Alpe-NOT-Adria

Disclaimer: Long read

My brother and I had a plan, easy plan.
Alpe-Adria, very scenic, chill route along old railway track.

Started in Salzburg, P+R carpark.

Well… day before departure, I found out tunnel crossing is closed!

Fortunately there is also alternative bus shuttle.. but nope.. all booked…

No choice now, have to make detour…
Have to make it over Obertauern, to continue south. Took us 2 days to get over those climbs and back on track.

Villach – Udine was super chill, exactly what I wanted…

But hold up.. it's hot AF in Italy… and also my brother getting bored cuz it's too flat for him 🙄

Let's go back to Alps, it's cooler there.
So detour again!

From scorching hot day in Udine, we went north-east towards Slovenia.
With plan to get to Bled, it was going smoothly… till we get to climb Bohinjsko sedlo from Podbrdo…

It was about 8km from top, late evening, about to start raining.
Without any charge left in phones and power banks (only Garmin left), we got stopped by road works and some local guy.

He was absolutely life saver. Turns out he had little restaurant and campsite at the side of the road. Stayed there for the night, recharged batteries and finaly had warm shower.

Next day finished this brutal climb. My brother raced it to the top and waited about 1h for me 😂

From then on, it was amazing Slovenia. Absolutely love it there.

It was all chill going to Lake Bohnjske, Bled, Jasna, and then back towards Italy to slowly turn back north towards Villach.
Alpe-Adria around Villach is actually quite boring.
Lake in Spittal is another thing. Spend some time there swimming and resting in shade.

Turns out, even with my sluggish pace, we had spare time to not bother getting bus back north.

So let's make another detour!
Obertauern from other side 😅
I was absolutely cooked after climb…
And while looking for spot to camp, I've gotten weather ALERT… thunderstorm coming 🤯

Raced our way down to some village, but too late to find campsite, ended up staying night under highway viaduct…

From there it was another day grinding my way up another mountain, to get over last obstacle and then few hours pretty much descending towars Salzburg.

It's was sooo exhausting for me…
Went on this trip without much prior bike training, it was ment to be my easy shakedown of new bike 😆

But hey, I made it, it was worth it!

Some stats:
860km~
9300m~ elevation
Wild camp 7 out of 9 nights
No flats/mechanical issues
Butt sore AF
100 Punctures in sleeping mat

Thanks for read

Some photos at
www.instagram.com/michaelofftrack