Days 26 and 27 - Cetate to Turnu Magurele (124 and 20 miles)

We left the hoel to lovely rain and clouds. Unfortunately, Kirsty got the first puncture of the tour - not surprising given the state of our well worn tyres.

All day we passed through villages strung out along the Danube. We were cheered along by lots of locals as we went. Children ran into the roaqd to give us high-fives as we passed. The young folk look lik trendy western Europeans. The old folk look as they probably did generations ago. We were wondering if today's younger generation will end up with the same weather beaten look. There were as many horses as cars, some left outside bars like in a western, some ridden by young lads standing up while holding the reins circus style. Many of the carts were piled up with water melons. We also saw a few gypsy caravans. The fields in between the villages were mostly growing maize and sunflowers.

Each village has a local shop and a bar, but without cooking facilities, we were unable to get away from sugar snack food which eventually results in low blood sugar when you are riding all day.

There were no hotels or lodgings in any of the villages except for one grotty exception. Rather than risk moree flea bites which have plagued Gill and Kirsty for the last few days, we pressed on and covered another 30 miles ending up in Corabia just before midnight. One hotel was locked up for the night and we couldn't find the other so we went to a nightclun until 1 am and then tried to rest on a park bench for a while to the sound of stray dogs howling and barking.

One local (a bit drunk) went to extraordinary lengths to try and get us a place to stay. We spoke in Spanish. I found it difficult to accept his unconditiional hospitality without a degree of suspicion.

This night we have seen both a big red moon and then a red sun rise in the sky - a clear sign of too many miles at night, We cycled on at 5 am to Turnu Magurele and booked in early to a hotel so that we can rest, recover and eat well before the final push to the Black Sea.

We have decided to cycle to Varna and try and take a ferry to Istanbul. Everyone has advised us not to try and cycle into Istanbul and our recent memory of cycling into Budapest has inclined us to agree. This trip has ranged from holiday to challenge to ordeal at different times. We are now trying to make decisions that will swing the end of the tour more into holiday mode.We have covered the same distance as Land's End to John O' Groats and back again. We haave roughly the saame distance as Land's End to Cheltenham still to travel.

Barry