DAY SIXTEEN… 48 miles (77 km)

10.30am…  We are sitting in a children’s play area, near a town hall. We often sit in children’s play areas or churches as we can find seats there. Loud Romanian music is coming from the town hall. Its some kind of festival. Tim has gone in to look for a toilet.

Morning view from out hotel balcony
Horses don’t need petrol, just water & love.
Alysun learning to fly. Maybe easier than cycling ?

6.30pm… Searing temperatures of 35 degrees today, coupled with a head wind of 15mph quickly put us off the idea of a 20mile ride to Ruse. Decided instead to head for a ferry place where we could cross into Bulgaria and stay for the night. On arrival, wondered about hitching a lift to Ruse in a van. Tried this for 45 mins to no avail as there were almost no vans passing. Our short chat with the Police assured us that we could not get a lift with the school bus or any bus, for that matter. There was no train, so, in the end we decided to continue cycling toward Ruse for a bit, along the Romanian banks of the Danube and then look for a place to camp.

We’ve just found the spot. It’s a village market area. We like camping near civilisation for protection. We’ve been given permission to camp here by a very drunk village elder. There is water here and tables too but unfortunately there is also a very good and very loud sound system which has just started up its sound check. Tim has gone to investigate! Apparently, it the sound system is for  a wedding and it will go on for 10 hours (all night) at full volume; my idea of hell. We moved our tent as far away from it as possible, but it really doesn’t make that much difference.

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