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.
