We didn't cycle all the way from Cheltenham to Istabul and therefore across Europe into Asia which was our original aim. We did however manage to reach the Black Sea cycling 2496 miles in 30 days with just one rest day averaging 86 miles on each cycling day (I don't like to think about how many of these miles were in the wrong direction). We also each lived out of one pannier for this time and managed easily without the things that I might have thought important before. I have very little idea about what has been happening in the UK and across the world for the past month. Our focus has been on simpler things like getting our miles in, eating, sleeping and making sure our drink bottles are topped up. Bits have broken of been shaken off our bikes and other bits are well worn but they have served us well and kept us rolling along.
Little everyday incidents have made this a worthwhile, memorable tour. For example, on the way to Giurgiu 3 days ago, we overtook a teenager who carried a younger lad sitting on his crossbar. He decided to give chase and overtook us and then a horse and cart. The horse startled and bolted down the road. For a short while we were involved in a bizarre race between 3 groups on the road along the Danube.
I'm still hugely ignorant about the countries we have been through but I feel that we have experienced a slice of everyday life in each of them. This has sparked my interest to find out more about them in the future.
I'm very proud of the Roberts family. We have faced a few challenges and ordeals strongly with admirable solidarity and we have also had a lot of fun along the way. We have all got the bug now. We have spent this morning discussing possible future bike tours.
Thanks to everyone who has read our blog and to everyone who has posted comments. Your message have been an important inspiration to us.
We are off to Istanbul now for a normal holiday.
Barry
Monday, 17 August 2009
Day 30 Silistra to Varna - 96 miles
Today had an "end of term"feel as far as Gill and I were concerned. We just wanted to reach our tour destination without the inconvenience of turning our pedals thousands of times. Kirsty, on the other hand, was savouring her last touring day, singing as she cycled along. We made another early start setting off at 0540 to beat the sun. By 1030 we thought that it was uncomfortably hot. Long climbs followed by long descents made the going tougher. We couldn't find a place opern for breakfast until we had covered over 30 miles. As we eat our usual coffee, buns croissants and yoghurt, a Bulgarian man at the same table outside the shop tucked into his tomatoes, gherkins and tinned meat.
By the time we crawled into Dobric for lunch, each turn of the pedals seemed like a considerable effort. After a relaxing drink, a lovely meal and a sit in the shade to while away the heat of the day, we were sufficiently recovered to take on the last 30 miles. The last stretch of road was red on the map. We thought this may be OK on a Sunday afternoon but it was still a bit of a knuckle clenching experience. The final few kilometres were steeply downhill into Varna. I had to descend very gingerly as my rear brake cable had frayed and then snapped ealier in the day so I was relying on just one brake.
Varna looks like a lively, fun place for us to spend the day before we catch the night bus into Istanbul. Especially captivating are the uplit birds that circle constantly around the cathedral.
In the short time that we have spent in Bulgaria, the 3 meals 2 hotels and the people we have managed to communicate with have all been fantastic. The Bulgarians seem a bit more reserved than the Romanians but many of them still wave as we pass or hoot their horns as they pass us.
Barry
By the time we crawled into Dobric for lunch, each turn of the pedals seemed like a considerable effort. After a relaxing drink, a lovely meal and a sit in the shade to while away the heat of the day, we were sufficiently recovered to take on the last 30 miles. The last stretch of road was red on the map. We thought this may be OK on a Sunday afternoon but it was still a bit of a knuckle clenching experience. The final few kilometres were steeply downhill into Varna. I had to descend very gingerly as my rear brake cable had frayed and then snapped ealier in the day so I was relying on just one brake.
Varna looks like a lively, fun place for us to spend the day before we catch the night bus into Istanbul. Especially captivating are the uplit birds that circle constantly around the cathedral.
In the short time that we have spent in Bulgaria, the 3 meals 2 hotels and the people we have managed to communicate with have all been fantastic. The Bulgarians seem a bit more reserved than the Romanians but many of them still wave as we pass or hoot their horns as they pass us.
Barry
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Day 29 Giurgiu to Sinistra 100 miles
We had a nasty headwind slowing our progress all day, our average speed was down at 10.7 mph, we were shattered so we had more breaks than usual. We were enjoying being able to chat to people in Romania, and were starting to feel reasonably confident in our lingistic ability when we had breakfast with a lovely old chap in a village bar, he was asking where we were planning to sleep tonight and offered us a beer, we thought he was saying that his wife had died, quite embarassing. Saw Gypsy convoys, less cheery than in children's books, a horse and cart made 2 storey with 2x2 and tarpaulin, still amazing that we were passing whole communities in a few meters of road.
Trudged on painfully slowly to the ferry crossing to Bulgaria, it took all afternoon to cross a stretch of water 200m across (we were waiting for Bulgarian teenagers on a Romanian shopping spree). We had a beer in the afternoon and remembered why we are usually so austere on the tour, legs turned to jelly after a 1/2 pint, we wobbled around something terrible for 1/2 an hour. When we finally got to Bulgaria a bored customs official decided to scan our passports, he drove 300m in his merc while we were marched along by a very friendly man with a big truncheon. This also took an age so we were glad of wedding folk band were playing just down the road. Also heard folk fiddlers practising in one of the villages we passed. I pinched dad' s I-pod to get through the last 35 miles and was glad of it, it was a real grind (still had the headwind + lots of hills). Ten mins after entering the outskirts of Sinistra we had accomodation, a beer and match of the day! so it all worked out well in the end (until we realised that Villa lost 2-0 to wigan).
kirsty
Trudged on painfully slowly to the ferry crossing to Bulgaria, it took all afternoon to cross a stretch of water 200m across (we were waiting for Bulgarian teenagers on a Romanian shopping spree). We had a beer in the afternoon and remembered why we are usually so austere on the tour, legs turned to jelly after a 1/2 pint, we wobbled around something terrible for 1/2 an hour. When we finally got to Bulgaria a bored customs official decided to scan our passports, he drove 300m in his merc while we were marched along by a very friendly man with a big truncheon. This also took an age so we were glad of wedding folk band were playing just down the road. Also heard folk fiddlers practising in one of the villages we passed. I pinched dad' s I-pod to get through the last 35 miles and was glad of it, it was a real grind (still had the headwind + lots of hills). Ten mins after entering the outskirts of Sinistra we had accomodation, a beer and match of the day! so it all worked out well in the end (until we realised that Villa lost 2-0 to wigan).
kirsty
Friday, 14 August 2009
Day 28 Friday - Turno Magurele to Giurgiu - 76 Miles
More like a holiday today! We left the hotel before 6am to beat the exhausting heat. More villages along the Danube but some with grandiose houses. Pastures filled with horses, geese, goats and sheep looked like a scen from the TV adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbavilles. We arrived in Giurgiu at 1pm already starting to wobble from the heat. Had a great meal and we have booked into a classy hotel. Things are looking up!
It has taken me a few days to get used to Romania. The early days seemed a bit scary and almosy ghoulish. Now we are focussed more on the warmth, liveliness and friendliness. Even the stray dogs seem like kindred spirits - forever wandering down long roads.
Barry
It has taken me a few days to get used to Romania. The early days seemed a bit scary and almosy ghoulish. Now we are focussed more on the warmth, liveliness and friendliness. Even the stray dogs seem like kindred spirits - forever wandering down long roads.
Barry
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
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
Day 25 - Barazca to Cetate 120 miles.
We started the day on the kind of road they use in car adverts - hugging cream/gold cliffs with mountains in the background as we moved along the Danube. Drowsy, we hardly noticed how lovely it was until a good dog chase woke us up a bit. Unfortunately, we realised after a couple of miles that this wonderful road was only half built. It would degenerate into a pot-holed dirt track for a couple of miles every couple of miles. After 33 miles, we slightly desperately begged a pension owner for a cup of coffee. We ate all our turkish delight emergengy sugar ration and buzzed into Orsova totally wired. I came off my bicycle going over tram lines on a busy A road into Turno Severin and got off very lightly with grazes, bruises and a broken mudguard.
At lunch we met a French couple who were cycling towards the Black Sea. Fed up with cycling in Romania, they had decided to get the train. At that point we were almost tempted. The mad driving, poor roads, stray dogs, heat and insects have done us in a bit. Dad keeps quoting John Cooper Clarke's Health Fanatic, starting to think we may come home addicted to 'enjoying ourselves the hard way'.
We left Turno Severin after lunch expecting to do ten miles and find a bed. When we got to the town where we thought we could stay, we were told that there was nothing till Caliphat - another 60 km down the road. We psyched ourselves up for all-night riding, thinking that, by the time we got to Caliphat, everything would be long shut. Cycling into the evening darkness was brilliant. We were on the first good road we had come across in Romania. Whole villages were out on the streets. We stopped to drink cofffee in local bars and were treated like minor celebrities. We watched a man win an epic imaginary kickboxing match against the T.V. Everyone sat at the front of their houses and waved and cheered us on. Boys were racing us out of town on their bikes (they invaribly won). Shepherds on the midnight shift stopped us to chat. All in all we got a much more favourable impeseeion of Romania by night than by day.
About 25 km from Caliphat we spotted a hotel. It felt like an oasis in the desert. 120 miles in a day is quite enough and the joys of midnight riding would probably have worn thin after having to sleep in some Causescu bunker.
Kirsty
At lunch we met a French couple who were cycling towards the Black Sea. Fed up with cycling in Romania, they had decided to get the train. At that point we were almost tempted. The mad driving, poor roads, stray dogs, heat and insects have done us in a bit. Dad keeps quoting John Cooper Clarke's Health Fanatic, starting to think we may come home addicted to 'enjoying ourselves the hard way'.
We left Turno Severin after lunch expecting to do ten miles and find a bed. When we got to the town where we thought we could stay, we were told that there was nothing till Caliphat - another 60 km down the road. We psyched ourselves up for all-night riding, thinking that, by the time we got to Caliphat, everything would be long shut. Cycling into the evening darkness was brilliant. We were on the first good road we had come across in Romania. Whole villages were out on the streets. We stopped to drink cofffee in local bars and were treated like minor celebrities. We watched a man win an epic imaginary kickboxing match against the T.V. Everyone sat at the front of their houses and waved and cheered us on. Boys were racing us out of town on their bikes (they invaribly won). Shepherds on the midnight shift stopped us to chat. All in all we got a much more favourable impeseeion of Romania by night than by day.
About 25 km from Caliphat we spotted a hotel. It felt like an oasis in the desert. 120 miles in a day is quite enough and the joys of midnight riding would probably have worn thin after having to sleep in some Causescu bunker.
Kirsty
Day 24 - Risiti to Barazca
Woke up at 0330 itching madly. We were all bitten by fleas in the hotel room to the extent that Kirsty looks like a spotty adolescent.
Left the hotel at 0600a nd climbed steeply for a couple of miles to the sound of cocks crowing and dogs barking. By the time we had covered 3 miles at the outskirts of the town we had seen about 30 stray dogs, some of which decided to chase us. We had several more canine attacks as we passed through villages along our route. Beside dodging dogs, we were dodging potholes. In some places there was as much pothole as road. We also saw a dead horse lying beside the road.
After a few hours we reached the border with Serbia and then climbed for about 6 miles before decending to meet the Danube with Serbia on the opposite bank.
As we stopped for a drink in a roadside cafe, a funeral procession went by. There were about 50 mourners wearing mostly black, singing a hymn as they followed the funeral car. It was not a hearse but a black estate car decked in flowers. Strangely, for us, the coffin was open with the lid wedged alongside.
We are slipping behind our swchedule for the first time and we will have to work hard to make up the deficit over the next couple of days.
In France and Germany, we saw dozens and dozens of lycra-clad sports cyclists and lots of touring cyclists. In Romania, so far we have seen only simple bikes used for functional purposes.
Barry.
Left the hotel at 0600a nd climbed steeply for a couple of miles to the sound of cocks crowing and dogs barking. By the time we had covered 3 miles at the outskirts of the town we had seen about 30 stray dogs, some of which decided to chase us. We had several more canine attacks as we passed through villages along our route. Beside dodging dogs, we were dodging potholes. In some places there was as much pothole as road. We also saw a dead horse lying beside the road.
After a few hours we reached the border with Serbia and then climbed for about 6 miles before decending to meet the Danube with Serbia on the opposite bank.
As we stopped for a drink in a roadside cafe, a funeral procession went by. There were about 50 mourners wearing mostly black, singing a hymn as they followed the funeral car. It was not a hearse but a black estate car decked in flowers. Strangely, for us, the coffin was open with the lid wedged alongside.
We are slipping behind our swchedule for the first time and we will have to work hard to make up the deficit over the next couple of days.
In France and Germany, we saw dozens and dozens of lycra-clad sports cyclists and lots of touring cyclists. In Romania, so far we have seen only simple bikes used for functional purposes.
Barry.
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