Leg 1 All Done
So here I am sitting in a cabin at the start of the mountains in Western Romania, the joys of 3G internet access. I am staying with my friends at the charity NetWorks (who are one of the charities I’m raising money for). So far I’ve managed to pedal about 1600 miles through 10 countries and that’s the end of what I’ve deemed to be Leg 1. It feels pretty good.
The week has been a good one with 5 days of riding and 4 wild camp spots between Lublin and my break here in Romania. It has seen me ride through hilly southern Poland, even more hilly Slovakia (although I did get a whole hour of downhill in the sunset after the border including switchbacks, which was great), Hungary where bikes aren’t particularly welcome on the roads and then finally into Romania where the roads are quite simply rubbish!
On the morning of my last day I woke up in the worst and most exposed camp spot I’ve managed to find due to the lack of any decent clumps of trees and bushes here in Romania. I’ve had big forests of evergreens up until now, which has maybe been a luxury that I’ll enjoy less venturing into hotter southern Europe. I also woke to the sound of light rain on the tent - I thought I’d managed to avoid the rain and storms the previous day and left them behind in Hungary. I set off and it was only drizzle so nothing too bad, until I got into the city of Oradea where the heavens opened and I got my first drenching since back in Riga.
However, what started off as a bad day got much better. It brightened up after an hour and the miles were dissappearing quickly on flat (but badly potholed/patched up) roads. I only had 130km (80 miles) to do that day as opposed to the 150-160km (100 miles) I’d been doing the rest of that week so it felt like an easy day. By lunchtime it was hot, hot, hot again at 35 degrees and I stopped for a cheap bowl of pasta in a restaurant as a treat. It was very strange arriving into Siria, the village where NetWorks is based, because other than Glasgow it is the only place I’ll roll into where I’m already very familiar with it. I’ve visited this part of Romania many times over the past 5 years as one of my good friends Nigel works out here. I could see landmarks of where I was headed from 20 miles away and the last hour or so I willed the village to appear round every corner.
But I’ve made it and had two days off to rest, eat, do my washing and give the bike some TLC after the bad roads and rain. Back on the road again now, Croatia is the target for the end of the week and I should get my next rest day in Split on Friday.
Blogged in Romania