DAY RIDE 2017

“THE NORTH-EAST RIDE”

Finding good day rides near Vienna isn’t easy, when you want to ride way off the paved roads.
At the end of November 2017 I did a extensive planning via satellite footage along the Austria’s eastern border, trying to find some seldom used tracks.
Finally, I had success and this little day ride showed me, that there are loads of gravel tracks out there in Austria´s eastern no man’s land , which are waiting to get ridden.
The following ride report will give you an idea about what I mean.

TRIP DATA:
DATE: November 2017; TOTAL DISTANCE: Ca. 320km or 200mi; GRAVEL/STREET RATIO: ca.: 50/50; HIGHLIGHTS: Castle Devin, plenty of panoramic views, nice snapshots

This day 320km or 200mi have been ridden. It starts from Vienna counter clock wise eastwards to Hainburg, northwards to the three country corner between Austria, Slovakia and Czechia and back to Vienna.

Around 0800 in the morning Чернотa and I left Vienna. Shortly after the city border we …

took the first fast gravel streets eastwards. On one of the agrarian fields …

This interesting thing was seen. I have no idea what that is for. Surely a harvesting machine but for what is it exactly for? I don’t know. I never have seen such a thing in action.

In a well known gravel pit we did a bit of …

enduro practicing. After that we passed over to a small hill near …

Vienna’s airport. There we watched two or three …

planes approaching. Through …

some wine yards we rode on. The most eastern part of Austria is…

plastered with plenty of wind turbines. People are often saying that they don’t like them. I don’t think so. Without them the view over the whole plain area …

here would be really boring. We passed this …

burnt down trailer. Probably a fire at the Lorry’s back wheels (brake defect) caused that damage.

Around mid-morning Чернотa and I came to Austria’s eastern border. There in the distance …

the neighbor capitol of Slovakia, Bratislava was noticeable. Along the Danube …

we did a few glances over to Slovakia. Here you see a big stone pit, and …

here is the castle Devin recognizable.

A short stretch we road westwards and stream upwards the Danube, whereby we passed on our way to the hill Braunsberg, the ruin Hainburg. As we reached the top of the Braunsberg …

the view westward was great (Here you see the river Danube and the Danube bridge near Hainburg). After a short break there …

Чернотa and I crossed the Danube via the before mentioned Bridge and went on …

to the point where the border river March flows into the Danube. Here, standing on the territory of Austria, is a good viewing point to the ruin Devin on the Slovakian side of the border.

Along some single trails …

we passed this old hut right at the border. Besides a old mattress nothing interesting was inside.

Near the river march we followed the swampland northwards. This day we often used easy gravel …

roads, (here the March-Dam-Chapel)
and sometimes we also had to find our way …

through the bushes, or wide open the …

throttle on speedy meadows like this one.

Around midday, we arrived at this railway bridge near the village Marchegg which is connecting Slovakia and Austria. Today this …

old custom building isn’t longer needed.

Seldom used grass trails …

led us to this real old digger which was rusting near the ….

Austrian try to make a Carribean beach (current water temperature +1°C, air temperature: 4°C)

Near the borderline in the village Baumgarten lies the Central European Gas Hub. Here natural gas from Russia is getting compacted and transfered further to Europe. After short stop for lurking over the fence …