Suhaia Romania to Ruse Bulgaria - 93km 58mi
22 October, 2023
We left sharpish after our 'Breakfast of Champions'! Paul first, me 20mins later after a chat with our lovely host Gabriel. His family had a sad event to attend to today, so his entire family was there, bar one grand parent. I got to meet his father, and Paul had a chat with his wife. Gabriel's father was most interested in our trek!
We headed further east towards Zimenica when Gabriel and his family drove past, tooting furiously and waving as they passed!
Being Sunday, people were out everywhere, on foot, on their own personalised benches in front of their homes (Numero Uno pastime for the Romanian elderly!), on mobility scooters, on tractors, you name it, and all chirpier than normal!
One old lady had such a warm expressive face that I simply had to turn around, cycle back, and ask to have a picture with her that she immediately agreed too! The tractor driver and I exchanged waves and smiles 3 times! Paul tucked in behind the mobility scooter and drafted him long enough for me to get a funny video! Ultimately, we stopped for coffee in some small village and sat down with numerous locals to pass the time of day. A young French couple cycled past and did a double take at us in this most incongruous scene of two long distance cyclists sitting down with the locals and treating them as the locals do, 'Bravo, bravo, bon chance!', we shouted!!
We found this delightful young French couple about an hour later whilst they were repairing a puncture! As we approached they called out a warning to us of tyre piercing thorns.... but too late.... Paul was lucky as he remained on the tarmac, I picked up no less than 15 thorns between the front and back tyre. The front being more lightly loaded was OK and I carefully plucked the thorns from it, but the rear was 'bleeding' sealant from two 'stab wounds'!! Thankfully my recent sealant topping F1 style pitstop with Iulica stood me in good stead, and both wounds quickly heeled with virtually no loss of air!
Leo and Amelie (French couple!), have followed the Danube from the source to here as we've done. They're both newly graduated and awaiting to start jobs in January, and as such are out for a trek. After Ruse they're heading south into the Bulgarian interior towards Thessalonika in Greece before turning for home in Nice, via the Balkan countries, and northern Italy. They're having a spot of bike trouble at the moment, so we offered some advice that we hope will help them out!
Our river crossing this afternoon from Guirgui, in Romania to Ruse, in Bulgaria was another 'white knuckle' job for sure!! One lane in each direction and we were in competition with cars, buses, and trucks!! As vehicles would approach simultaneously from both directions, I would move out to take a 'commanding' position (well, as best as a bicycle can, with an 18 wheel articulated juggernaut bearing down on it) with left arm high in the air trying to make us look a real force to be reckoned with!! To be honest, they were really good about it, bar one dopey car driver who insisted on passing us unsafely on the downhill finish whilst we were doing nearly 30km/hr!! C'est la vie in Balkan Europe.
Once safely off the bridge we found a bite to eat, then made for our accommodation for the night. A very(!) nice boutiquey hotel with full working kitchen, right in town for €36pn for a twin room!! Very reasonable indeed!!
With my neck and Paul's knee playing up badly we both collapsed in a heap on our beds for a nap before heading into the city center for a bit of sightseeing, and dinner!!
So glad of our pending rest day as we've cycled every day for the last 15 days without a full day's break covering a distance of over 750miles from Budapest to Ruse!😳🤙
We bid you farewell at T-4days of Mission Impossible made Possible!
🤞&🙏
Doug&Paul
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