Burgas and beyond: Its not sunny and its not a beach

January 22, 2014

Beyond Obzor I was into an area of wooded mountains that were very definitely populated by wolves. I knew this for an absolute fact because I could hear them howling all night from my tent. By which I mean that I was in my tent, not the wolves. Could you imagine if the wolves were actually in my tent howling, that would have been TERRIFYING! The area covered by the woods was very large and I reassured myself that the wolves were probably a lot further away than they sounded. I guess I would have felt better had I not found so many bones around my tent after I'd put it up. I consoled myself that at least they didn't look like human bones as I lay in my sleeping bag considering how long it would be before anyone would discover my remains.

Well, morning came and I once again woke up with that wonderful feeling of not having been torn apart by wolves (I love that feeling!) and I set off higher into the mountains. The road climbed up and up and up until I was right up in the clouds. As I was nearing the summit I was overtaken by a car with Romanian plates that beeped at me and I saw the driver waving. A little further up I found the car pulled over at the side of the road and the driver waiting to say hello to me.

"Hello" he smiled at me, "Did you spend the night in Constanta recently?"

"Why yes I did."

"I cyced with you around Constanta! You remember? There were lots of us cycling around the city"

How could I forget? Although I didn't recognise this man exactly. Maybe he was the bank robber. Anyway, he was a very nice man, on his way for a holiday in Turkey with his wife and their daughter, who waved to me cheerfully from the back seat. It was a very nice moment to break up the monotony of a long climb.

And the award for most unneccesary sunglasses of the year....

The views on the pass were nothing special but I was happy enough to be in the mountains amongst nature with everything being forested and there was a view of sorts over the Black Sea and the next beach resort town as I descended. One thing I did feel very agrieved about was the fact that I did cycle pretty much non-stop uphill for more than twenty kilometres and then descended for only eight kilometres before finding myself all the way back at sea level. This is clearly not fair and I feel like I should write and complain to someone about it, although I'm not sure who. When I was back at sea level I found myself in the beach resort town of Sunny Beach. No seriously, that is what it’s called. It was all resorts and hotels and massive water parks. The one thing I couldn't find at Sunny Beach was, however, the beach, because all the resort complexes blocked it off completely. Everything was so immaculately well maintained for the holiday makers, it was all such a far cry from the horrible cities that I'd seen where regular Bulgarian folk live. But the best thing that could be said for Sunny Beach was that I managed to actually find a Penny supermarket very easily. The fact that I was pursuing a Lidl at the time is neither here nor there.

From Sunny Beach to the city of Burgas it was actually flat! Now, I do remember saying that I wasn't going to visit any more Bulgarian cities after the nightmares in Dobric and Varna, but the thing was that Burgas was kind of directly in between me and Turkey and I couldn't work out a way around it on account of my not having a map. By far the easiest course of action seemed to be for me to just suck it up and get through it as quickly as possible. But Burgas had a few surprises in store. On the road into the city a segregated bicycle lane appeared. This already put Burgas far ahead of Dobric and Varna. Then a nice park appeared that I cycled through and saw some interesting statues.

"I told you he had a small one!" "Oh yes, he does, doesn't he, look everyone, he's got a small one!"

But it got better! Then I was led onto another bicycle lane, this one being alongside the beach. To my left was the Black Sea and to my right another, even nicer, park and there were lots of people around, almost looking happy. What kind of a Bulgarian city was this? What an extraordinary contrast. I came to a pier, I cycled out along it. I cycled back, I cycled into town. The main street was pedestrainised and it was full of people. There was more parks. The street was full of happy people. The atmosphere was wonderful. I literally couldn't believe that this was in the same country as the previous cities. I wanted to stay here for longer, but it was almost sunset and I had to get out and find somwhere to camp.

And then Burgas spoilt it all by having an ugly, busy, dangerous road out of town. Silly Burgas.

The next day was my last full day in Bulgaria and it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day at that. Up until this point the cycling in Bulgaria had swung widely from pleasant to terrifying, but on this day it moved firmly into the category of magnificent. By chance I found a quiet road through lovely scenery under a bright blue sky. A brief visit back to the coast, another seaside resort town, and then ending the day by climbing back into the mountians on the way to the Turkish border. This last road was wonderful - almost no traffic, climbing up through forested mountains, the promise of another night with the wolves, the sun setting and causing the sky to burn orange behind the peaks, it was just a perfect moment. And beyond it all lay the unknown mysteries of Turkey calling me onwards.

Only one thing took the edge off this day. As I cycled up I felt a bit of play in my crank arm and, stopping to inspect it more closely, realised that my bottom bracket had gone. To be fair to it, that bottom bracket was installed 50,000 kilometres ago. "50,000 kilometres! Is that all you can manage, you stupid worthless piece of crap!!!" I was taking it all in my stride. It shouldn't be a problem to ride with a loose bottom bracket for a little while until I had the chance to get it fixed. But this was of course coming on top of the front rack braize-on breaking off the other day which was presently still being held together with cable ties. All of which is ignoring (as I try to do) the wobble in my headset and the fact that the only way to shift down gears was to give my derailleur a good kick. I was about to leave Europe, determined to cycle across the whole of Asia from one end to the other, and my bicycle was quite literally falling apart beneath me. Watch out Turkey, here we come!

Another beach before the long climb away from the Black Sea

BULGARIA SUMMARY

Time: Six days

Distance: 398 kilometres

Best bits: The weather was great, some of the cycling was beautiful, the gas stations sublime

Worst bits: Most of the cities

Top tip: If you are looking for a supermarket in a city, be aware that the signs directing you towards said supermarket will surely by lying

22/01/14 - 79km

23/01/14 - 70km

24/01/14 - 77km (59km in Bulgaria)

Today's ride: 208 km (129 miles)
Total: 12,955 km (8,045 miles)

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