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An absolutely awesome day. Top notch bike paths, speed stretches on good road surfaces, bumpy, sliding sand tracks, fields, forests, bush bashing. 203km to Leba.

Day 9. 203km. Dzwirzyno – Leba. Map and gpx.

What was the difference between yesterday and today? Yesterday I was hot, bothered, and had different expectations of the road conditions. Today I knew what was coming and was pleasantly surprised. Also it was cooler, and everything just seemed great.

Immediately after leaving the camping ground’s gate at 6, the bike paths were not the kind I have learned to love. They had a good surface, were well signposted, and went where I wanted to go. I went mad taking one picture after the next to document their quality.

The lovely bike path passed along the coast with regular glimpses of the sea as well as forest and lake scenery.

What made today so awesome was the alternating between slow, sandy, slidy paths (that were very pretty),

and fast stretches on roads with a good surface and not much traffic. (I do get a kick from cycling very fast, charging up hills and making distance against the clock.) On a 30km sprint to Utska I overtook a tractor going uphill at 40 km/h. Why, oh why did I not film it with my bike cam? 🙂

I knew that there were some hairy bits coming ahead on the R10, so I thought I would try my own route. Well: that was an adventure. Slippery, slidy sand and mud baths as well as beating through the scrub on a path that was not more than a hiking path – with no guarantee of it not fizzling out.

And then I reached civilization – a competitively smooth concerte slab road. The clouds loomed dark behind.

Some other memories of today.

Tomorrow I will be checking out the famous sand dunes of Łeba, and then cycle to Hel. 🙂 Apparently both the boats and trains are not running to and from Hel. I will have to cycle back from Hel too. (Now: I expect lots of ‘hell’ jokes in the comments to this post. :-))