Drum Bun Romania
We arrived in Romania one week ago and tomorrow we cross the border into Bulgaria.
After a couple of days in Bucureşti we have spent our time in south west Romania cycling through small towns and villages following EuroVelo 6 - the Black Sea Route. This section of EuroVelo 6 is still under development so apart from a blissful 5 kms on Day 3 (see above) we have been on the main road. Romanians drive fast - but as the road is also used by local meandering cyclists, farm vehicles, pedestrians and horse drawn carts - they make room.
In many Romanian tourist brochures you will see pictures of the beautiful mountains in the north - the south is very flat so though sad we didn’t get to see mountains I am glad we didn’t have to cycle them this early on our tour!
Things we will remember from Romania - apart from it being our first country on this adventure. The people - though they don’t walk around with a ready smile - when they do smile it is big and warm. Also they are always ready to assist and give advice ... quite persistently at times even when it is clear we cannot speak Romanian. They also don’t mind staring and laughing openly at two heavily laden cycle tourers as they zoom by on their light weight bike. Mostly we will be forever grateful to Adrian - a friend of a friend who picked us up at the airport and persisted until our big bike boxes were ‘secure’ in his small car for the drive to our accommodation.
Also accommodation is very cheap - between AUD$40-$50 per night including breakfast - so we have not camped... that will wait until Serbia. We have been hosted by some wonderful people - particularly Daniel & Ionelle in their ‘Rustic House’. As well as breakfast we were treated to a delicious 3 course dinner - and Daniel fixed my bike! Also our last host here in Bechet came out on the street to welcome us.... and straight away took us to a place to secure our bikes.
As we pass through villages we’ve been fascinated by the bench seats in front of many of the houses... often an elderly Romanian - a man wearing a cap or a woman in a headscarf sits there. We get ‘Ola, Ola’, Salut, Bonjour or hello and a wave. We saw lots of young children on our first day.... many running up to us to give a high five as we passed ....we only saw teenagers on the last day which may indicate the area is quite depopulated.
The landscape is quite flat and dry and the weather much warmer than we thought it would be - mid to high 20’s by the afternoon. One of the fears in cycling is being chased by dogs. Happily the dogs of Romania barely give us a glance as we cycle past.
We really needed our rest day after our 4th full cycling day as Peter has come down with a heavy cold. Ahead is a couple of easy days in Bulgaria (though we are a bit apprehensive about our first border crossings on bikes) before we cycle to lovely Serbia.
I know it is early but some stats:
Lost - 1 Drink bottle - Leigh, 1 glove - Leigh
Puncture - Peter 1, Leigh 0
Dog attack - Peter 1 (with teeth marks to show for it)
There have been lots of learnings but only one near disaster....
Leigh cycling off from a market stop realised she had left her wallet sitting on her back panniers ... saved. After we gave ourselves a stern talking to we set off again ... 500 metres on we cycled over railway tracks ... there was a crash then a cry as a woman dashed out in front of a truck to save Leigh’s helmet ... that had also been just sitting on the back panniers!!! So we now have instilled a full check list before we set off from any stop!!!
