But for now I’m down with ornithology, grab your binoculars, come follow me

The Neusiedler See is the largest steppe lake in Europe, a shallow lake prone to occasional drying out. It is surrounded by reeds and the southern half is a national park, managed jointly by Austria and Hungary.

This is not the Austria of ‘The Sound of Music’, the landscape is mostly flat with many excellent cycle routes that anyone can manage: We covered 70 kms, about half of this in Hungary. Access to the lake shore is very limited, as the reeds are protected for the wildlife. However, there are many large ponds and streams and we saw Avocets, Great White Egrets, Black-winged Stilt, Redshanks and Red-backed Shrike. Although this is a national park, it is also good agricultural land and we cycled past vines, polytunnels of peppers and tomatoes and fields of sunflowers and pumpkins.