Wednesday,
11th of September 2013
Morning
We woke up
slightly and talked out the plan for the day at breakfast. We were given a lot
of freedom in scheduling our work. Originally we intended to try out the
Austrian-Slovenian cycling route network between Bad Radkersburg and Mureck,
but decided to cancel it because of the gloomy weather. Then came Wednesday and
along with it better weather than we expected. So Austria was rescheduled for
the Wednesday afternoon.
After a
plentiful breakfast we headed towards Pavlovski Vrh again, this time cleverer
and faster than the days before, and took more precise photos of the roads,
analysed the terrain’s options and also tried to find an alternative route,
which would avoid the narrow main road through Pavlovski Vrh (albeit unsuccessful).
We also set up an ambush, by placing the bikes on the edge of the road, waiting
for cars to pass by. The results were following:
1. We have confirmed that the traffic
through Pavlovski Vrh is very scarce.
2. We now have a photo demonstrating
the effective width of the road.
3. A female driver was very confused.
Before the
return to Jeruzalem we split up into two groups. The adventurists headed down
an unknown road with a large altitude difference, while the romantics headed
back by following a scenic ridge. The adventurists returned 5 minutes earlier
and were consequently victorious. Both teams still had time before lunch and
dedicated it to data analysis, photo selection and of course to creating and
translating blog content for you guys.
Afternoon
At lunch we
were joined by our co-workers from PRA (remember that development agency we
mentioned at the start of our blog?). We greeted them, shared our findings and
suggestions before boasting with our mileage.
Afterwards we met with Paul Watkinson, an expat from the UK and founder
of Simply Cycling Slovenia. With his help we managed to transport our 7 bikes
to Austria.
And so our little espionage mission began. We were on the lookout
for transferrable successful practices. Talking to Paul was also insightful.
According to his opinion, Slovenians often shy away from thinking big. He also
suggested linking the routes around Jeruzalem with the Mura-Drava project to
expand opportunities for tourism. At first it seemed that the weather would
undermine the excursion, but later the rainy clouds retreated. Austria did
offer an unexpected lesson, namely that just marking the routes in a
comprehensible manner goes a very long way.
Surely, Austrian car drivers are
also way more patient, but many other things are within the reach of
improvement. Racing against the clock, we didn’t drive all the way to Mureck,
but crossed Mura and the border at Apače and closed the circle by returning to
Gornja Radgona and Bad Radkersburg (the same town split by the
Austrian-Slovenian border). The difference witnessed between the Slovenian and
Austrian side is stunning. It’s like two different worlds existing within less
than a kilometre of distance. Most of the routes ran along the main roads,
unaccompanied by cycling tracks at least half of the time. We managed to get to
the coach just before the rain resumed.
Dinner
became more of a meeting. We met with Goran (the PRA director) and exchanged
opinions and findings, especially on existing success cases and the possibility
of imitating them in our region. We finished right on time, just before the
restaurant was about to close.
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