Woke up around 7 in the morning, thinking about how to attach the tent (and accessories) to my fork cages. After breakfast, around 8:30, I started attaching the panniers to the rear rack. Next came the tent. The first problem I encountered was that the tent on one side, and the quilt and tent floor on the other, weren't the same weight. But this was only a minor issue. The bigger problem was that the packed tent was too tall—so even when strapped to the cage, it wasn’t stable, and I didn’t want to risk a serious incident. So, I made the decision to attach it to the top of the rear rack. Now, what to do with the stuff from the other side? Well, I somehow managed to pack it into the panniers. So, the front cages would remain empty for this tour.

As usual, I forgot to turn on the GoPro. A few kilometers into the ride, I fixed that. The weather was really good. In the morning it was around 16 °C, and during the day it was expected to reach around 23 °C. I should have tailwind most of the time, which was also great. At first, I thought it would be a little cold, so I wore a long-sleeve merino base layer with a vest. But just 6 km into the ride, I swapped the base layer for a merino T-shirt and packed the vest back into the panniers. The first 15 km of the tour are well-known to me, as I ride there fairly often. Practically the first 35 km were almost entirely downhill, with only a few small ascents. The road quality was also good. I knew the tailwind would help me out.

The first climb came around 10:17 (34 km)—not the steepest one, but I still sweated a bit. During the descent, there was time for a battery change around 10:47 (38 km). So I replaced the battery—and to my surprise, it was only at 10% capacity! I started sweating profusely. Had I really changed the battery? Definitely—I checked, and the first one still had 15% left. So I tried another one. This one was also around 10%. Looks like I forgot to charge the batteries after I last used them. Fortunately, I had at least one classic (blue) reserve battery, so I used that. It was fully charged—thank God!

The second (and last) hill came at 11:43 (54 km). I knew there would be a shelter along the climb, so I planned to have lunch there. At 11:57 (57 km), I arrived at the shelter and had a white bean soup with two bread rolls. I also had a cereal cookie or two, I don' remember. During lunch, I unpacked my tablet and started charging the GoPro battery, because I knew the one I was currently using would die in about an hour and a half.

I took off around 12:52—still about 37 km ahead of me, but the good news was that it would mostly be downhill. The temperature was around 22 °C with a strong tailwind.

I crossed the Hungarian border at 13:13 (61 km). I knew there would be a fair number of cycleways in Hungary. The first short one started at 13:22 (64 km), and the quality was really good. I also noticed that the road asphalt had been replaced since the last time I was there, which was great since I’d be using it too.

The second cycleway started around 13:50 (74 km). The quality of this one wasn’t great—some parts were pretty bad, with grass coming up through cracked asphalt. But better to have something than nothing. This cycleway continued almost all the way to Sátoraljaújhely. From there, it was only about 10 km to the Malá Bara campsite. At 14:38 (87 km)—about 5 km short of the destination—my GoPro battery died, and I didn’t bother replacing it. The tailwind turned into a headwind, but shortly after, I arrived at the campsite.

I chose a quiet spot and started setting up my tent. It didn’t take too long—maybe 20 minutes. Then I unpacked my stuff, took a shower, and did all the usual things that aren’t worth mentioning. The campsite was really, really nice, and I highly recommend it. It had a small bar inside and even an “open kitchen” with a fridge.

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Around 18:00, I went to the Majer Bara restaurant for dinner. I ordered garlic soup and a chickpea "pörkölt." After dinner, I returned to the campsite and started to notice that a group of about 10 people had gathered near my tent and were preparing a barbecue. "So much for a quiet night," I thought. But fortunately, by 22:30, everything was quiet again.

Money spent: 9.5 EUR campsite + 15? EUR (Dinner) + 3? EUR (Beer + mineral water)