“DAY RIDE 2020_2”
The plan for this day ride was, to try out a 600 km or 370 mi long, mostly tarmac orientated route leading through the Austrian federal states Lower Austria and Styria. This ride report is the result of this long riding day. Enjoy …
DATE: OCTOBER 2020, DISTANCE: 600 km or 370 mi, GRAVEL/STREET RATIO: 10%/90% , HIGHLIGHTS: Lake Marialand, Semmering Viaduct, Buergeralm Hillrange, Erzberg, ...
The early start in the morning was rewarded …
with a nice sunrise above the suburbs of Vienna. The low standing sun caused …
gigantic shades. Чернотa and I rode southwestwards, right into …
the picturesque …
and curvy autumnal areas around the village “Hernstein”. Like mentioned before, this day was mostly leading along tarmac roads. Thererfore some …
short gravel-interruptions (mostly connection pieces between the ridden back country roads), had been a welcome variety.
My black beauty and I …
really enjoyed …
the great …
landscape along the tiny streets near the locality “Puchberg am Schneeberg”
At Lake Marialand it was time …
for a short tea break and some brought snack-nuts under the protection of this unknown holy saint. On this autumnal morning, the temperature had been low, so before continuing the ride I made a few knee bends to get the warmth back into my limps. The ride went on along some …
easy forest trails and led my black beauty and me …
right to this impressive torrent control facility, which is located near the city “Ternitz”.
After throwing a first glance onto the peak of the cone of Semmering-Mountain …
Чернотa found this old …
mansion near the village “Gloggnitz”. Because it was chilly …
it was time for another break. This time Rax-Mountain was part of the panorama in the background.
Small and steep well bend streets, seamed with …
wealthy houses, scattered in the hilly landscape: That…
is …
a well fittingly description of the Semmering-Region, which is known for its spectacular railway route, leading along …
some impressive …
viaducts through the hills and valleys southwards. The Semmering-Railway was the first real “Mountain Railway” in the world and was built back in the mid 1800s, in a time when Austria was a global player reigned from an emperor. Nowadays, this type of railway stretch is antiquated due to the big loss of time, caused by slow travel speeds and will be replaced in the near future with a 27 kilometer or 17 miles long tunnel.
Many decent …
buildings in …
this area were also built in this period of time. Near the city “Gloggnitz”, one of the main …
construction sites of the “Semmering-Base-Tunnel-Project” is placed. There, a many kilometers long …
feeder band is taking away the spoil produced from huge mining machines, which were ongoing eating their way through the rocks under the mountains.
It was noontime, when …
we passed the well known inn “Steirereck”. Considering having plenty of kilometers ahead of us there was no time for a lunch brake. So …
we rode on along soft bend main- and …
idyllic back country roads to the entrance of the …
toll road, leading up to the recreation area “Bürgeralm-Aflenz”. After buying the ticket at the ticket machine, I intended to open the entrance-barrier with the ticket, but the barrier-beam wasn’t moving. Three attempts later, it still didn’t work, so I bypassed the barrier via the meadow aside. The toll road is all the way up to the top of the area …
a well built gravel road, with …
nice lookout points. About halfway up, …
the first alpine pasture buildings where seen. But there was still nice …
gravel leading higher and …
higher, til the timberline …
was exceeded. Чернотa surely …
enjoyed the impressive panorama as much I did. Now it was time to turn back. On the way down, this nicely designed …
off road-practicing track for future adventure riders was seen, and later this …
rock-cut-out was passed.
Чернотa and I enjoyed it…
following the nice bend roads further westwards through the federal state Styria …
on this sunny autumn-day.
Another short brake was taken at a small pond called “Pfarrteich” before we followed the valley …
of river Muerz which is known for beeing home of some of Austrias …
biggest steel producing factories. From the city St. Marein we followed the …
the former Austrian so called “Eisen Straße” (=Iron Road”) northwards. Doing so …
this ancient smelting furnace was passed. Hardly to imagine that in this tower iron was melt back then in former times.
Finally, in the late …
afternoon the famous …
“Erzberg” was reached, which is the biggest surface extraction area for mining iron ore in Europe.
The next stop was made at …
Lake Leopoldstein and the …
big water reservoir near the village Hiflau. While having a walk along the fence of this reservoir …
Чернотa was faithful waiting outside the main gate. When the walk was over…
it was time for hitting homewards. Therefore, we’ve …
chosen to follow the …
well-known valley of …
river Salza.
It was already late afternoon when the sun touched the horizon and temperature decreased sensitively. Accompanied from …
the last rays of light Чернотa and I rode …
into the night. After 45 minutes of riding through the dark, we arrived back home in Vienna.
Total ridden distance on this day ride: 598km or 370mi.
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