A nocturnal interlude - Bohemian Rhapsody - CycleBlaze

August 15, 2019

A nocturnal interlude

An hour or so after drifting off, I heard a van engine on the track above the chalet behind me. No big deal - someone had returned to their cabin, and would soon settle down for the night - it wasn't like there was anything to keep them occupied in the lake at midnight. I cursed a bit as the movement went on, and then music started to filter through my tent. This got louder and louder - and then suddenly boomed out over the lake.

After half an hour, I had had enough, and decided to investigate. The chalets were all dark - nobody home - but the music was coming from a white van parked just in front of them, and so right behind my tent. As annoying as it was, I was actually met by quite a comical sight - a shirtless Czech man bopping around in the cabin to the not-too-well muffled sounds of something like Sarah Maclachlan. I stumbled over, and made a series of mimes through the window - "hello", "too loud", "I'm sleeping", "thanks". He turned the music off, and gave me a big grin and a thumbs up. It was impossible to be annoyed.

I went back to bed - but slowly, over the next hour, the volume of the music slowly rose again, to the point where sleep was impossible. Given that I'd chosen to pitch the tent in the woods to get some peace, I wasn't amused. I got out, put on clothes, pulled out all the tent pegs and physically picked the whole tent up by the poles. It was an awkward waddle through the dark woods, but I made it to the sward of grass in front of the lake (and out of earshot) with the loss of only one peg. I had to return for another trip to collect my various pannier bags, and as I did, I caught the eye of the (still shirtless) guy in his cab, looking at me with apparently genuine concern. "Is ok?" he shouted over, giving me the thumbs up again. "Yes, ok, don't worry" I said rather resignedly in English.

Anyway, fortunately I slept soundly after that. When I woke it turned out I was near the one other camper, but they didn't seem too disturbed. A bit of a bizarre night.

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