Day 1 22^nd July 2008 Budapest.

Arrived late into Budapest Airport thanks to a fire alarm (false) evacuating terminal 1 in Manchester. Brought rain with me!

Jet 2.com have dropped their baggage weight allowance and not told anyone! To 18kg. So I got caught at 19.7kg, or £12 extra. They won’t get me on the way back.

Forgot to deflate my tyres and no-one said a word. Then I watched the baggage handlers throw my pride and joy into the luggage hold. Now I know why they have triple glazing. So that the monkey handling the bags can’t hear you screaming at him.

Got to pre-booked hostel more by luck than planning plus good directions from the locals. Shared room with 4 lads and room was quiet until 3.30am when they staggered in, 30 mins later the snoring started. Even “cycleman” had met his match!! By 5.30am I could stand it no more and had to sleep in the kitchen.

Day 2 23^rd July 125km Bekescaba-Aldesti.

Caught train to Romanian border some 250km away for @ £8. No place for the bike though, a jobsworth on the Czech sleeper train almost threw me and bike off the train. It was in the gangway with nowhere else for it to go. He orders me off his section of the train so I told him “not ‘til you ask me nicely” he managed a ‘please’ a few tries later!

Pitched in the pouring rain tonight at side of the road. Not a good start, until home owner opposite came over with a cup of hot milk. Brilliant!

Day 3 24^th July 160km Aldesti-Hateg.

4km down the road from my impromptu campsite was a newly opened Hotel! 35 euros a night, I’d have paid it too. Anyway i had breakfast and set off for Verifule 56km away where i had planned to stop that night. Made it by 12.30. Apparently “pensiunea” are 18 leu/£5 a night , i found out later they are a bit more than that.

Here we go again, can’t find a hotel, pensiunea, or even a campsite. This was to be a familiar event in Romania, so i was still going at what I thought was 9pm at night only to discover they are 2 hours in front of us. So it’s now 10pm local time when a white van pulls up the driver gets out and starts talking in English asking me where I’m going, nearest hotel i say, get in he says and I’ll drive you.

Oh yeah I thought and once my bike is in the back you nip round the front and set off! But no he walks round to the drivers’ side turns off the engine and helps me load the bike into his van. We set off for a 16km ride to the nearest pensiunea, in the pitch dark don’t forget, and that’s it he drops me off, haggles the price down for me too to 80 leu/@£20 and shakes my hand and vanishes. Another friendly local! He did leave me with some cautionary tales about the Romanians though.

Day 4 25^th July 170km Hateg-Irzvaralene.

Bad drivers trying to leave a coat of paint on my left arm, packs of wild dogs attacking me and to top it all it’s raining! But i did manage to find a pensiunea for 50 ROL. As I write this all my washing is drying in the line, about time too. Just hope it doesn’t rain tonight!

Day5 26^th July 142km Irzvaralene-Miria (Bulgaria)

I was quoted one price last night for the room and this morning it’s doubled. Let’s rip off the tourist??? Wrong tourist! He’s notoriously cheap and will not be ripped off! After some haggling we settled on 10 lei over the price I was quoted. To all you readers £10 is £10 I don’t care what part of the world I’m in. Packs of wild dogs love chasing the bike but don’t like the kick they get when in range! Saw loads of gypsy horse and carts today.

Same on Bulgarian side too. No campsite again, but I did find a nice motel room and breakfast for £18. 32 deg all day until 8.15 pm when the heavens opened.

Day 6 27^th July 152km Miria-Troyan

Yet again I seem to have underestimated the mileage (or kilometres if you prefer). I was now 20km short of my planned stop and nowhere to sleep!!

Today hit 38 deg.

Terrible road surfaces and the standard of driving was atrocious. It was almost impossible to look at the scenery because I had to look out for potholes all the time.

Roadside again then. But tonight no amount of traffic noise was going to stop me sleeping I was so tired.

Day 7 28^th July 106km Troyan- Kalofet.

Raining at 6.30am but stopped before I de-camped. Just as I’d finally managed to dry out my tent too. Mountains today and into a headwind for 15km downhill. Soul destroying!

Have just done 25km uphill into the rain and low lying clouds-couldn’t see a thing past 10 yds. So no photo opportunity at the top. Then on the way down, 25km also, I managed to stop and take a few pics of the valley floor so the effort of climbing for the view wasn’t entirely wasted.

That last 50km took me 4 and a half hours. So a slow one today with not much distance covered. Looks like I won’t be having a day off in Bucharest after all, I’ll be using it to catch up on my planned route.

Met a restaurant owner who put me onto sachets of lemon tea—absolutely brilliant—if I can find a packet of these it’s bye bye tetleys tea bags for the trip.

No campsite found or b/b or hotel so guess where I’m stopping tonight?

Day 8 29^th July 143km Kalofet-Veliko Taranovo.

Another 20km climb thankfully dry this time tho’ at the top I met another cyclist who worked at a hostel in V. Taranovo, he gave me a brochure and said he was working that night but was getting the train back and would see me later.

Came across an accident on the way down, well it had to happen sooner or later the way these idiots drive. Car ran into the side of an artic’ on a bend made a right mess of the front of the car.oil everywhere, huge traffic jam both ways but no one hurt tho’.

Great hostel when I found it, cheap too with the first beer on the house!

As I was approaching the town centre 5 other people also asked me if I needed a room that night. Work was very scarce I found out later. A very poor part of Bulgaria.

Day 9 30^th July 120km Veliko Taranovo-Svaristov (Bulgaria/Romania border)

I have cycled here in temps of 46 degrees only to find I have missed the last ferry of the day. To say I am upset is mild. Pxxxxd off would be nearer. So I’m camping wild near the ferry terminal and I will catch the 7.30am ferry tomorrow. I should have been in a place called Rosiori de vede in Romania today, then travelling to Bucharest and doing the touristy bit.... anyway I hear it’s a scruffy old place and not worth seeing, I hear this from an English speaking barman who is serving my liquid supper! So I am not too disappointed. However the kilometres I will have to make up don’t bear thinking about.

Day 10 31^st July 132km Svaristov-Ungheni (Romania).

Starting 70km behind schedule today and a day behind too. However at the end of today I’m 60km up so we’re ok.

49 DEGREES TODAY AND I GOT IT ON PICTURE!!!!!

I have never been so hot in my life, it felt like I was the only living thing daft enough to be moving in the sun. I stopped at a bar for a beer late in the evening and was taking pictures of some of the oldest working bikes I have ever seen when the locals of the bar invited me to their BBQ then they wouldn’t let me buy a beer and also bought me whiskey as well!!

Plus I was invited to stay in one of the village houses for a change. It was so basic I just couldn’t believe people could live like that. No running water, the loo was a hole in the ground in the corner of the farmyard where the goats were and they also had geese, hens, and a huge veg’ garden.

Had a huge breakfast next day, took loads of pictures, said my goodbyes and set off. Wiser for the experience.

Day 11 1^st August 153km Ungheni-Compana.

Worst part of the trip yet 12km through built up area, only one set of traffic lights per 5 junctions, far too dangerous for cars never mind touring bikes. I just had to be brave and force traffic to give way! Had to or I’d have been forced into the ditch.

Bad road surface isn’t helping either, just makes progress slow.

Should be a mountain top roadside camp tonight. Still I’m back on schedule so that’s the main thing, I have to make Budapest by the 7^th.

Invited by other Romanian campers to join them for a couple of beers at the end of today’s ride!

Strange thing, one of their women seems to think that there is a better campsite 15km in the direction from which I have just come, I tell them that I didn’t see anywhere or I’d have been there myself, anyway they all packed their cars and vans and left me on my own. Then later that night I thought someone was trying to steal my bike—scary thought—but it turned out to be some wild animal just after what food it could steal from me.

Won’t be leaving any more food outside the tent after that episode I can tell you.

Day 12 2^nd August 108km Compana-Sibiu.

Apparently I’ve got a 27km climb today.... oooh I’m scared! But I’m 57km ahead of schedule so I’m not at all worried. But it was on badly surfaced roads again.

What an absolute bxxxxxd of a climb!!!!!!!! 27km took me 4hrs 20mins and there was, wait for it, a traffic jam at the top!! But what a view at the top. It seemed that everyone who had a car was up that mountain today.

Sunburn’s coming along nicely. Got a pensiunea tonight. Why not? I’ve not showered or shaved in 3 days. Clothes needed washing too.

Day 13 3^rd August 132km Sibiu-Abrud.

The first 55km was flat then it went vertical! 40 degrees average, what a Sunday.

But today I found Romania’s only campsite 5 leu per person /£1.30. Beat that campers.

Met a great couple of German cyclists going in the opposite direction and also camping at the campsite so over a few beers we swapped horror stories of what the other could expect on their journey..... I won.

Day 14 4^th August 140km Abrud-Dragesti.

40 degrees in the mountains again. 65km took over 6 hours!! I just didn’t have the energy to move at times especially when there was no shade. A bit of downhill—20km—was dangerous, badly surfaced roads, and half the potholes were hidden by the shadows from the trees. I needed to see the potholes coming especially at speeds of 60kph.

Roadside campsite again getting to be a habit.

Day 15 5^th August 120km Dragesti(Romania)-Puspokladany(Hungary).

Camped 40km from border last night, so only a total of 250km to go, 2 and a half days to do it in.

Pan flat and into a headwind for 60km past the Romanian/Hungarian border, what a strength sapper. But hey I’ve found another proper campsite marked on the map.

A bit flat and boring today so not many photos.

Day16 6^th August 147km Puspokladany-Manor.

Pan flat again and quite a hard day, non stop pedalling, no downhill sections to take a rest.

After 135km I did learn that I was not allowed to have been on that section of road!! Also banned were farm tractors and horse drawn vehicles. I just thought all the lorry drivers were being obnoxious by driving so close, not so the Austrian lorry driver who pointed this out to me....oops I didn’t know.

Passed the 2000km point in 15 days of cycling today so well pleased with that.

Only 30-35kms to the airport tomorrow and home on the 7pm flight.

So not a bad trip all things considered only bad thing was the gangs of gypsy kids who tried to push my bike under the following traffic!!!! Wish I’d been carrying a birch rod, I’d have used it. Don’t think they’d have been laughing so much then!