DAYRIDE 2019_02

“THE INDUSTRIEVIERTEL RIDE”

Like my last day ride, the “WEINVIERTEL RIDE”, this day rides route is located in the state Lower Austria and went mostly through the “Industrieviertel” (= English: “Industrial Quarter).
I planned a good amount of the route along gravel, which wasn’t that easy, because the Industrieviertel is dense populated. But hey! Чернотa is a Dual-Sport-Motorcycle so its also able to handle some tarmac when necessary. So, here’s the report of this fine day of riding …

After starting in Vienna we followed some gravel tracks, til we reached the calm hills and woods near Mattersburg. There we rode along easy wood logging tracks and entered the region “Buckelige Welt”, which is a hilly landscape in south-eastern Lower Austria.
Near the Mountain “Semmering” we turned our direction of movement and hit back to Vienna. For all locals probably an easy peasy riding round, but because of following mostly tiny streets and tracks surely not the “usual known business”. So lets start!

Чернотa and I initiated our tour at the southern edge of Vienna. This shot was taken on an overpass, which I often use for avoiding boring tarmac roads. Riding along some …

fast gravel is way more exciting! Also the …

huge already harvested fields aside the track gave me nice panoramic view. The day was a real beauty and temperatures have been high in the low thirtys. Чернотa and I followed a while …

some rails southwards. The farther south we went, the more …

remote got our closer surrounding. In this shady forest also the temperatures have been fine, so …

we made a break here at this abandoned ruin of an old house, which was already overgrown by nature. I made …

a closer look. It was obvious that this house was deserted decades ago. Because I really like such places I looked a bit around in this old ruin. I found a …

small cellar entrance which wasn’t that easy to climb down with the sturdy motorcycle boots. But I made it. Down there, was only one small room, half filled with soil, rotten planks, and …

with a tiny window on the opposite wall. No treasure, old wine, body parts or equal. *yawn*
I went back up to the ground floor.

There was only one big room which was overgrown with small trees and ivy. During walking through this old remnants questions like: “What was the reason for this builing in the woods? Why was only one window cross barred? What happened here? …”, came up in my mind. O_o

It won’t take long …

until mother nature will take down also this last resisting …

remnants of this manmade object.

The ride went on and got a bit muddy before we came back to the huge …

plains in the west of the city Eisenstadt. There nearby, close to a small village …

called “Eggendorf” is a huge Gas-Compressor-Station located. It is part of the TAG (Trans-Austrian-Gas-Pipeline) and ensures Austrias gas demand.

Whilst riding further, calm hills showed up at the horizon. Because it was July, which meant, that it was harvesting time, many…

large bales of straw accompanied us. After passing this …

narrow bottleneck …

we found some street art on a parked carriage. Finally, we reached a bit more of native nature when we entered the woods and hills, eastwards of the city “Mattersburg”.

I often see such bee-hieves during my rideouts. Each time I try to pass them pretty slow with low revs, because it seems bees get very angry when a corny thumper comes around the corner, which is setting the whole air in the area under vibrations. By the way: I surely have been stung seven to ten times within the last ten years of riding from insects like wasps, hornets and bees. Most of the time somewhere around the neck- or the rib- or arm area of my body. Somehow, especially during the hot summer months, while riding with wide open vents, those insects get it managed to slip under my motorcycle clothes. Luckily I’m not allergic, what surely could be a real big problem being alone out in remote areas.

I stopped in a small gravel pit aside the track for a slug of water. The route here around the hills of Mattersburg followed …

some easy gravel, …

old overgrown wet tracks, and …

went nearby the old witches house (she was obviously bringing out the carpet). We left the woods and found ourselves in …

an area of Austria, which is called: “The buckelige Welt” which means in English something like “The Hilly World”. We took one hill …

after another. Riding those little backcountry roads is really fun. Especially because the quality of tarmac is great and the view to the incoming curves and traffic also. So driving a light motorcycle gets very dynamic. It was a real pleasure to play with the throttle and banging the gears. The LC4 braapt a lot along this little roads! ^_^

This road full of bends which …

is located close to the village “Schwarzenbach“, is probably the most photographed road in Austria. –> The reason for that is, that Austrias motorcycle journalists often test their bikes here. The curves and tarmac are top notch and there is plenty of space nearby nearly each bend for setting up the camera equipment.

Along some hard packed …

gravel our ride through the land of thousand hills continued.

I intended to have a small snack at this bench and table, but that wasn’t possible due to fresh paint work. So I ate my standard snack whilst riding, which contains a small selection of nuts, whilst walking a few meters around this nice point of view.

After the brake we passed by the “Wind-Science-Park”. It’s located near the village Lichtenegg. Visitors can have a closer look to a big wind power plant. Regularly also new wind-power-plants where mounted, which get tested at this windy spot in Lower Austria. Here a few pics of that area found in the www: –> CLICK <–

The further we rode on …

westwards, …

the more clouds came up.

My black beauty and I avoided a second time this day the motorway.

While we fled from the rain promising dark clouds, we passed …

the old “Castle Feistritz” and hit further …

northwards. Back to the big city, along …

sweet backcountry roads and a few …

already mowed meadows.

We rode through a nice plain, …

at the feet of a mountain plateau called “Hohe Wand”.

Due to a closed gate, which we hadn’t on the schedule, …

Чернотa and I had to make a little detour, which was bringing us near to the village “Dreistetten”.

The trees on the left hand side had some deep scars in their bark.

Whilst riding through this area, I noticed massive scars at the bark of some trees. A web search showed, that these scars are the result of the work of the dying profession: “Resin Collector”.
People which are working in this job, where constant cutting deep scars into assorted pine trees. The trees reacting to that wound and try to heal it with the production of resin to cover the wounds. That resin gets collected and is/was used as burning material, for cosmetica, shoe creme, … . I found a website where you can find more info about that old and dying business: –> CLICK <–

*Meh! Meh! Meh!*

After 295 km or 180 mi we arrived our starting point Vienna.

Overall I have to say about this ride: The main problem is the dense population of the whole area. Most of the gravel tracks in the less populated southeastern part of Lower Austria belongs to farmers or is generally marked as a private area. So most of the time I was not possible to follow my pre-planned route and had to elude such parts of the track. I’m not gutless but the penalties for the disturbance of private property are really expensive in Austria. So its better to stay away from such tracks as long as you are not allowed by the owner to ride them.
That’s surely also one of the reasons why there is since nearly four years no TET-track for Austria. Way too many restrictions due to private properties laws and also very restrictive law regarding entering Austrias public woods.

:-/