Dupnica to Strumyani

September 21, 2015

It rained most of the night. I left the hotel under a cloudy sky, wondering if I would need my rain gear.

I managed to stay on a small road for just a couple of miles before it joined the main road, the one I had ridden yesterday. It's Bulgaria route 1 on my map, and also E79, and is the main road to Greece.

Note the completion date of 2002. I ran into a few roadworks. Think it's the same project?

The road was busy, and really wet from the rain, but did have some pretty views.

Just 10 km from Dupnitsa I met a Polish cyclist, stopped at an abandoned gas station fixing a flat tire. He had spent the night camped in an old building nearby, protected from the rain, and had built a fire. He had been having a problem with flats, about 2 each day, and blamed it on thorns from the roadside bushes. I didn't mention that I haven't had even one flat tire yet. He was traveling light, with a bike packing set up. I told him I wouldn't take a picture of his bike in it's disabled state, but I wish I had. He was heading north, back home to Poland.

I stopped for coffee. The owner of the cafe was sweeping rain water from the front of the cafe. Maybe it had rained there this morning, and I'd missed it. The roads were wet enough, and I was catching spray from passing cars and trucks.

New road, not yet open to traffic. The busy road that I'm on will make a nice cycling road once the new road opens.

The road was following the Struma River through a narrow gorge, and there are a lot of outdoor sports. It looks like this is the season for rafting, and I caught some rafters in some rapids at a bridge.

There were a couple of tunnels. The longer one had a bypass, so I could ride around it, but it was off to the left and I had to wait for a break in traffic to get over on both ends.

There seemed to be statues at some random places along the road. Maybe if I could read Bulgarian, is understand why.

I stopped for the day in Strumyani. It's a small town, and not too interesting. When the road broke out of the gorge and things flattened out it seemed like a good time to stop. The previous town, Kresna, was very busy with lots of semis parked off the road, and I didn't like the atmosphere. I stopped relatively early, at about 3 p.m. I'm glad I had time to settle in before dinner. It has been raining again. During dinner the wind kicked up and I moved from the outside covered terrace to an indoor seating area. I hope the rain stops soon so the road isn't so wet tomorrow.

Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 2,800 km (1,739 miles)

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