First sight of Romania

Kamentsi to Silistra – about 40 miles. Sat back in the bike making sure I had taken as many pills as allowed and took it slowly at first. But confidence came flooding back and had a great ride – at times a little dull along stretches of main road but a couple of great highlights. Breakfast was great – buffalo yoghurt, honey, nuts, dried plums and Deyan and Svestro had cycled 22km to bring us fresh baked Bulgarian pastries…

We then cycled to Badjaliyata – a Thracian rock sanctuary along the Taban dry valley canyon. We climbed up to the cave which provided a great photo opportunity for a “man cave” shot.

We then stopped for a shepherds lunch, prepared by the boys – and finished up the pastries from breakfast.

After lunch, we cycled on to Medjidi Tabiya fort – just outside Silistra – a room for every war that has taken place since the Crimean Deyan knows his history inside out and it’s very complicated – I get a bit lost but the uniforms looked good. Leaving the fort we had our first glimpse of Romania just the other side of the Danube – great feeling.

Other great moments today included picking apricots from an orchard and eating them – the ones in the ground are the sweetest. We passed some large communist monuments in a park that had been abandoned – like many buildings we see, abandonment is ever present.

Dinner was at a local fish restaurant on the Danube. We tried many different types of fish including fish soup (today was fish soup festival), Danube white fish, caviar and some weird crispy fish…