Bike to Asia

Day 18 (1st of May) started as sunny as the others in Bulgaria. It was worth having a rest day before, because Tihomir said that there is a lovely landscape before Elena, but he forgot to mention that after Elena there comes the worst road in Bulgaria! As you can see on the photos, the landscape was really beautiful. Hristo, our next CS host in Nova Zagora already texted us that there will be a 20 km long macadam road through the hills. The next sign was the “pass closed” sign just after Elena. We were not sure what it meant so we asked a passing car – they told that it is written there because the road quality is unacceptable for cars, but as we are on MTBs, we are OK. At this time, we thought it will be like the pass in Romania before lake Vidra. But it was much worse!

Worst road ever

Large pieces of stones, we wouldn’t even call it a road. It lasted for 16 km’s. Zsofi had to get off and push several times, even downhill, she was afraid that she will fall. The stones sometimes put the bike’s back or front 10-20 cm sideways. Zsofi bounced on the saddle. Her mood degraded exponentially with the distance covered. It was very hard to start on the rolling stones once we stopped. But I just kept riding like a robot and I liked it – this kind of road was not new to me.

Balkan mountains

It was hot and there were small flies who kept flying just in front of our face which was very annoying. On the top at 1044 m there was not even a sign marking the pass. From there, the road suddenly changed to good quality, and even if there were occasional holes, it was very delighting to roll downhill. I think that it was much better in this direction that the other: we can climb slowly anyway, but can roll down faster.

The descend was more comfortable

The road from here to Nova Zagora was quite easy. It was already dark when we arrived. Hristo was very hospitable, gave us a whole house and brought us dinner.
Day 19: we found a wifi and washed all our clothes. We started very late – only at 5 PM.
Day 20: we crossed a unique pass – it did not lead through the saddle but through the top of the hill, and we went from hilltop to hilltop for several km’s. But we really enjoyed the slope downwards. We could roll very fast without having to break – my favorite. Because we utilize our energy optimally this way.

Cycling on the runway

We were invited to two icecreams at a shop in front of which we settled down to eat our own food – just as usual. In this region, all of the shop owners are very kind and let us to eat there – something that is not so common in western Europe, for example. I can remember that in Corse, we were asked to leave when we started to eat at a table… In Svilengrad, we found a wifi in front of a Supermarket. Then crossed the BG-GR border very quickly and found a place with lots of aggressive mosquitoes just a couple of km’s after that.
Day 21: The mosquitoes did not pause – they attacked us even in the morning! Btw, we came through Greece because the direct way from Svilengrad to Edirne was a highway. Now, it turned out that we are on a highway in Greece as well (which was not indicated on the Greece map that we got on the border for free from the officer). So we took the next exit and went on smaller roads with many extra km’s. Near the Turkish border, there was an interesting river-crossing: the road suddenly disappeared and continued under the water for several hundred meters. It was not too deep, however, so we could cross – but the chains did not like the water, I think.

Paddle boat

This day we did not have to ride a long distance but even so, at the end we had to hurry not to be late – Emre, our next CS host waited for us at 17:30 in the center of Edirne. But there was a long stretch of cobbled road which slowed us down. We just arrived on the minute. I knew I dad to look for a tall guy – fortunately he noticed us and came there. He was so kind to guide us in the city and showed us all we wanted to see and helped us in everything. I bought a good hat (made of cotton) in the bazaar and a big loose shirt (made of cotton as well), in preparation for the hot days.

Old mosque in Edirne

Tags: Edirne, Elena, Nova Zagora, Svilengrad

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 9th, 2010 at 8:50 PM and is filed under Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.