UNCLE BULGARIA HERE WE COME

We left Poland in a blaze of sunshine! We crossed the border into Slovakia through the mountains. The area is a ski resort and the roads were real fun. Into Slovakia we continued to be blessed with lovely scenery and weather.  The last time we travelled through Slovakia we stuck to the motorway – boring – but this time it was a real treat. Into Hungary and the weather and temperature took a nose dive. Thankfully we didn’t have to far to ride to reach our destination for that evening – Magyar Route 66 Biker Guesthouse and Campsite. The site is in Szilvasvarad and is run by a Dutch guy called Leen. When we arrived, he was out taking his Hungarian visitors on a bike tour but arrived shortly after.   The site has a swimming pool, a bar area, a grill area – it has everything you need! Leen brought us a welcome beer and after tea we joined him and his friends for a drink. We were given a shot of some Hungarian drink. They only gave us a small shot, which I think was wise!

In the morning, we set off in our waterproofs as it was still damp and cold. We headed straight for Romania. Just through the border and we met a couple with familiar accents – they were originally from Consett - just down the road from Sunderland.  Romania is a beautiful country. It also has a lot of stray dogs roaming around. They tend to ignore cars but for some reason the sound of the bike must anger/excite them and they chase you. Now that may sound funny but having experienced it the last time we were in Romania, it can be quite daunting. Having a barking hound chasing you – you’re trying to get away from the dog, watch the road, watch the Romanian drivers, not get the dog under your wheels.  On one occasion this time I thought the dog was going to leap onto the sidecar! On the other side, some of them are quite cute and I forget that they are manky and stroke them (then wash my hands). With the amount of dogs roaming around there is the inevitable road deaths and I still find it difficult when we see dead dogs lying at the side of the road.

The Transfagarasan Pass was beckoning and we stayed at a campsite just a few km north of the start.  The campsite owner told us the pass was shut. It was due to open on 15^th May (the next day) but it was staying shut longer. We went up anyway and as expected the ‘closed’ sign was up. We spoke to one of the souvenir shop owners and he said it was closed due to snow further up but that we could go up and take a few photos then come down so that’s what we did and it was well worth it. The road was littered with rock falls and snow was covering half the road in places but the views are out of this world. We got up to just over 5000 feet before rounding a corner and being met with snow on both sides of the road. It had been cleared but snow had slipped from higher up and came down and blocked the road again.  This now means we will have to come back to Romania at a later date so we can do the pass.

 

 Leaving Romania we had torrential rain accompanied by lightning – beautiful but a wee bit scary too! As we entered Bulgaria there was no let up in the weather and it continued all the way to Moto camp Bulgaria in Idilevo, where we were meeting up with Will. By the time we arrived there the thunder was also filling the air. I don’t think I’ve experienced thunder and lightning that went on for so long. We were greeted by Polly, Ivo and Peach and of course Will. Polly put the heater on in our room while we had a cuppa to warm up and we enjoyed our first evening in Bulgaria in lovely company. We are hoping also to catch up with some other friends while we are here but they have had real weather problems coming down the other side of Europe,  Darren and Leigh have had their tent wrecked in the storms – so not sure if we’ll see them or not. Belle and Nads were to be coming here but have had to change their route after being stuck in Sarajevo due to snow so hopefully we’ll catch up with them in Istanbul.