Journey's End - Shed a Tear

Journey's End - Gavdos. We don't look ever so chuffed do we?

The Old Wreck In Athens (and the Acropolis)

Ready to Go Home - Bless Her!!

Early Morning Arrival In Hania, Crete

30 & 31 August 2008

Saturday 30 August 2008.

The return overnight ferry from Crete arrived back in Pireus, Athens late at 08:30 and the disembarkation took another 45 mins to complete.

We hustled our way out of the port and cycled the couple of miles back into Pireus centre and onto the hotel.

We'd arranged an early check in and we were soon ensconced in our room making full use of the facilities after two days and nights on the go without access to showers etc.

Quick sprint through breakfast and then spent a few hours discharging a few chores.

Later in the day, we took the Metro into central Athens to have a bit of a touristy gander at all the sights.

After a waddle around the Acropolis etc in the heat of the afternoon, we had an early dinner in the city centre then Metro'd back to Pireas to complete our preparation for a very early departure back to Blighty tomorrow morning.

Sunday 31 August 2008.

We were up and at em at 01:30 in order to get to the airport for an 05:30 CrappyJet flight to Luton.

We'd arranged 'special' transport to the airport in the shape of a 14 seater minibus hired just for us.... Seems there are no people carrier type taxis in Athens that could do the job and we couldn't squash Disharmony II into a normal sized car.

The ride to the airport was uneventful and we soon bound up to the deserted CrappyJet check-in like a couple of excited schoolkids.

How we laughed when the check-in clerk welcomed us with the fateful phrase 'You do know the flight has been cancelled don't you....?'

Errrrrrr, well, we didn't.

Apparently, the poor lambs who were charged with getting the inbound aircraft to Athens felt a bit poorly and EasyJet were unable to find alternate staff.

We transferred our booking to the next available flight that was arranged to depart at 13:30 to appease the disgruntled passengers.

To their credit, EasyJet organised very nice accommodation for us at the airport and we were able to catch a few more zeds in plush surroundings before scoffing a complimentary 'EasyBrek'.

The revised flight left more or less on time and with little drama we finally arrived into Luton at 15:45.

We'd planned to ride the 60 miles from Luton to Peterborough but, in light of the British summer (and a severe shortage of 'get up and go' on our part) this was quickly revised to plan 'B' that had us taxiing to Stevenage and then taking the National Express East Coast mainline train to sunny Peterborough.

Within an hour or so, we were once again twiddling along in the Polish Fenland enclave that is Peterborough. Bit dull, bit drab but nearly home.... Aaaaaand rest...........

Epilogue

We were away for a total of 74 days, 60 of those in the saddle. Luckily we only suffered 3 complete days of rain and largely dodged most of the other major showers and cloud bursts.

We cycled 3785 miles, climbed a total of 33060 metres and in doing so, burnt off 231013 calories (the odd 13 being VERY important).

The journey took us through the 12 countries of Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece.

During the journey, Disharmony II consumed 6 chains, 2 tyres, 2 wheel rims, 3 chainrings, 1 cassette, 2 brake blocks, 2 inner tubes and suffered a total of 6 punctures. We had no major mechanical disasters that couldn't be bodged by the roadside.

Miles & Tracey suffered two falls (one quite serious) no submissions and no refusals. We also consumed well over 100 choccy bars, 25kg of CAKE and over 400 litres of pop! However, we failed to tally the ice lollies but we're probably well into triple digits!

We managed to avoid contracting any serious diseases or infections from some of the less salubrious places we ended up staying though watch this space for further developments....

Tick count for the trip - zero.

This is the final instalment of the 2008 Goff Euro End to End odyssey. As usual, comments, leg pulling or ribald commentary welcome. Any sensible questions or points, please go ahead and raise.

No more Southerly ramblings to follow.

Miles & Tracey.

28 & 29 August 2008

Thursday 28 August 2008

Logistics and prep day in Athens/Pireus, Greece.

Late breakfast at out swanky hotel followed by a number of chores. Had a quick march around the area to a bike shop and bank. Came out of both empty handed.

Later took a taxi around to the 'far side' AKA Kestella. We landed in the small port of Mikrolimano and spent a very pleasant afternoon having a long lunch and people watching from a pavement café.

At around 21:00, returned to the hotel to pick up Disharmony II and a minimalists dream of one very light pannier.

Off we trotted to the port to catch the overnight Pireus to Crete ferry.

Well, we've done our fair share of ferry travel over the years but never like this one, not even in the third world.

The quayside was utter, utter bedlam.

As the ferry was being unloaded it was simultaneously being loaded - via the same ramp. HGV's mixed freely with pedestrians and anyone who fancied wandering up the ramp did so.

How we ever embarked and left without anyone being squashed, we will never know.

We'd booked comfy seats on the ferry to try and get some sleep and very comfy they were too. The ferry was much nicer than we're used to on the Portsmouth - Brittany routes and we enjoyed the experience.

Tomorrow should see us arrive in the port of Hania, Crete from where we'll launch our final attack on the Euro E2E journey.

Friday 29 August 2008

Today is 'D' day. We'll be riding from the port of Hania, Crete across the spine of the island to Sfakia also Crete where the Gavdos ferry departs from.

Gavdos is the ultimate destination of the trip being the most southerly land point in Europe.

This means a sea level to sea level ride across a number of 3000' mountains Oh dear.

The inbound ferry from Pireus arrived half an hour or so late. Once docked, we bullied our way to the front of the queue, disembarked and departed around 07:00.

We bashed out our first Cretan 16 miles on the E75 main Hania - Iraklion highway in an hour.

Made a quick pit stop before turning due south along a secondary road that connected the northern highway with the southern port of Sfakia.

There followed a long climb of 800m over 14 miles to the top of the spine of Crete.

We were obviously turbo charged with all the riding over the past weeks and the prospect of it finally coming to an end. Additionally, running with minimal weight helped a lot.

After we crested the top, the road dropped for 10 miles into Sfakia back at sea level. How we were going to enjoy the return journey....

The climb was pretty straightforward though we took it at a bit of an animal pace being short of time. This resulted in Tracey having a very rare sense of humour bypass and Miles adopted a silent running approach - as you would....

The road became more broken the higher we climbed until a mile or so from the summit, it turned into a construction site.

We were hassling the vehicular traffic along through the roadwork's and on a couple of occasions, passed them and left them for dead... Hmmm, maybe crawled by and struggled on would be a more apt description.

As we commenced our 10 mile descent, we had to keep the speed down due to the broken road, tight hairpins and numerous cars.

Fantastic views over the south of Crete and its lovely blue sea.

We thrashed into Sfakia to join the ticket queue for the Gavdos ferry and bought the tickets with 4 mins to spare.

This ferry also then left late and plodded its way across to the island.

After 45 mins (the scheduled journey time), Gavdos was still a mere dot on the horizon. Seems the published schedule was a 'bit wrong'.

A couple of hours later we docked in Gavdos and immediately joined the ticket queue for the only return ferry of the day.

We had scheduled a couple of hours to look around a pristine, uninhabited island and we'd actually got a few minutes in a backpacker/crusty/dosser infested dormitory.

Gavdos it seems, is big on the alternative travel scene. Additionally, the ferry company seemed incapable of publishing accurate information and sticking to it.

This reduced our time at journeys end to a few minutes and it all felt a bit flat after so much effort.

We took a couple of the obligatory photos then returned to the boat for a bit of a sulk.

During the return to Crete, it started to sink in just what we'd accomplished and pretty soon we perked up.

The Gavdos ferry was also very late arriving into Sfakia and we still had a good 4 hours of cycling to deliver in order to reach Hania for the Crete - Pireus return leg.

Regardless, we bullied our way out of Sfakia up a 'delightful' 1:3 hill and commenced the reversal of our earlier 10 mile and 850m descent to recross the main mountain spine of Crete.

We were making good progress in searing heat and had reached the halfway point (5 miles/450m) when our thumbs inexplicably went into spasm and stuck out rigidly.

This confused a local chap passing in a Toyota Hi-Lux Taliwagon who seemed to think we wanted a lift. Us? What after completing our journey? Never....

Well, we don't like to be rude so we bundled Disharmony II into the back of his truck and jumped into the crew cab.

We then spent the next 45 minutes dripping on poor 'Paul' who drove at breakneck speed up, over and down the mountains before ejecting us just outside Hania.

What poor luck, this meant we'd now have to waste a couple of hours in a café and having dinner before catching the return ferry to the mainland.

This ferry was as chaotic as all the rest and we now forgive P&O and Brittany Ferries for all their sins on the grounds that things could be much, much worse.

Apart from the ferry being bedlam, the journey back to Athens was fairly routine.

Job done. Sigh.......

Today a tough Crete crosser of 45 miles and 1580m of ascent. Total trip 3785 miles.

More to follow.

Miles & Tracey

27 August 2008

Wednesday 27 August 2008

With a bit of luck, a following wind and not too many more Greek monster hills, we should be in Athens tonight.

Our plan has us biking from Livadia, Greece to Athens, obviously also Greece (derrrr...). This is an anticipated distance of around 65 miles though again we don't have any
real idea of what the terrain has in store for us....

Made a very early start by rising at 06:00 followed by a poor breakfast and we hit the road just after 07:30.

Just for a change, it was hot, sunny and with clear blue skies though nice and cool at the earlier start time.

Made short work of exiting Livadia and then bashed out the first 30 miles in 1hr 40mins courtesy of super flat terrain and a reasonable tail wind.

We made a quick bakery stop in Thiva for the biggest ring doughnuts we've ever seen (more like swimming rings than CAKES) and juice.

There followed a nasty steep climb from Thiva via a confusing sequence of diversions set out to avoid a funfair and market. The HGV drivers thought they could disregard the 'road closed' signs and then got themselves in a right royal pickle trying to retrace their steps. Tee hee.

We emerged at the top of the town and then the road levelled for a few miles ending in a rather disconcerting wall of mountains.

As we approached the wall, we commenced the grueller of the day.

We climbed for around 6 miles and over 500m before the road levelled once more.

As we crested the top, the road dropped off into a fantastic and long descent.

Unfortunately, the downhill didn't last all the way to Athens and pretty soon we were engaged in climbing and descending a series of 200m - 300m rollers. Bit like monster corrugated cardboard.

These were just big enough and steep enough to knock the stuffing out of our already mangled legs. By now, temps. had soared to mid 30 Celsius and it felt bloomin hot whilst climbing.

We made another pop stop at a roadside café and enjoyed an 'Acorn Antiques' moment with the Julie Walters character; Mrs Overall being played by the nice lady behind the counter. 'Two Colas anyone?' replaced 'Two soups?'.....

With a bit of tenacity and quite a lot of energy we soon reached the town of Mandra.

Here the road split; motorway into the centre of Athens or dual cabbageway to Pireas the port of Athens.

We chose the latter and soon arrived in Elefsina for the final pop stop of the day.

We were engaged by a very helpful (though voluble) Greek lady who insisted on doing a proper sales job on what the area had to offer. She made us smile when she suggested 20 miles might be too far for us to cycle to one of her recommendations :-)

There followed a rather unpleasant 12 mile of very hot, very noisy, very busy highway into the outskirts of Pireas.

We particularly enjoyed the Greek mainland's sting in the tail which was a 3 mile climb in mid afternoon sun just to finish things off.

At the outskirts of Pireas, in very dense traffic, we followed signs for the Port and made our way to where the passenger ships berth.

These are the boats that connect Crete etc and we'll be taking one tomorrow night.

We'd preselected, and unlike us, booked a very fancy 5* hotel for the night Just to finish off you see.

Unfortunately, we didn't have any directions to it. Pireas was a bit manic so we collared a local cabbie and paid the fare to the hotel whilst we pedalled furiously behind.

We had another smiley moment when the cabbie, after eyeing us up and down, questioned our choice of hotel.

He firstly asked if we had a reservation then declared it's 5* status as if it was not appropriate for a couple of cyclists.

Fair enough, after a day in the saddle, we did look a bit shabby but we're on a bicycle tour not a budget bicycle tour....

We were made very welcome on arrival as we checked in and then followed the usual routine of room/chill/gonk.

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow evening we'll be taking the overnight ferry to Crete. On arrival the following day, we will need a very rapid cycle across the island to catch the Friday Crete/Gavdos ferry.

Hopefully we'll also make the return Gavdos ferry and repeat the rapid trans Crete ride to catch the next overnighter from Crete back to Pireas.

Assuming this all happens, job done.

Today another hot 'n' hilly day of 75 miles and a rather gratuitous 1090m of ascent. Total trip 3738 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

26 August 2008

Tuesday 26 August 2008

The plan for today is to knock off the 60 or so miles between Lamia, Greece and Livadia, Greece. Due to the limitations of our maps, we're not sure what the terrain has in store for us.

We're hoping for a rendition of 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain...' rather than hearing the clarion call; 'Over the top lads....'.

Up and at em at 06:30 and first into breakfast at the hotel. Ready to leave at 08:00 and dived straight into the the chaos of the Lamia rush...

Tracey navigated our way around all the one-way systems and their roadwork related variations.

Disharmony II's new drive chain behaved perfectly, unfortunately her 4000 mile plus gear cassette didn't. We should be able to manage with a couple of skipping gears for the distance we have left and the offending part will be replaced when we get back to the UK.

In clear blue skies and rising temps. we twiddled our way through the first 8 miles or so on a arrow straight (and flat) secondary road due south out of the town.

All the time we were twiddling, we got that uneasy feeling as we were heading straight for a bloody great wall of mountains. 'Nah, we won't be going over that will we?'.....

Well, we will, and we blooming well did. We climbed for 8-9 miles and ~600m of ascent up a lovely twisty and deserted, alleged 'A' road. We think the 'A' category was off as the road was broken and all but unusable for most motorised transport.

At the summit, we made a quick water and bum break then pointed Disharmony II downhill for what we hoped would be a good descent.

The road initially ran alongside a valley and then dropped into a gorge. Fantastic scenery but Miles had to keep both beady eyes on the way ahead as it was very broken, covered in rockfall, very twisty and had zero protective rail over considerable drops.

All too soon the road levelled and we felt a bit cheated.

Our preferred 'A'/Secondary road then crossed the real 'A' road and we continued riding a gradual south easterly descent in lovely surroundings and in traffic isolation.

A quick fuel and bum stop was taken at the village of Amfiklia. Fuelled by juice and ice lollies, we picked up a fantastic descent for a few miles before levelling out again.

Our route continued to parallel the railway line and hug the bottoms of the surrounding mountains. Thankfully, it resisted the temptation to go for more altitude.

The road eventually wended it's way around another mountain and we dropped into Livadia, our destination for the day.

We'd picked out a suitable hotel for the evening whilst Internerd surfing and with a little (read lot) local help we found ourselves stood outside just after 14:00.

After checking into the hotel we completed our localisation by spending the next couple of hours enjoying a siesta. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Assuming tomorrow goes as planned, we should end up in a nice 5* hotel in the Pireas district of Athens.

This just leaves one more day of cycling across Crete and Gavdos to complete our Euro End 2 End journey. Sighhhhhhh......

Today a hot 'n' hilly 60 miles and 845m of ascent. Total trip 3663 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

24 & 25 August 2008

Sunday 24 August 2008

Rest day, yipeee!

Had a bit of a lie in - until 07:30 anyway.

Joined the 'wedding throngs' for breakfast then did a few chores.

Tracey did some laundry and Miles fettled the tandem ready for the coming week.

Had a communication from the mother ship back in the UK and spent a pleasant half hour chatting to Jackie (Tracey's Mum) on the mobile.

Did a quick tour of the neighbourhood in 37 degrees of heat. Chanced upon an internet café and spent a couple of hours researching options for the final few days (flights/accommodation/trains/ferries etc).

Returned to the hotel in time to witness Hamilton start and stay in 2nd place in the GP of Europe.

Pizza for dinner in town which was absolutely buzzing despite it being Sunday evening.

Back in the saddle tomorrow for what should be a 3 day trip into Athens.

Fingers crossed.

Monday 25 August 2008

Bank Holiday for you UKites, we hope it doesn't rain.

Perhaps due to our new early departure regime, Miles woke at 03:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.

We were all ready to go at the earlier than normal time of 08:00. Delayed slightly by the purchase of yet another drive chain for Disharmony II. This is the fourth of the trip and we're getting about 1000 miles per chain on average. The timing side is still within tolerance so will be left until we return to the UK.

The plan today is to knock out 50 or so miles from Karditsa, Greece to Lamia also Greece. Not sure about the terrain but we'll be sticking to the E65 in the vain hope it doesn't go up too many mountains.

Made short work of the dull dual carriage way that signalled our imminent arrival in Karditsa a couple of days ago.

As the road reduced to single lane, we got the hammer down and really went for the first 25 miles or so. This was helped by super flat terrain and an helpful tailwind.

Made a refuelling stop at a roadside services at just over the hour and then got straight back to it.

The road then started in a naughty upwards direction and we climbed for over 5 twisty miles and 350m to the small town of Domocos.

We made another pit stop as the road crested the summit and Tracey made an immediate friend of the nice lady serving in the bakery.

Mucho CAKE was consumed (and about time too...), followed by mucho juice and on we went.

Dissapointingly, there was an absence of descent to match the hardwork we'd put into the ascent.

After a short section of down, the road levelled then ominously, started to go up again.

There followed an action replay of the earlier climb which culminated in a rather dull summit where we took on extra water.

Greece, in a rush of fair play, then handed us a fantastic and very long descent all the way into Lamia our destination for the day.

As the descent continued, we were rewarded with spectacular views of massive mountains seemingly plonked in the middle of flat plains.

The views were most unexpected and quite breathtaking - go there young man.

We made our way through the outskirts of Lamia to a rendezvous with an hotel we'd previously identified on the interweb. Camping has become a bit of a non option for us currently, mainly due to the complete absence of campgrounds.

Lamia proved to be a charming and quaint little town. We spent some time whiling away the afternoon in the town square near the hotel then did a few chores including fitting the new chain to the tandem.

Dinner was had in a nice little spaghetti house near the hotel and there followed an early night to try and catch up from yesterday.

We plan to try and get out even earlier tomorrow as we've been warned of 39 degrees afternoon temps. here and it seems wise to try and avoid this as much as possible.

Today a hard won though enjoyable 55 miles and 735m of ascent. Total trip 3603 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

22 August 2008

Friday 22 August 2008

The plan for today is for us to cycle the 55 or so miles from Ptolemaida, Greece to Elassona also Greece via the E65. We've decided to use main routes if possible to try and avoid any unnecessary navigational howlers.

Decent and early breakfast at the hotel as we have planned to start each day earlier to avoid too much afternoon heat. That's the plan, we shall see...

Managed to get away before 08:30, but we'll need to improve on this.

Straight into Ptolemaida town centre to fill the wallet with Euro's then out onto the E65 to blitz some miles.

More blue skies today with a bit of haze to camouflage the bigger mountains further away and the usual mid 30's Celsius expected by this afternoon. Really, really scorcio!

We headed south east towards Kozani and the intersection with the main A2 motorway. Decent climb followed by a really good descent all the way towards Kozani.

Usual bum break and human fuel stop at roadside services at just over the hour mark.

At the junction with the A2, picked our way through the various twists and turns of the feeder roads and worked our way back onto the E65. No one said the Greeks like to do transport systems easily....

Passed a couple of restricted military sites (no photos on pain of death...) and knocked off a bit of a climb and a few nasty rollers.

Payback was a fantastic and loooong descent to Lake Aliakmona. We were now back at ~350m despite all the hard work!

We crossed the lake via their 1.3km bridge and Tracey spotted a few Pelicans doing Pelicany things by the side of the lake.

After the bridge, the road heaved upwards and so it began....

We continued to climb through the village of Servia and stopped when we reached Metaxas 12 miles and nearly 900m later. How we enjoyed the midday sun...

After all the fun of climbing, we were rewarded with a decent descent. However, Miles kept Disharmony II on a short rein and moderated the speed accordingly.

This proved very fortuitous as a few miles into the descent Tracey detected a back end wobble. Now, normally this would be met with a few ribald jokes, however, we'd suffered yet another dratted puncture in the rear tyre.

Had we been going full pelt, it's questionable whether any semblance of control could have been maintained. Phew!

Another roadside repair by Miles followed by some vigorous pumping (oooerrr) had us back in the saddle and finishing the remainder of the descent.

The road dropped into a broad and open plateau surrounded by mountains, one a bit bigger than all the rest.

At our next bum break, we enquired as to the identity of the 'big un' and 'Olympus' came the reply. All we can say is, it's a damn good job we don't have to bike over the blooming thing as it's mahoosive.

By now, we were operating under the misapprehension that we were quite close to our destination of Elassona. Not so.

We had another 15 miles of painful rolling countryside that seemed more up than down and to go on for ever. We were just a tad pooped.

After too long, the road took a downwards turn and we began the last descent of the day into Elassona.

We'd already identified the only digs in town so with a bit of local intervention, we made our way directly there.

Elassona proved to be a lovely little hill town with pavement cafes and nice little Tavernas. The people were very helpful and friendly and apart from a slightly crap meal, we really enjoyed our stay.

Our 'hotel' on the other hand, must have been the poshest yet as it had a sauna built into the bedroom. In fact it was the bedroom. We found it quite hard to sleep constantly slipping out of bed....

Today a very hot and back breaking/bum searing 70 miles and a significant 1275m of ascent. Total trip 3486 miles.

Saturday 23 August 2008

In line with our new 'early departure' policy, we were out of our superheated hotel before 08:00.

This was mainly due to the lack of breakfast facilities and we soon lost the time advantage foraging in town.

Our daily plan has us biking from Elassona, Greece to Karditsa also Greece. A distance of around 60 miles. Hopefully these will prove to be 'normal' miles and not the elongated variety we enjoyed yesterday.

Weather dully predictable; hot, sunny with clear blue skies. Half a chance (read racing certainty) of 36 degrees later. Help!

On leaving Elassona, enjoyed the Greek game of 'follow insufficient signage in most unlikely direction' and somehow found ourselves going the right way on the right road.

Following signs for the 'new national road' had us grasstracking and using unmade lanes that bore little resemblance to any sort of road new or old. (huh?)

To start our day, we had a 'bit of a climb' out of the valley, this time just a little 3 miler of gradual ascent.

This was followed by a very reasonable and pleasant 3.5 mile descent.

We continued to follow the E65 through broad, open valleys surrounded by hills. The difference today is we seem to be going around rather than over. Nice one.

At the small town of Tirnavos, we abandoned our cunning main road plan and made a bid for a lovely secondary road that cut through open country.

This route was surrounded by lovely scenery liberally dotted with vineyards Very picturesque.

After 10 miles or so, we picked up the main E92 which connected us to Farkadonas and the start of our next secondary road sourjourn.

We followed this for approx. 18 miles on mainly flat roads again surrounded by those menacing bumps.

The heat continued to build and the Greek countryside was littered with various items of discarded Goff clothing and equipment. We kept enough just to spare any blushes.

Regular lolly and pop stops were made to try and stave off some of the effects of the heat and exertion, our last being 15 miles before our final destination.

Presently, the secondary road intersected the main E65 and we turned due west (i.e. the wrong way) towards Karditsa, our destination for the night.

Karditsa was chosen due to it having several hotels and we plan to take our scheduled rest day tomorrow so will need reasonable facilities for dossing around in.

We made our way along 5 or so miles of deadly dull dual carriageway into the centre of town.

We made short work of finding the selected hotel and rocked up to check in.

Quelle horreur! There was no room at the inn (or it's 3 mates). Bugger, double bugger and an additional sh!t for good measure.

We'd knocked out our daily miles early and had a succession of really tough days over the past week and IT WAS NOT FAIR! (tsssk how childish).

Having exhausted the in town options we started to look further a field.

These ranged from an additional 55 miles of cycling to grovelling up some distant mountains in the vain hope there may be an hotel with availability.

We also checked out motorised options and neither the trains nor local taxis were big enough to take on Disharmony II.

Oh dear, we were in a pickle. We sat and cogitated at the railway station coming to the conclusion, it was going to be a night of 'Goff dossing' in the local park.

Being eternal optimists, we cycled back into town to see if the tearful female approach would bear any fruit.

Back at the first hotel, Miles sat glumly in the shade outside whilst Tracey went in to work her magic. She shortly emerged with a Cheshire cat like grin as the hotel had just received a cancellation and we were now very much in. Sighs of relief all around.

Whoever said 'fortune favours the brave' got it bang on apart from, in our case, it might have been 'luck sometimes follows the slightly stupid'.

Rest day tomorrow and Hamilton is second on the grid. Yipeee.

Today a splendid 62 miles and a meagre 389m of ascent. Total trip 3548 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

21 August 2008

Thursday 21 August 2008

We've been away 9 weeks today - yay!

Made an early-ish start and managed to get down for breakfast a little before 08:00... although....

As we waited for the dining room to open, we were advised by the waiter to come back at 07:00'. 'Silly bugger' we thought as it was already 07:50.

Turns out, we'd been operating in a space/time anomaly during our time in Macedonia.

For some strange reason, Macedonia are on BST+1 hour whilst all their neighbours are BST+2. We didn't know this and managed to traverse the entire country before finding out. Dick heads.

Today's plan has us leaving Macedonia and reaching our last and 12th country of the trip; Greece. A distance of about 50 miles ending in Ptolemaida

After a belated feast, we attempted to hit the road at the corrected time of 08:15. Unfortunately Disharmony II wasn't playing again and had picked up another overnight slow puncture.

Rather than chance a quick pump, Tracey suggested we ignore this and mend the bike instead! Ha! Not really.

Miles spent half an hour looking for a needle in a haystack (or a pinhole in an inner tube) and eventually elected to replace the offending item.

Later than intended, we used our navigational skills (and a goodly portion of luck) and headed the correct way out of Bitola, Macedonia.

We rapidly banged out 10 flat miles to the Macedonian/Greek border and quickly found ourselves back in Euroland.

This was a bitter sweet moment as we've both really enjoyed Macedonia after a few apprehensive moments and contrary advice on what to expect.

The FCO were warning of roaming bandito's and unexploded ordnance from the recent conflicts in this part of the world. However we saw non of this and found the country enchanting and the people very welcoming and friendly. Definitely worth a visit.

Just over the border we sampled our first Greek pop and choccy at a roadside services then hit the road with serious intent (though no Euro's!).

We headed south east on the E65 and had a fantastic couple of 1:10 descents presumably from altitude 'banked' yesterday as there was precious little climbing involved.

Unfortunately, during one of these 40mph drops, Miles picked up another wasp sting (shin - ouch) presumably from a p!ssed off insect objecting to being walloped by a speeding Goff.

Great riding in climbing temps. (and the usual blue skies) saw us entering a bit of a maze of new/old road that wasn't fully depicted on our maps.

We did a bit of 'making it up as we went along' (and asked the locals who turned out to be Greek chatterboxes) and eventually found ourselves once again heading towards Ptolemaida and up a couple of stinker hills.

En route, we passed countless Buzzards hunting by the roadside but little other wildlife (perhaps the Buzzards had eaten it).

For good measure, Disharmony II had another hissy fit and punctured the back tyre for the second time today (why does it always have to be the bloomin back?). This one was patched by the roadside and we were quickly on our way again.

We continued to roam the countryside in the general direction of Ptolemaida (though more signage would help Mr Greek Transport Minister) and eventually rocked up at the outskirts of the city.

We'd researched likely bolt holes before arriving and made a bee line (don't mention bees anymore!) for the first hotel off our list.

Usual routine, checked in, chilled out and refuelled. Fade to Z'ds.....

A nice introduction to Greek cycling. Quiet roads, few hills (so far) though very hot and poorly sign posted.

Today a rather lazy sluttish 48 miles and 385m of ascent. Total trip 3415 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

20 August 2008

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Had a reasonable breakfast at our hotel served by a smiling waiter who looked as though he was ex-Macedonian Secret Service.

The plan for today is to reach Bitola, Macedonia from Negotino also Macedonia. This is a distance of around 60 miles and should leave us less than 10 miles from the Greek/Macedonian border.

Set off well before 09:00 in a freezing blizzard plus howling gale.....

Errrr....not.

Sorry UK-ites, more blue skies and the promise of mid 30's Celsius later in the day.

Did someone say it's been raining a bit in the UK?.......

Managed to navigate through Negotino by the old technique of 'more luck than judgement' primarily due to the paucity of road signage.

Got ourselves on the scenic route through the Tikves wine region, Macedonian's equivalent of France's Bordeaux.

We had a very pretty scenic ride through to Kavadarci where we were once again lucky with our choices of direction.

Picked up a couple of stonking hills and a good descent, eventually finding our way back onto the main route 106 to Prilep.

Shortly after joining 106, the road started to rise and so it carried on. We slowly gained nearly 1000m of height over the next 17 miles.

At each bend in the road, we hoped the summit would be revealed but alas not.

We had the 'pleasure' of grinding out 95% of the climb before a roadside café came to the rescue and pop gorging began.

Between us we consumed more E's than in a Yorkshire Scrabble set and enough sugar to send an infant into orbit for many hours!

Replenished, we knocked off a 1:7 section then the last couple of miles to the summit at Pletvar.

As we stopped for the inevitable piccies and slurp, we were constantly pipped and waved at by the passing motorists. At least they appreciated the effort that had gone into the climb.

We set off to descend the 'far side' and were a little disappointed as the road was being resurfaced and we had to keep our speed well in check.

Shortly, we arrived at the outskirts of Prilep, Macedonia and elected to use the by-pass rather than fight through the centre.

This joined the M5, which cut through a wide flat valley.

Few ups, fewer downs and a bit of a head/cross wind accompanied us as we banjaxed the final 25 miles into Bitola.

We made a final ice lolly and pop stop outside Bitola then made our way into the interior....

All day, the local people have been very friendly and considerate on the roads. As we rode into Bitola, a Macedonian Bono lookalike hung out of his car shouting felicitations at us.

This has been a very common occurrence during our time here and makes a nice change from some of the other countries we've visited.

As we worked our way through the outskirts of Bitola, we were given more unsolicited help in finding our hotel for the evening and we were rapidly ensconced in our room.

Very nice hotel, very nice restaurant.

Today a hard and mainly uphill 65 miles and a silly 1170m of ascent. Total trip 3368 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Macedonia - Just After The Border

Miles On Top Of The Pletvar Pass, Macedonia.

The Wiggly 1000m & 18 Mile Climb to Pletvar, Macedonia.

Kavadarci - Macedonia's Bordeaux

Filling Up - Macedonian Stylee

19 August 2008

Tuesday 19 August 2008

After a horrible non event of a breakfast, we hit the road earlier than usual at 08:45. Despite the hotel being quite nice, the service and food didn't live up to expectations....

Our daily plan has us biking the 70 miles or so from Orizari, Macedonia to Negotoni also Macedonia. After the hilly nature of yesterday's ride, we're hoping for a bit of respite today.

Weather conditions performed as per usual; clear blue skies and the promise of significant heat build up as the day unfolds. Today, we also have a nice cooling breeze which may help keep temps. within reason.

Started our journey with a 1:10 descent into the valley from our hotel. Despite the heat, this was quite chilly early in the morning.

After 20 minutes, we chanced across a service station and stopped for a 'proper' cyclists breakfast; choccy and juice!

The ride continued in lovely rolling countryside with fantastic quiet roads Small hills helped to ease the bum and we were happy with our lot.

Some of the cars (and tractors) had trailers loaded with baby farm animals and we shortly came across the market where they were being sold.

We continued along the M5 to the town of Stip. This M5 being totally different from our own as a) it was a pleasure to ride on and b) what little traffic there was, actually moved!

At Stip, we continued along the M5 to Veles stopping en route for a much deserved ice lolly, choccy and juice treble. Those that are not yet comatose, may have noticed a severe deficiency of CAKE in our diet. This situation is SERIOUS and we hope to make it good once the vendors start behaving themselves again.

More fantastic scenery en route to Veles and we started to see vineyards, pepper crops and a general aridness creeping into the landscape. The hillsides and grasslands are mostly brown now and the only greenery is that being artificially irrigated.

The only real minor issue of the day was Miles being stung yet again by a nasty wasp. This little bugger got caught in his helmet (oooh matron...) strap, and got it's revenge by a sting on the cheek. This is the fourth time so far; finger, thigh, hip and now cheek. 4-0 to Miles. Captaining a tandem is not supposed to be a dangerous pursuit.

At Veles, we'd intended to take a cheeky motorway/dual carriageway route (E75-M1) for a few miles. When we got there, we found it was a true motorway and tandems (specifically!) were not allowed.

This helped us, as there was an 'old road' alternative that ran alongside the new motorway and was once again, devoid of traffic.

More enjoyable rolling along followed and we reached the outskirts of Negotino at around 15:30.

Good fortune was on our side and we spotted both the hotel on the hillside and the arrows marking the way to it as we entered the town. This saved a goodly portion of dicking around trying to find it whilst tired.

We followed our usual routine on arrival; checked in and chilled out. A rather lonely early dinner followed and for the record, was delicious.

Today a thoroughly pleasant 73 miles and a reasonable 460m of ascent. Total trip 3303 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

18 August 2008

Monday 18 August 2008

Away from our surprisingly nice hotel in Blagoevgrad at 09:00 to a repeat of clear blue skies and the promise of significant heat later.

The plan today has us cycling the 50 or so miles from Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria to Kocani, Macedonian. En route, we'll be ticking our 11th country off by crossing the Bulgarian/Macedonian border.

We initially followed directions provided by the hotel staff out of Blagoevgrad. Fortunately, we were stopped after half a mile or so by a good Samaritan who provided more comprehensible and above all, direct instructions. This probably saved us an hour or so of going around in circles.

Under revised instruction, we back
tracked a mile or so north up the E79-1 and picked up the unsignposted route 27 that would eventually lead into Macedonia.

Within a mile or so of the turn, the road started to rise and for the next 18 miles we climbed and climbed. In fact, this initial climb only finished as we approached the border.

Fantastic scenery, good road surfaces and very little traffic made for a spectacular days cycling. One of the best of the trip.

For a change, the border control was for a 'proper' country rather than a member of the Euro theme park the EU region seems to have become.

We were correctly asked the 'why are you here/where are you going/anything to declare' questions by the Macedonian authorities before our passports were stamped and we were allowed on our way.

Yippeee....country 11 and our penultimate country of the trip!

After we crossed into Macedonian, the road went steeply downwards for about 7 miles when we rolled into the small town of Delcevo.

A quick bank and café stop later, we were once again ready to knock out some more mileage.

The day grew hotter and hotter and there was lots of evidence around us of how this affected the landscape. From arid, dried out vegetation to indications of recent brush fires. It was clear we were entering the drier southern regions.

We continued on route 27 and dispatched another long bitch of a 1:7 hill followed by a decent descent and a few more rollers. This took us over a fantastic mountain pass and then down into a steep sided gorge.

During the descent, we hit a massive unseen pothole that managed to simultaneously unship both rear panniers and scatter them in the road.

Fortunately, the bus that was immediately behind us, was driven by a good egg and not one of the usual plonkers we've been 'blessed' with thus far.

He did the decent thing and pulled up in front of our kit to stop any other road users from running over it. We were very pleased he also resisted the temptation to mangle the gear himself.

Tracey did her jumping and galloping routine and legged it up the road to reclaim our possessions. No damage done, we refitted the panniers and got back on our way.

We followed the river all the way down the gorge and eventually, Kocani hove into view in the near distance. As we took this in, our eyes swivelled to a nice looking spa hotel that seemed to appear, as if by magic, at the roadside.

We did the decent thing and chose the hotel that looked OK and was next to us rather than chance what may have been in Kocani. A bird in the hand and all that....

Apart from the place being deserted, our choice was soon validated and we settled in for a comfortable night.

Today a more troublesome and hilly 53 miles and a quad burning 1100m of ascent. Total trip 3231 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

15/16/17 August 2008

Friday 15 August 2008

Rest day in Sofija, Bulgaria - yay!

Tracey dealt with some laundry/housekeeping tasks in the morning and we then went for a bit of a walk around the town.

Found ourselves in the ubiquitous Irish bar for a combined lunch/dinner and then returned to the hotel for more laying around.

We've decided to have another day off tomorrow as we're not yet ready to do further battle on the tandem.

Saturday 16 August 2008

Another rest day in Sofija, Bulgaria.

Miles surfaced early to apply a bit of TLC to Disharmony II outside the front of the Sheraton. Attracted a few quizzical glances though thankfully, not the wrath of the hotel management.

Did very little today apart from concentrate on serious 'recovery'. Eventually left the hotel for dinner at a nice Greek restaurant after doing a short circuit of a few bars etc to validate our choice of venue.

Back in the saddle tomorrow,

Sunday 17 August 2008

Back to the fray today. Feeling much fresher, fully energised and ready to deal with whatever comes over the next couple of weeks before we reach the finish line.

The plan today is to cycle the 60 or so miles from Sofija, Bulgaria to Blagoevgrad also Bulgaria. Our destination is just a few miles short of the Macedonian border so we'll be crossing into our 11th country early tomorrow.

Had a lonely breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Being Sunday, seems everyone else was still snoozing in their beds.

On the road just after 09:00, more blue skies and the promise of serious heat later.

Luckily we'd already sussed our route out of the city as we didn't want any repetition of the 'difficult' route finding during our way in.

The first 10 miles followed the E79-1, uphill and for the initial 5 miles, on Pave. Pave? Cobbles to you and us.

We initially felt a bit sluggish after being inactive for 2 days but this was just due to the upwards incline and rough road surface. Normal service would be resumed as the road levelled and the cobbles gave way to Euromac (AKA tarmac).

Continued along the E79-1 accompanied by good scenery and pleasant rolling hills. These beauties were the deluxe versions, i.e. the ones with the fantastic, 40mph descents following reasonably sensible climbs.

Made our usual pit stops at just over the hour and 2 hour marks in roadside services. The second, seemed to be in a valley completely occupied by used car garages. We passed these for mile upon mile and there seemed to be no apparent reason for their location.

As the clock passed midday and entered early afternoon, the temps. Continued to rise. We were expecting up to mid 30's Celsius today.

Presently we arrived at the outskirts of Blagoevgrad and made a bee line for an hotel Miles discovered on the Interweb yesterday. Happily, it both existed and was very nice and we were very shortly in our room enjoying the aircon.

A decent return to battle with no injuries, accidents or complaints to report from the troops.

Today an utterly sensible though blooming hot 61 miles and a respectable 770m of ascent. Total trip 3177 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

More 'Amusing' Placenames....

14 August 2008

Thursday 14 August 2008

Despite our schedule being based on 50 mile days, we are once again going to 'break the bank' and try and reach Sofija, Bulgaria today. This is primarily due to us wanting to be certain of accommodation availability and to avoid getting stuck in the boonies with nowhere to rest our weary heads...

The downside is, it's going to be a 'bit of a day' as we're expecting to have to put in a near century to reach sanctuary (ahh, how poetic....).

The day started early for us and we were ready to go just after 08:00. Unfortunately, this was before the restaurant opened so we set off running on empty.

In addition, Disharmony II wasn't playing nicely as she'd acquired a slow puncture overnight. A quick bit of pumping by Miles and we were on our way.

Firstly we had to make good yesterday's slight detour and this had us cycling 10 miles on reasonable 'B' road to rejoin our route of yesterday.

There followed another ~20 miles of leg mangling riding along route 15 and the combination of no food, lots of recent mileage and the vicious ups and downs had us calling for mercy.

Shortly before Vraca, Bulgaria we came across a roadside hovel and gorged ourselves on sugary pop. No solids as our Cyrillic (and stomachs) still aren't up to the challenge...

Shortly afterwards, on the outskirts of Vraca, we stumbled across a preferred supplier (service station) where we had a mega choccy and pop rest.

Fully fuelled, though still with wobbly legs, we made short work of the Vraca by-pass and soon found ourselves entering the enchanting Niskar gorge via Route 16.

This gorge would (eventually) lead to the outskirts of Sofija though nearly 50 miles later.

The ride through the gorge was both fantastic and painful. The scenery spectacular, traffic almost non existent and road surface mostly good.

However, as we progressed, the hills, heat and mounting mileage took their toll and we started to question our ability to reach Sofija.

We also had a couple of mechanicals to deal with and these delayed us even more. The slow puncture developed into one that needed fixing by the roadside and we managed to bounce our timing chain off a couple of times on bumpy terrain.

Disharmony II needed a bit of TLC and was overdue her rest day as well.

Refuelling stops were coming thick and fast to deal with both the heat and fatigue and we eventually reached the Sofija ring road at around 18:30. Knackered.

After a last pop and ice cream stop we summoned the courage to do battle into the centre of Sofija.

We followed our noses and soon bemoaned our lack of Cyrillic skills and the Bulgarian's inability to signpost their city centres.

After a couple of false starts and harassing both locals and the Police, we found ourselves stood outside the 5* Sheraton Hotel in the town centre.

We must have been a pretty picture whilst checking in having been on the road for 12 hours in stifling heat and knocking off more than 100 miles.

To the receptionists credit, she didn't miss a beat and we were soon ga ga in our room. After a quick shower and change, we were out foraging for calories as we needed to put some back.

This was a fantastic days cycling though very tough and we were very glad to see the end of it.

Rest day tomorrow, a little overdue and we're ready for it.

Today a mammoth 103 miles and a gargantuan total of 1245m of ascent. Total trip 3116 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

The High Tatra's, Slovakia

Riding in Transylvania, Romania

Camping in Budapest, Hungary

Typical Romanian Village Sans Road Finishing

Just Arrived At The 5* Sheraton, Sofia After Our Hundred Miler

Tracey's Eyes Lit Up At The Choice of Cocktails in Eger, Hungary

Fantastic Riding in Hungary

Tandem Fettling in Jedrzejow, Poland

4* Luxury in Bialystok, Poland

13 August 2008

Wednesday 13 August 2008

After a noisy night (other guests and traffic) we enjoyed a lively breakfast at our Pension.

Seems each day, they tally yesterday's sales with cash receipts and they were a bit short.... There followed lots of shouting, banging and crashing as a solution was 'negotiated' which resulted in us being served by a tearful and clearly very peed off waitress. Oh dear.

The plan of attack for today has two major milestones:

1. We will be crossing the border into Bulgaria

2. We'll be clocking up our 3000th mile of the trip

Our intended route takes us east
along the E574 into the city of Craiova
then south along Route 55 to Bechet
on the Romania/Bulgarian border.

The border itself is a bloomin great
river (i.e the Danube) and we're not
yet sure how it will be crossed to get
into Bulgaria.

Assuming we can cross, our
intended destination is Orjahovo just
over the Bulgarian border.

We set off under clear blue skies, rapidly climbing temps. and with a favourable tail wind.

We bashed out the 10 miles into the centre of Craiova and dodged the rather manic car drivers to find our way through onto Route 55.

Craiova looked to be a nice town and differed from the others we've seen in Romania as it didn't appear to be falling down.

We then had approx. 40 miles of riding on pretty, quiet secondary road through small farms and villages.

The surroundings became rougher and more basic the further south we rode and it was clear there wasn't a lot of money about.

We saw more horse/cart/donkey activity during this 40 miles than anywhere else on our travels (so far).

The downside of the areas poorness meant a shortage of suitable refuelling stops for Miles & Tracey. This meant we hit Bechet with only a single stop under our belt, no CAKE and 55 blummin miles on the clock.

We found our way down to the riverside (another flipping 5km) and were relieved to discover a pukka RORO ferry operating to the other side.

Interestingly, it seemed only commercial traffic was using this ferry and we were once again surrounded by the hated HGV and the ignorant fu....errrm truckers who were in charge of the beasts.

After a straightforward crossing we cleared both passport control (seems the Bulgarian's haven't got the idea of open Euro borders yet either) and a biatch of a hill into Orjahovo.

First impressions weren't good, followed by similar for second, third and so on.

Despite this, we gave the town every chance to produce suitable accommodation which it singularly failed to do.

After a quick bank and lolly stop, we made our way out into the Bulgarian countryside and onto Route 11 hoping to find something suitable by the roadside.

Riding conditions were good with fantastic (Euro donated) road and lovely bumpy scenery. Unfortunately, the condition of the riders was deteriorating fast and we needed to stop for the night.

During a rare pop and choccy break at nearly 80 miles, we were given the nod of a motel in a nearby town.

Never has a bee line been so bee or line like and we were off like a shot.

Shortly afterwards, we were standing outside a very unlikely looking building sporting a dog eared 'Motel' sign.

The saying 'Don't judge a book by its cover' couldn't have been more apt. The room was very nice and the restaurant provided a pleasant meal following Miles' animal and french fry impressions as our Cyrillic reading skills are a bit limited.

Retired to our room somewhat full, knackered and relieved - in equal measure.

We were also a bit chuffed with ourselves having escaped Romania in one piece and clocked up our 3000th mile of the trip.

Today an extremely hot and a little nautical 83 miles and a total of 585m of ascent. Total trip 3014 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

12 August 2008

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Our plan today has us travelling from Ramnicu Valcea, Romania to Bals also Romania and a distance of around 60 miles. The observant may note our continued adherence to choosing destinations with names amusing to the infantile mind.....

After a cracking breakfast at our very nice hotel, we hit the road slightly late at 09:30.

The night was disrupted several times by the fire alarm going off though we did the correct thing in not panicking.

However, following this by rolling over and going back to sleep may not have been the recommended approach......

The day started with blue skies and the promise of very hot temps. 33 degrees Celsius expected.

Made short work of the exit from Raminicu Valcea and hit Route 64 due south This is a secondary road on our maps and we were hoping for slightly less traffic than on the 'A' roads.

The first 15 miles or so passed in a blur of continuous industrial estate. The road being arrow straight and with very few hills.

We stopped at a small garage/tyre repairer/lawn mower servicer/motorcycle mender to carry out a little minor surgery on Disharmony II.

After half an hour, we were back in the saddle and beating out the miles.

We made our customary bum/fuel breaks at our preferred service stations on the hour, every hour during the ride.

The landscape returned to East Anglian degrees of flatness though the broken and rough road surface gave us plenty to think about.

Presently, we cleared the industrial areas and small villages/farmland took their place. Along the roadside, there was a constant line of hawkers selling the fresh produce of the area. If we'd been in the market for 100kg of aubergines or 2 dozen watermelons, we'd have been in luck.

In the main, the traffic was quite well behaved though we did have a couple of ignorant, bullyboy HGV drivers insist they use our bit of the road instead of their own.

Continued to dispatch the miles in the afternoon heat and eventually arrived at the town of Bals. This seemed to be another typical Romanian town built around a mega factory that looked as if it was falling down.

The question was asked; 'What do they make here?' and of course 'Balls!' was the answer (or at least we thought so).

We slow pedalled through throngs of workers finishing their ball making (aching?) shift, took a good look at the only hotel in town and made a bee line for the exit.

We continued on the E70/574-65 for a few more miles until a likely looking roadside Pension leapt out at us and demanded we stay. Who were we to argue?

Usual evening routine; checked in, ate ravenously and chilled until bedtime

Tomorrow should be our scheduled rest day but we are going to push onto Sofia in Bulgaria before stopping again. This means tonight is our last in Romania and we should be crossing the Romanian/Bulgarian border tomorrow.

Had a quick tally up of what is left to do to get to Athens and it looks like we've around 18 more days of cycling left. WOW!

Today a hot, grimy and at times ball aching (difficult for Tracey) 68 miles and a total of 265m of ascent. Total trip 2931 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

11 August 2008

Monday 11 August 2008

Normal service resumed on the weather front as we awoke to clear blue skies, sun and the promise of lots of heat to come.

The plan today has us cycling from Slimnic, Romania to Ramnicu Valcea also in Romania. A distance of around 70 miles and mostly on the main E81-7.

Now we were both a little concerned at returning to the main roads on a workday as we wished to avoid any repetion of the traffic horror show of last Friday.

A reasonable start to the day had us happily knocking out the miles due south on Route 14.

Within 10 miles, we arrived at the outskirts of the 'mega city' of Sibiu. To avoid the worst of any congestion, we took to the ring road.

Unusually, this went almost to the city centre and we got a good look at the walled city for which Sibiu is justly famous. Ahem.

Very busy dual carriageway took us beyond the outskirts and we picked up Route E81-7 south.

Anyone looking at the map at the start of this blog will see an eastwards diversion across Hungary and some of Romania. This was to avoid any unpleasantness further south in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. It's good to be once again travelling in a southerly direction with the miles really counting torwards our ultimate destination.

The maps we have do not show terrain too well and we were pleased to find ourselves in a surprise gorge for most of today.

Despite the road not having a decent shoulder, traffic wasn't too much of a problem and in the main, reasonably well behaved.

Interestingly, the locals still seem fascinated by the tandem and we get lots of waving and pipping of horns. At one point today, we were running alongside the local train and it seemed as if all the passengers were waving us along.

We had great scenery with good cycling up and down rolling hills following the base of the gorge.

Towards the end, the gorge opened out into our first Romanian tat fest. We'd somehow stumbled on a local tourist resort complete with Soviet era 'Gulag' style concrete hotels.

The throngs of grockles going about their touristy business was a bit of a shock after the rest of Romania seemed completely devoid of any tourist activity at all.

Arrived into Raminicu Valcea, a nonentity town and safely navigated our way to 'Centru'. To avoid any embarrassing (not to mention knackering) extra mileage, today we stuck to the plan.

Town centre was a bit short of obvious accommodation so Tracey popped into a local Travel Agent (Igor Cookski perhaps?) and found details of a nice hotel nearby.

In case anyone thinks we've gone soft and can't hack it camping, Romania is proving to be a bit like Poland in the shortage of suitable campsites department.

Checked in, settled down, ready for more tomorrow.

In order to make even better progress into Bulgaria, we're thinking of ditching our next scheduled rest day and going for the Bulgarian border the day after tomorrow. This will be a couple of days ahead of schedule and we can then decide if we wish to spend any of this time in Sofia.

Today a surprisingly enjoyable 71 miles and a total of 390m of ascent. Total trip 2863 miles. Spot the imminent 3000 mile mark!

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

10 August 2008

Sunday 10 August 2008

Ate a very nice breakfast provided by the owner of our chosen Pension and made a reasonable start leaving around 09:15.

Our plan today is to cycle from Turda, Romania to Slimnic, Romania. A distance of approx. 50 miles.

Weather very overcast and a little chilly. Within a few miles, the clouds started to dump their contents for just long enough to soak our extremities, Gore-Tex protecting the important bits. The heavy rain shower was short lived and cleared off after half an hour or so....damage done.

We made short work of the Turda one way system and found ourselves riding east on the E60-15 towards Ludus and then onto our turn off point of Iernut.

The road initially followed the valley bottom and we had a brilliant tail wind pushing us along at warp speed.

We made a couple of refuelling stops at the customary hour and 2 hour marks At the first, we each had a mega Twix. At the second we shared a bag of mini croissants which qualified as our portion of CAKE for the day.

We turned due south onto Route 14a at Iernut and though the road was marked as an 'A' road on our maps, it quickly degenerated into a broken up bump fest. Not quite as bad as yesterday though it reduced warp speed to cruising speed.

The riding was once again in fantastic countryside, very varied though the towns and villages looked as though the American Infantry had called in airstrikes....

The road rolled on and up. We had a total of three significant ascents to a maximum altitude of 550m. Each of the climbs were gradual and zig zagged their way upwards.

At the top of the last climb, we stopped for coffee and crepes at a nice café. Shortly afterwards we were joined by 2 German cycle tourists who had been on the road for 4 days.

We chewed the fat with them for an hour or so before heading off to complete our last 10 or so miles into Medias.

After a fantastic descent, we scuttled around the Medias by-pass and so committed schoolboy/girl error number 1.

We were expecting accommodation on the outskirts of town and we were somewhat disconcerted to find......nowt.

Our choices were either to retrace our steps and go into the centre of Medias or peddle on. We chose the latter.

Bad news. There was the sum total of the square root of naff all for the next 27 miles when we stumbled across a suitable Pension in the small village/town of Slimnic, Romania.

Our day was a little longer than planned and we were very pleased to finally find somewhere to stay.

Despite this, we had a really good days cycling and Romania may well have redeemed itself after the first day's nightmare. We shall see tomorrow.

Today a more than intended total of 81 very enjoyable miles and a whopping 930m of ascent. Total trip 2792 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

09 August 2008

Saturday 09 August 2008

The plan today takes us from Huedin, Romania to Turda, Romania. A distance of around 60 miles. Obviously our destination was chosen primarily due to the comedic value of its name (tee hee).

Decent breakfast in our hotel, again waited on by the Romanian equivalent of Basil Faulty (don't mention the war...).

Hit the road shortly after 09:00 and we were pleased to see a lot less traffic, particularly HGV's.

Weather much cooler and overcast today. Almost had to button up as temps were down to a 'chilly' 24 degrees Celsius. During the day, the skies made a couple of rather pitiful attempts at unloading the contents of the clouds on us but in both cases gave up after a few minutes.

Followed the main E60-1 due east for 20 miles. Along the way we had the delights of two (yes two) killer 1:10 hills, the second followed by a fantastic long descent. In both cases, the lower temps. helped us reach the tops slightly less saturated than usual.

Just outside the town of Gilau (probably twinned with our local Council rubbish dump), we made a beeline for our newest preferred confectionery supplier; OMV.

Unusually, it seemed 10,000 people also had the same idea as the place was heaving.

We soon discovered there was a very well attended car auction going on in the field next door and we were witnessing a Romanian car buying frenzy.

This was good news for us, as OMV still had sufficient supplies for Miles & Tracey to gorge themselves on warm Pain au Chocolate CAKES.

After refuelling, we jumped back into the throng and made our way back to the E60-1.

Within a couple of miles, we turned due south at the nonentity village of Luna de Sus to pick up 'B' and 'C' roads to our destination.

Due to the high levels of traffic yesterday, we decided to give the less popular roads a go instead. This could backfire however as we've seen the lesser roads degenerate into cart tracks elsewhere. We shall see....

Initially the going was good and we revelled in our traffic free environment and enjoyed Count Dracula's back garden.

Unfortunately, the roads quickly started to disintegrate and after a few miles became little more than a rubble chute.

Along our route we had another of those nasty ascents, this one probably 1:8 and very broken indeed. More 3rd world than Euro zone. The broken surface conspired to get us walking as traction was a bit hard to come by even though we had the lungs for the effort.

We were keen to see a bit of 'real Romania', well we certainly got it today Just a few miles from the main drag had us transported to an almost medieval scene. Many horses and carts, rutted cart tracks and little villages cut off from each other.

We did smile however when we witnessed a chap chatting idly on his mobile phone whilst steering his horse and cart.

The 'road' occasionally improved for short sections but soon degenerated into rubble fields again. All this had us travelling at a super slow pace and bobbing up and down out of the saddle to try and avoid damage to both Disharmony II and our nether regions.

We quickly abandoned our plan to explore any 'C' roads on the basis that if 'B's were this bad, 'C's' would be impossible on a laden road bike.

After too long, we joined Route 75 (an improving 'B' road) at Buru. There followed a lovely ride along a deep gorge into the outskirts of Turda (apparently twinned with Baghdad).

The town improved as we cycled through the outskirts and we made our way to 'Centru'. Eagle eyed Miles spotted the Tourist Info. Bureau where we booked our bed for the night in a nice clean Pension.

An hour or so later had us chomping through our lovely dinner and talking Romanian recent history with the well informed and fluent in English owner. Just as well her English was good otherwise it would have been a very short conversation.

Today, total of 61 very rough though lovely traffic fee, cool miles and 575m of ascent. Total trip 2711 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

05/06/07/08 August 2008

Tuesday 05 August 2008

Rest day in Eger, Hungary. No miles planned, no height to gain just lots of dossing and scratching of bellies...

Overnight, we had a rainstorm of mammoth proportions and luckily, didn't get washed away. We were surprised however, to see animals abandoning the campsite 2x2.

Made a late start for a change and after breakfast, Tracey visited the local facilities (river) to bash some clothes on rocks... Well, she did a load of washing at the campsite sinks.

Whilst this was going on, Miles was giving Disharmony II some much needed TLC. Unusually this involved the replacement of yet another drive chain, the last having worn out in less than 1000 miles.

Luckily, we were able to pick up another replacement in a bike/chainsaw/computer(?) shop passed en route yesterday.

The amount of drive train wear is testament to the hillyness of the terrain we've been passing through and hopefully, the tandem's appetite for parts will reduce now we're passed the Tatra's... Maybe....

The afternoon was spent turning....both the washing on the (Miles rigged) line and our bodies as we dossed about in the tent.

Dinner was taken back in the town at the same restaurant we ate at yesterday. Sadly, overnight the quality had nosedived and the food and service were very disappointing. Miles had a near (alcoholic) miss when the waiter (dumb of dumber fame) delivered the devils brew instead of the more acceptable alcohol free alternative.

Watched a bit of a Hungarian folk festival as we sauntered back to the campsite munching on ice cream.

Got back to the campsite and bumped into a couple of Kiwis doing their world tour. They'd driven their camper van from Taunton, all over the UK and arrived in Eger via the scenic route. Had a good natter and it was nice to have an English speaking interlude for a change. Also turns out, they live in the same one horse town in NZ (Nelson) as another couple of Kiwi friends of ours...small world.

Back in the saddle tomorrow.

Wednesday 06 August 2008

The plan today is to ride from Eger, Hungary and finish in Debrecen just short of the Hungarian/Romanian border. Total distance of around 80 miles.

Awoke early due to our Polish neighbours (apparently) packing and leaving before dawn. When we emerged from the tent, we were disappointed to find, they'd just gone for the day.

Met another couple of cycle tourists at the site who had travelled from the Netherlands via Austria and the Danube. Their plan was also to cycle to Debrecen though over two days.

Packed up and left the campsite around 09:30. As usual, we had a bruiser of a hill to start our day.

Found the exit from town easily and stopped en route at our new favourite service station (OMV) for daily supplies. Happily, this did include a goodly ration of high quality CAKE.

In climbing temps. and sunny skies, followed rolling secondary roads 2501 and 2502 to Mezokovesd, Hungary.

Just outside Mezokovesd, we collected our second puncture of the trip which Miles fixed by the roadside. Not bad going, 2 in 2500 miles though shhhhhh, don't let anyone hear that....

From Mezokovesd, we followed secondary road 3305 to a mini RORO ferry at Arokto. Lovely countryside, nice villages and zero traffic. Brilliant cycling


As we left Arokto, we came across a couple of cars stopped in the road with the owners engaged in an intense discussion. It transpired, the ferry was out of service as the river was running too high which stopped the essential RORO bit.

A bit miffed, we turned tail and retraced our hard won steps to pick up the next viable river crossing.

More lovely countryside and ace cycling later, we found ourselves about 30 miles from our starting point though having cycled 65 miles to get there! Hmmmmmm.

We rejoined the main Route 33 which led all the way to Debrecen. En route, we bumped into our Dutch compadres whom we met this morning. They had managed a paltry 30 miles and were planning a stop at the next town.

We also stopped short of our intended destination at a campsite in Hortobagy, Hungary. With the extra, unnecessary mileage we clocked up a total of 93 miles and the extra distance to Debracen would have pushed this into the 130's.....too much.

Dinner was had at a nice restaurant across the road and we sampled our first, genuine Hungarian Goulash. Unfortunately, this was accompanied by a Frenchman with verbal diarrhoea.......

Today more hot and not so amusing unnecessary excess miles. Total 93 miles and a pretty flat 145m of ascent. Total trip 2514 miles.

Thursday 07 August 2008

Today we plan to reach Oradea in Romania from our starting point of Hortobagy in Hungary. This is an expected distance of 65 miles and will see us chalk up our 9th country of the trip.

The day started well when we met a nice Swiss couple at the campsite who regaled us with tales of their 3 year odyssey to Africa and Asia in a 6 wheel drive armoured ex-prison van. As if this wasn't enough, they did it with their 'new' 2 month old kid in tow!

Very interesting stories, these two made the cycling Swiss couple we met in Finland look sane....

Unfortunately, too much chat had us on the road later than planned and at nearly 10:00, we set off into the morning heat and sunshine.

Our first 25 miles or so due east had us making up yesterday's shortfall to Debrecen. The roads were flat, arrow straight for 10's of miles at a stretch and accompanied by the most evil headwind known to man.

Having skipped breakfast due to the chatting, we arrived at the outskirts of Debrecen a bit knackered to say the least.

We easily navigated our way through the town and the homing beacon must have been functioning as we shortly found ourselves standing in front of the biggest Tesco store we had ever seen

The old adage of never shopping whilst hungry should have been applied as Miles emerged from the store 30 mins later with two carrier bags laden with sugar filled goodies.

After double helpings of CAKE and a litre of pop each, we felt both a little queasy and re-energised in equal measure.

Recharged, we hit the ring road to take us towards the Romanian border.

At this point we also turned due south and away from the spiteful headwind we'd 'enjoyed' from the start of the day.

Due to the unfeasably long place names now, we adopted our own system based on peoples first names.

En route to the border, we visited, Mike, Sara, Derek, Betty and Peter. These towns all have names with at least 20 letters in them and many syllables. Too much for our addled brains.

We reached a real country border for a change. Romania only joined the EU in 2007 and clearly have not got used to the idea of ceding sovereignty to the Eurocrats in Brussels.

We were asked to produce our passports by a real live customs official and then demonstrating a modicum of humour, he asked for the papers for Disharmony II.

'On yer bike' would have been an appropriate response but of course we were too polite.

During the run out of the border zone, there were hundreds of HGV's stacked ready to be processed through the border.

Again, our new Romanian cousins haven't quite got the idea of open borders and reduced bureaucracy between the EU member states. Perhaps they'll get the idea in a year or so and make all their customs men redundant.

In busy traffic we made our way into the outskirts of Oradea. This part of the city looked really grim with several closed down, rust coloured industrial plants peppering the route in.

As we followed the signs for 'Centru' and dodged the traffic, we stumbled across a respectable looking and alleged 4 star hotel.

Before you could say 'bugger me, that looks nice', we were booked in and lounging in our room.

DISASTER!!! At this point we discovered we'd left our UK to funnyeurojohnyforeignerdodgyelectricery adapter in a previous hovel. Double drat!

OK. Necessity being the mother of invention, in short order, Miles had fashioned a 'work around' from a hotel table lamp and some insulating tape and he now sports a very fetching frizzy hairstyle.

Dinner was had in the very pretentious hotel restaurant and was actually quite nice though we were served by a Mr. Bean act alike.

Later we had a double doh moment when we realised we'd 'lost' another hour by passing into the Romanian time zone. Mind it felt more like 50 years at times......

Today more hot, flat, straight and bum burning miles. Total 71 miles and 120m of ascent. Total trip 2585 miles.

Friday 08 August 2008

With the big miles of the past couple of days and having missed an hour's sleep, we started the day feeling a little jaded.

Breakfasted at the hotel which was a splendid affair.

Shortly afterwards, we were amused to see a couple of businessmen 'parting company' with their economic overnight companions.

The plan for today is to dispatch the 60 miles to Huedin, Romania and in fact in the middle of Transylvania.

Left around 09:00 into the bustle of the Oradea rush. Thankfully the rust coloured architecture of yesterday had been replaced with some lovely Baroque buildings which was much better.

We got our heads down in very hot temps. and very heavy traffic. We've notice an immediate change in HGV driver behaviour, the Romanian's being very aggressive bordering on witless at times.

The villages we passed through were more run down than we'd seen elsewhere though the scenery was very pretty. We also saw our first shoeless beggar children of the trip and the whole place had a bit of a depressed air to it.

Though the HGV drivers did their best to force us into the shrubbery, the public at large were very welcoming and beeped and waved as they passed by.

About halfway to our destination, we met another pig of a hill and gained over 600m up a 1:10 hill in the midday heat.

We were both dripping (and gasping) as we crested the summit though the descent down the other side was surprising free from HGV intervention. Unfortunately this did not last long.

We carried on fighting the heat and trying to keep on the white line at the side of the road to avoid any HGV aggression.

A little later, this proved our undoing when the bike dropped off the edge of the tarmac and spun back across the road spitting it's precious cargo of Miles & Tracey off in the process.

Fortunately, we seemed to be in a rare non-traffic bubble and we somehow avoided getting in anyone's way.

After rolling around a bit, we scuttled to the side of the road. We then tended a bit of first aid to poor Disharmony II, checked each other out (not necessarily in that order) and got on our way.

As we arrived in Huedin, we were both equally unimpressed and cycled straight out of the other side.

We then found a roadside hotel for the evening that was better than it looked.

Checked in, showered, changed, ate and slept.

Today more hot, traffic infested (and at times acrobatic) miles. Total 65 miles and 655m of ascent. Total trip 2650 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

04 August 2008

Monday 04 August 2008

After an exceptionally hot and sticky (uuugh) night, we skipped breakfast at our digs and hit the road just after 08:30.

The early start lasted just long enough to get around the next corner into the town centre. Breakfast was purchased from a supermarket and consumed al fresco (posh for eating outside) in the park.

Our plan today is to reach Eger, Hungary. A distance of some 50 odd miles, quite a bit of climbing and hopefully, mostly spent on 'B' and 'C' roads.

Finally set off in anger at around 09:30 in already extremely hot conditions. Forecast today is for 33 degrees Celsius....

Followed Route 2203 North (yes, North though what we were doing riding North during a North to South ride is a reasonable question) and followed this in delightful countryside to Gyongyos, Hungary.

Our first refuelling stop was made at their mega Spar. Pop and ice cream later, we were back on the road trying to dodge too much radiation.

From Gyongyos, we followed the 'A' road Route 3 for a couple of kilometres and then turned off once again for 'man's country' and some more 'C' roads.

Almost immediately, we were into Hungarian wine producers territory completely surrounded by vineyards.

Rolling countryside with the odd barsteward of a hill and lovely quaint villages were the order of the day all the way into Eger.

On arrival, unusually, we immediately spotted directions to the the camping site. More unusually, the site was where it was supposed to be though at the top of a real killer 1:3 climb. Just what is needed at the end of a day....

We pitched and without further ado, marched into the town centre for a gander.

We were expecting a medieval hill town and were somewhat surprised to find a bustling modern town centre complete with ultra modern shopping mall.

Despite this, the centre was very nice and we made full use of both its supermarket (ha Tesco's again!) and a very nice restaurant for dinner.

Pigged out, we tackled the mile and a bit walk back to the campsite for a gentle lie down.

Chatted to our neighbours on one side; some nice French lads and stoically ignored the Poles on the other who'd invaded our space and pitched within feet of our tent.

Tsssk. Johnny Foreigner, just doesn't know the form.

Tomorrow we have our delayed rest day, this time back on normal schedule. There's quite a bit of housekeeping to do so we're unlikely to get back into Eger until late afternoon.

Today more hot, hot, hot miles. Total 53 miles and a quite hilly 625m of ascent. Total trip 2421 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

02 & 03 August 2008

Saturday 02 August 2008

Breakfasted at our pink hotel. Very nice. Surrounded by young Polish on their way to supporting Robert Kubica at the Hungarian Grand Prix tomorrow.

Our plan for today is to cross the Slovakian/Hungarian border just outside Sahy then cycle the 50 or so miles into Budapest, Hungary. We also plan to use tomorrow as a rest day to look around Budapest as neither of us have been in the past.

Left the hotel slightly late at around 09:30. Chatted to a nice Bulgarian/Swede chap (he couldn't make his mind up which nationality he was) who had motorcycled up some of our intended route from Greece. Good vibes and no nasty surprises.

Left Sahy, Slovakia and immediately crossed the border into Hungary. Our 8th country of the trip. Border, largely another Euro non-entity though there were a couple of bored looking guards pulling the odd caravan over.

In all the border confusion, we missed our turn off for the boonies but realised within half a mile or so and corrected our mistake.

We followed Route 1201, a secondary road both very quiet and picturesque. So much so, we agreed we could easily have been cycling around the cottage in Brittany.

Carried on for approx. 25 miles before an ice cream/pop stop at Szob, Hungary. No sign of Granville (allegedly of Hungarian parentage) or any stuttering Arkrights....

From Szob, we followed the river Danube until Nagymaros where we caught a little, bitty RORO ferry across the river to Visegrad.

Had a bit of a payment panic as we'd not been able to get any Hungarian cash since entering the country and we nearly missed the ferry as tickets were cash only. Miles came to the rescue by running around the town and finding an ATM that we'd previously thought was a phone box.

On the ferry, a nice Hungarian chap (also alleged cyclist) gave us lots of advice and apparent important info. on what we were about to embark on. Most we found, to be not necessarily so.....

Once on the south bank of the Danube, we picked up Route 11 (again a secondary road) and followed this along the river bank into Budapest.

Had a bit of a production trying to find the campsite as both Tom Tom and Michelin were telling porkies.

After a few circuits of what we thought was the correct area, we stumbled across 'Mini Camping' which is exactly what it proved to be.

The campsite was just like a big backgarden though clean enough and with most of the right kit.

Following the advice of the Marty Feldman like owner, we went for a stroll to pick up provisions for the evening meal. Unfortunately, Marty had neglected to advise us of the nearby ghetto which proved to be a 'nice' surprise.

Having circumnavigated the nasty area we came across that paragon of civilisation..... Macky D's.... Oh dear. Yes, we must admit, tonight we ate at that dreadful place.

In our defence, there was naff all else on the menu except perhaps a nice stabbing in da hood!

Had a pleasant evening constitutional along the banks of the Danube then found our way back to Gullivers Kingdom that was our itsy bitsy campsite.

Today again a pleasant and not too hilly total of 57 miles and 275m of ascent. Total trip 2309 miles.

Sunday 03 August 2008

Our miniature campsite was a bit of a rockers paradise until the early hours. Unfortunately, for Tracey, this lead to a sleepless night. For Miles, earplugs saved the day (well night anyway).

Overnight we had a bit of a rethink over our plans. We'd come to the conclusion, Budapest was not really an ideal cycle tourist destination. Too big and too many multi lane highways choked with too much traffic.

We decided to forego our planned rest and exploration day in favour of an early exit during the quieter hours of Sunday morning. This would hopefully enable us to avoid the worst of Budapest's rush and save our nerves and collective sanity.

We packed up and set off shortly after 09:00 in already very hot conditions Temps yesterday were near 30 degrees Celsius and it seemed not much lower overnight.

We followed a riverside bike path for a couple of miles towards Budapest centre until it petered out into a construction site.

There followed a myriad of turns, bumps, crossings and intersections but we somehow managed to avoid getting off route. Uncle Tom Tom was again most helpful.

We picked up Route 31 out of the city and got our heads down to crank out the miles.

Traffic very light and countryside East Anglian flat (once again) though scenic.

Due to the heat, we took regular pop and ice cream breaks though sadly CAKE once again was absent from our daily menu. Double disaster, looks like choccy will also be deleted from the preferred supplies list as it is now rapidly turning to gooey liquid.

We continued to enjoy the light traffic and pleasant surroundings until we arrived in Jaszbereny, Nowheresville, Hungary.

We did a quick circumnavigation of the town and cleverly followed 'bed' signs but missed the hotel they were pointing to.

After another circuit we showed real restraint in asking an ice cream vendor for directions whilst avoiding sampling the product.

In very short order, we were booked into a rather basic Guest House and in the downstairs bar cheering for Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Shame we were not able to get tickets as the Hungaroring is just outside Budapest.

Dinner was taken in the very nice town centre at the 'Arizona Steak House', that well known Hungarian speciality!

After dinner, we completed the evening by stumbling across the hotel we'd been unable to find earlier. Happily, we didn't end up regretting the near miss too much.

Today a very very hot total of 59 miles and 160m of ascent. Total trip 2368 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

01 August 2008

Friday 01 August 2008

Pinch punch first of the month and no returns!

This is our second start to a month whilst we've been away. Makes it feel like we've been gone ages....

The plan today was to firstly catch up the shortfall in yesterday's mileage (due to the thunderstorm) then knock out another 60 or so miles to the nonentity town of Sahy, on the Slovakian/Hungarian border.

Sahy was chosen as our destination as it a) Had a campsite marked on the map and b) Was roughly 60 miles from our last overnight stay. Arbitrary or what?

The day dawned hot and sunny again and after enjoying a decent enough breakfast at our hotel, we hit the road just after 09:00.

Breakie is very important to hungry cyclists (as is any form of calorie consumption) and this one comprised of peculiar choccy 'cornflakes' with hot milk (looked a bit like a bowl of black toenails!), cheese on toast with fried eggs for Miles and sloppy scrambled eggs for Tracey. Mmmm.....

Unfortunately not all our kit had dried fully from the previous evenings rainstorm and we squelched our way out of the hotel in still soggy shoes. Trench foot anyone?

We hit Route 66 (no not that Route 66, that's for another day....) and dispatched the 10 or so miles from yesterday in a speedy 30 minutes. No hills and we were flying.

Arrived into and exited Banska Bystrica without drama thanks to a little routing advice from good old Tom Tom. We turned south and picked up Route 69, a secondary road that ran parallel to the main E77.

We must admit to a minor navigational faux pas here that had us scuttling across the 4 lanes of dual carriageway to pick up the smaller road which we had somehow missed.

Bet the locals don't see many fully laden tandems being run across their motorways by mad Brits!

The 'B' road was wonderfully quiet and took us to Zvolen where we once again joined the 'A' road alternative though now diminished to a friendly and quiet single carriageway.

Our first refuelling stop was taken just before 30 miles when local CAKE, coffee and pop were consumed. Yum.

Refreshed, we hopped back into the saddle(s) and span away the miles to an ice cream break in Krupina. Miles had a greedy 4 blobs, Tracey a self controlled 3.

En route, we spotted a giant knife, fork and spoon at the side of the road. When we say 'giant' we mean about 5m high! Imagine someone giving directions near there; 'Turn left at the fork in the road'...... 'No....the FORK in the road'.....

10 miles or so south of Krupina, we took a lovely 'C' road alternative to the 'A' we were on. Even though the bigger roads were very quiet compared to Poland, we fancied a bit of real countryside.

The first few hundred metres proved to be a very tough climb out of the valley followed by a ridge traverse in lovely surroundings and then a fantastic descent into a parallel valley.

We followed this minor road alternative all the way to our destination of Sahy. Fantastic riding, best of the trip so far.

On arrival in Sahy, we checked out the campsite which was rejected by the Goff quality control department on the grounds that it was crap. We then backtracked as rain threatened and booked into a pleasant (though very pink) town centre hotel.

Dinner was taken in the hotel restaurant followed by more in room gonking.

Hungary tomorrow, Budapest beckons.

Today a very pleasant and not too hilly total of 72 miles and 420m of ascent. Total trip 2273 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.