first 1.5 hours of our trip. After this it was a mixed bag of gravel tracks, grass tracks, smooth tarmac and occasionally a little bit of sand.

At some point during the morning my seat developed a squeak which ‘squeaked’ each time I hit a large bump and it now provides an audio guide to how sore my buttocks will be the day after the ride.

The day way long (about 9 hours with stops) and insanely hot – +36 in the shade (and we had no shade) but stopped for plenty of drink stops and a long and leisurely lunch before arriving in Kolacsa at about 17:00.

I celebrated my first ever 100+ km ride and then checked-in to the super-friendly and very well run Pension Alaxandra before joining Dylan for the customary beer and evening feast. The only other things I remember from yesterday were purple-chillies that were growing in baskets at the place where we had lunch and a man who, sitting next to me, was still taller that the woman who was standing in front of his table. There are some very big Hungarians out here!