bulgaria-polmont-shetland-done

         my bro went above and beyond his duty for me this trip not only for the big drive to Novi Sad and back, not just for taking me to the bat caves and his banter, most definitely for taking me to the airport! for normal I wouldn't give such high praise as I would have done all that for him BUT unbeknownst to me this weekend was the rugby world cup! he is a huge rugby fan as most ex decent players are and this was the game of the tournament for Scotland! they were playing japan whoever won was getting through to the next round, My flight time was 4 pm its around 2-3 hrs drive from his place to Sofia airport he had to drop me at the time the game was getting played he was going to miss it, what a trooper he never even moaned and said he wouldn't see me going to the airport with anyone else,

         He was delighted a new section of motorway had been opened shaving at least 30 mins of the journey, he would catch the highlights (Scotland lost and were sent home)the drive to the airport improves all the time as of writing this there is still what the people call a gypsy community shanty style town on the approach, Its a strange concept to an inclusive Scot like me but from what i`ve experienced in Bulgaria and Romania there seems to be a sort of twin nationality with these large gypsy communities there is probably no politically correct way to write about it but the gypsy communities are large and live in squalor with horse and carts,
        the only thing I would say about Sofia airport was there was some bargain whisky`s and i regret not buying any, the flight home was nothing to write about either usual Ryanair stuff I was at the isle among non English speakers so i just listened to my audio-book,
          Off course it was lashing down with rain when I landed at Edinburgh airport Gary had very kindly offered to pick me up and was waiting round the corner, the rain was that hard there was a big pool of water on the motorway we had to slow for. he dropped me at the land and sea fish and chips shop, I had almost eaten half of my breaded fish supper with brown sauce before I got home, tasty stuff sea fish is better than fresh water fish (in my opinion) I had been in central Europe far from the sea for A while and was loving my haddock, I was only home one night and Ali and Gary wanted a catch up so it was a quick unpack and off to the Black bull for some beers,

     One night at home in my own bed and my big feather duvet felt great in the morning, I had a look at my organizer since the twenty eighth of July to the fifth of November I will have been in my own bed a total of eight nights, that`s 100 nights out of those 100 four nights were camping four at Cameron's house two at Bryan's the rest in various hotel beds! I always enjoy the train journey up to Aberdeen and my dinner while there its vegan Monday in the union street Brewdog bar every trip away for me on that Monday, that Monday i also visited the bar my niece works in but she wasn't working when i went in
     

    it was dark as I flew out from Aberdeen for Shetland in the morning the oil rigs in the north sea below as we flew over looked like little Christmas trees in the middle of the sea, I was back at work before I knew it adventure over, twenty one night-shifts to go before i can have another adventure, all those months ago i planned to take my bike to Bulgaria did I achieve my objective? I suppose i did the bike is in Bulgaria, I had cycled up the Rhine to Mannheim then down the Danube to Bulgaria? (nearly made it) it was a great adventure, I had went up through Holland into Germany then through Austria and Slovakia then Hungary and Croatia to finish cycling in Serbia, while visiting my son and brother,

back out running over my favourite peak on Shetland, I was asking myself was all that time away cycling alone worth it? when i think of all the things I could have done with that time and money,
         Christopher McCandless wrote in his diaries as a third person using the pseudonym Alexander super-tramp - this suggests he understood himself as a character in an adventure story, One of his last diary entries was -Happiness only real when shared!
    this blog has been a diary of my latest adventure story, if you are reading this now and have been reading them all then you are probably one of my close friends or family, I have done this blog so you could share the adventure, I would be delighted if you would text me if you thought it was worth it? also should I do a synopsis post on that very subject what I learned from what I seen and done on the journey? or should I move on to the next adventure? because I have lots of work to do on that already, I've made a start on that work including a new blog

Ganchovets Bulgaria

             The village my brother lives in is small it has a corner shop a train station (well a train platform) and that is about it, this is on the outskirts of Ganchovets a bigger town also with a train station- platform, Ganchovets has an ancient town square and a town hall shops restaurants and bars its getting more modernized every time i visit the first time i came here there was nowhere near as many good places to go for food and drinks, on previous visits i had to go to valiko tornovo if i wanted to go for a night out

               I woke late it was great to sleep longer than nine AM for only the second time in three month, I unloaded all my stuff out the car including the auld dear who was now placed in the woodstore poolside shelter (possibly retired!)
             

     I stripped off stuff that would suffer in a Bulgarian winter and asked Bryan if he could manage to get it oiled and sprayed at some point in someway to stop it getting damp, that was the auld dear and the old gear packed away, new brakes required a new back wheel also as the broken spoke had fell off and with the brakes being down to the metal the rim was well worn, at least a new back Tyre will be needed also the handlebar tape is needing renewed or done over, the handlebar secondary brake cables had rubbed a hole in my favorite bar bag! easy repaired though, the skip on my cycle helmet was broke I had to tape that up it will do as a spare out there, the bike seat was fine after its two layers of ductape but doesn't look good it would probably look fine with black tape, one day while cycling I felt the back panniers were squintly loaded and the bike didn't handle well on further inspection a holding nut and bolt was missing from the pannier rack, I repaired that with a nut and bolt I took off a cheap aldi mobile phone stem box that was a waste of cash, the frame is scratched but fine and she has a lovely new set of pedals! they are probably worth more than the bike now lol I have no idea at present what future lies for the auld dear, after our thousands of miles together she has done me well but her replacement has been built to my order bought and paid for - Kenny`s daunder is the future the auld dear is the past along with two cycle shirts shimano shoes and shorts plus a set of waterproofs the cheap panniers that I also had to repair a bit while on route all left, hand luggage only for the flight home had been booked

              my sister Karen and bro in law Allen have a house just along the street from Bryan but they were away back to Scotland, we went by their house and up to visit Bryan`s friends eve and Ian I love how their house still gets its water from an old well, we then went into town for dog food and had a few beers Bret and Ian joined us for a while and Bryan showed me round a few of the new places in ganchovet`s. I was impressed by the difference in the place, when i first went i am sure there was only three of four places you could sit down for a beer, now there was a posh looking hotel restaurant, a palystation bar with bean bags for the young team and one of the old places has had a revamp with late eating and drinking and a singer/guitarist setting the scene 
   

  the next day we set off at lunch time to the monastery which is nearby its also in a national park very touristic place even though its still a functioning monastery, I wasn't there for the religious stuff I was there to go up into the bat caves behind it, which were a great visit to get inside its four Bulgarian LEV roughly two pounds the currency is rising rapidly since my first visit to Bulgaria in 2010. loved my quick walk round these are big caves with a lit walkway the bats are small and hang high up you need to strain to see them I wish I had brought a set of binoculars, Bryan says the best time to visit here is spring when there is much more water and the frogs are singing
       

     Bryan had waited for me down at the restaurant as he had obviously been here before a few times,  he had said he would have a beer waiting for me coming back, but he had been distracted as he was wearing flip flops and by some freak of bad luck a wasp had stung him on the sole of his foot! apparently that`s a sore thing so I had a beer and a bowl of soup while he healed, the monastery and bat caves is growing all the time with tourists they will need to build a bigger visitors car park, i had been only to the restaurant previously Ian had bought me and Cameron dinner there but it was at night and i had no idea where we were that night,

        the caves get locked up at night and the monastery where the monks or friars go back to there monastic duties

            we dumped the car at the house then walked up to the office to await a lift into town, again we went round the bars of Ganchovets and had dinner in the the new hotel again, its handy there for the train platform, we still had to run for the train but made it the guard was helping two mountain bikers as its a bit of a hoist up onto the train for bikes, there is no platform machine for tickets the guard writes you one out by hand, which he done easily in our three to four mile train journey back to straight across from Karen and Al`s house

         I had bought a good bottle of whisky for Bryan in Scotland which i had carried on the back of the bike for weeks waiting to gift him it, I was thinking it would end up like the night i brought him whisky in Jordan and we tanned in our apartment talking about old times, he doesn't drink spirits in the house these days and we had plenty beer, we put on a film thou shalt not grow old followed by free solo and i fell asleep on his couch, the whisky was left untouched which was probably a wise thing! I should have thought it through as it was added weight to my cycle I really wasn't needing and a luxury I could possibly just as easily have bought once I arrived?

Back to Bulgaria

        We started the drive from novi sad straight after the hotel breakfast, It was a straight drive to the outskirt of the city then onto the good Serbian Toll roads, firstly out toward Belgrade and then out toward the Bulgarian border Initially on excellent motorways then out into the Serbian mountains winding round along side a deep gorge through lots of tunnels I had done this drive previously with Cameron and its an excellent drive, The hillsides around this area are covered in many varieties of trees which now in early October were in their autumn colors with the sun shining on the blue water of the river below as the road wound its way through the many tunnels
 

  this road does get narrow in places and I was looking at it through the eyes of cycling it? I don`t think it would be an enjoyable cycle the tunnels are narrow with no real path. we got caught behind a group of 3-4 cars which were behind an old small truck, suddenly without warning this truck weaved one way then the other and slammed head on into a wall off rock! the other cars including us all spotted the hazard and slowed down safely enough only the truck was smashed, as we drove up Bryan was ready to stop and administer first aid which we fully expected to be required! not because of the speed but because of the angle of the hit the crunching noise and the age of the old truck(there is a lot of old vehicles on the road in that country) he is a well experienced first aider from battlefields plus all his years in the police he has been involved in plenty worse incidents than this could ever be, this would be nothing to him but I have been a first Aider for well over twenty year and never had to deal with anything worse than a broken arm finger ankle or foot(sometimes my own) I was expecting a scene from the TV show casualty, fortunately the couple in the truck were fine and gave us a thumb up as we approached

         we left this road at the approached to the border leaving Serbia to enter Bulgaria it was simple enough because the car had its vignette and we were EU member citizens returning to A European union country, strange thing was as soon as we crossed into Bulgaria we were then on this ancient narrow cobblestone road for about five mile, we passed a girl cycling a seriously laden touring bike on this and i felt so sorry for her, there was lots of roadwork going on next to this road they are obviously building a big new one soon this old one will be gone thankfully! here`s hoping they are building a cycle lane into the new road or this old bone shaker of a road will be the route cyclists will have to take over the border
     

 soon enough we were back on good motorways on the approach to the outskirts of Sofia, I got my phones data roaming back on PING roam like home my phone said (magic) then we were on roads I knew and recognized, its a high up highway through a series of wide mountainside tunnels that surround Sofia, this mountainous region looked stunning with the trees in autumn colour`s, the hillsides and countryside of Bulgaria is covered in trees, Scotland could learn something from this our country thinks reforestation means industrial squares of pines, these mountains in a country that most houses are fueled by log fires is surround by numerous types of tress with no straight lines beautiful and sustainable for the people and the wildlife.

                   It was quarter to nine when we eventually arrived at my brothers area! it was a long days drive two days running for him (thanks bro) we were just in time to catch fannies supermarket which shuts at nine, bags of beer and some crisps and nuts were hastily bought while the staff that obviously knew Bryan well moaned at him in a jovial manner that the shop was closing soon, so obviously we forgot to get stuff for breakfast!

                  My bro has ended up with a stray dog and a kitten at his house, when we got there I was introduced to connor the dog who he then called Geoffrey for the rest of the weekend? he is a bloody big Alsatian and with his winter coat coming through (outside dogs need this coat here) he felt like an absolute bear of a dog, its totally untrained and my bro isn't interested in even trying to train him( he was once a police dog handler) big boy Geoffrey has a big leather collar attached to a heavy chain, Bryan takes him for a brief walk three times a day, I joined him for the walk routine after I was introduced to the beast from the east (his kitten) I don`t know if he will ever give it a name, its a cute little thing and he feeds it well apparently it was nearly dead of malnutrition when he found it, he lets it sleep in the outhouse but doesn't want it as a house cat, the rest of the weekend this cute kitten got into the house 3-4 times a day to be carried back out lol so cute, then it spent the rest of its time in an attempt to get in, of course the kittens never been introduced to Geoffrey big baw`s as it is snack size to him, so the kitten is put in the outhouse whenever un-trainable Geoffrey is unchained,

         we walked up to the corner shop not for food but in these villages corner shops sell beer out a fridge and locals sit outside the shop on patio furniture, Bryan calls it the office I would say the office needs a new loo the old one away out the back yard was interesting, he said hello to all the locals that were sat out there, as we were taking our beers to our seats outside, of course he speaks only a very little Bulgarian and they speak very little English he introduced me as his brat which he tells me is Bulgarian for brother! I`m  no sure I like being a brat!
     

     

Novi sad for a night

     

It was Thursday four or five PM when i crossed into Serbia from Croatia, my flight home from Sofia was Sunday afternoon, regardless how hard i cycled from here down the Danube i was never going to reach my objective of getting to Bulgaria, If I even tried I would be left with no time for a catch up with my brother whom I had only seen briefly for one day in two years, that meeting was at my nephews wedding so I never got much chance for a catch up that night, I wanted an opportunity to get a good catch up with him so I asked him to meet ,me in the city of Novi sad Serbia, Serbia and Bulgaria share a border this would save him crossing more than one border, I would cycle over from Croatia to meet him, we would have a night out then the next day head to his village so I could spend the Friday and Saturday with him before flying home.
             the Que for drivers on the Serb border was small i joined behind a couple of cars and got my passport stamped first and only time for that on the whole journey, it was a different story for the truck drivers trying to get into the EU from Serbia which is not a member state, there was at least a three mile Que of trucks with drivers standing about outside their trucks bored, various nationalities of truck drivers shouted things at me as i cycle past I smiled and waved at them they were just bored and wanting a bit of banter,
       

   I stopped at a petrol station were a group of truckers were sitting around the forecourt table smoking and drinking coffee, one of them could speak reasonable English and was wanting a chat< he had no idea how long it would take him to get through the border but he was parked up for the night and would join the Que in the morning.
             

   I text my bro and then we had a quick chat on the phone He was nearly at Novi sad I had thirty km to go so a minimum of an hour and half cycling or he could come to me he had sat Nav I told him to head for Backa Palanka I would be waiting somewhere he could see me, I cycled out of town to another garage and waited there, I also reminded him we were out of the EU and its no longer free roaming on the phones. It was two pound a min to call one pound twenty five per min to receive a call, thirty five pence a text there would also be data roaming charges, I had only been in the country a couple of hours and was approaching my pre set ten pound extra limit.
         

   I was glad we had decided to meet in-between towns as he spotted me easy, I took the front wheel of the auld dear and loaded her into my bro`s Belingo the cycling was over now! then we went to find somewhere to stay together switch the phones and devices of and get a beer up, we got a taxi into town there is a good bar and restaurant area in Novi sad we even found a craft ale bar, our Thursday night out was good

croatian roads

          I was impressed with Osijek and had enjoyed my visit the cycle out from the centre was reasonably simple out the main square down to the river then follow the pleasant cycle path to the end of town, there was a Lidl there I got water and juice it seemed to be a poor area so i locked the bike up and took of the bar bag and was worried about the bungee chorded backpack whilst i done a quick shop the rushing made me forget to get some snacks, i regretted this later because I was heading of into the countryside with no Croatian money and no snacks with around 80kms to the border of Serbia,
     

nearly all of this cycle was to be at the side of a busy road no cycle lane, it was like cycling in Scotland there was plenty signs saying cycle route but no cycle route just the side of a scary busy road and the roadside rubbish had returned,
          the distance wasn't too big a problem essentially I have cycled much more in a day, my initial plan was to do 140km to Novi Sad the nearest big Place once over the Serbian border, But the roads were narrow with lots of traffic, this distance was a big challenge that day
     

  I stopped in a city called Vokovar to take plenty pictures at what should have a been a third of my days journey, this city had seen A terrible amount of fighting during the serb croat war, the biggest battle in Europe since WW2 had happened here, the city was shelled and virtually destroyed by bombing it was mostly rebuilt now, but there was a water tower they had left to show the extent of the shelling,
            I had noticed a bit of rubbing happening whilst cycling that morning and thought I should investigate when i stopped to take pics of the shelled water tower.  the problem was my back brake was stuck on just like my front brake had done but this time! I had to stop and repair it as i was going to hit hills, i had never properly fixed the front brake so i would have to fix them both now as a rubbing brake is hard work,the last thing i needed this day was bloody extra hard work and no brakes was not an option on this busy main road with hills
       

   I cycled up onto a plain once out the city and into the country again, the scenery  and weather were lovely, for the next 30-40km i was on this narrow main road with trucks and cars flying past, this road dropped three or four times down to the river level and then steeply back up. its really exhilarating flying down a road on a bicycle i would be downing about forty mile an hour on a laden bike, when these steep drops had a bend into a village or hamlet doing that speed was scary and i was glad i had done the work on the brakes! the exciting downhills i tried to take advantage of as much as i could because the climb back up on each occasion had me in the granny gears off the saddle and shattered at the next section of flat upper plain farm roads,

         it took me a lot longer than i had hoped to get to the Croatian border at the bridge over the Danube into Serbia, there wasn't much traffic coming in or out i felt at the Croatian town of ilok , i joined the Que of cars about 4-5 in front of me as I pushed the cycle over and handed my passport through the window, the girl just scanned it and handed it back to me with a smile just a formality, then i was in no mans land on the bridge,

         I thought back to the bridge i crossed at Niagara falls from Canada into america there is a sign half way over that bridge with the countries on a sign post you can stand at the sign and have your photo taken with one half of you in each country, that would have been good but not here the bridge actually needed a paint,  I was now leaving the European union and entering a non EU country, the Danube looked stunning horizon to horizon and I was wondering if I would see it again!
   

Mohacs into Croatia

   Mohacs is a border town the last major place before leaving Hungary for Croatia, its also famous in Hungary for the two large battles that took place there, much like Falkirk near home the battles are mostly only of interest to Hungarians the cycle out of town to the battlefield memorial and visitor centre was along good cycle track and back roads, then once passed there it was all main road to the border,

      I never knew what to expect getting over into Croatia i was expecting the road to deteriorate as they normally do around borders especially ones where you leave a wealthy country to a less wealthy country, but the cycle route out was OK, i passed an old watch tower from the communist days and then there was a proper well marked and signed cycle route through passport control on the Hungarian side the Croatian side was empty for leaving the country, Croatia is also in the EU which surprised me off the huge Que of trucks waiting to enter Hungary from Croatia, its probably due to some sort of different levels of EU membership rules the old hard or soft border debate but there was definitely an issue for trucks entering Hungary from Croatia the Que of trucks was around two mile long,

           the weather was sunny and my book recommended mostly back roads for a spell and for the first time in a while i was away from the actual Danube and had two wee hills to go up! it was actually a relief to get some hills and once at the top i got a great vista of just how far this flat country spread totally flat from horizon to horizon except for one pointy hill in the distance, It was a grape wine growing region with loads of signs for vineyards, again this region was the scene of many battles over the centuries and at the top of one hill i had read there was a battle memorial there was no sign for it but i didn't want to drop down to the river again without checking out a left turn,
   

  that turned out to be a good decision after cycling around two mile away from the downhill road that was my route, I came across the big column and memorial to the second world war battle for the Danube crossing between the Russians and the Germans, it was a victory to the Russians but at a heavy price the Germans were outnumbered five to one,

    I took a steep path down from the memorial to the river level again back on the flat I had a can of radler for lunch with snacks then set of, there was an option about five mile along the road, there is a nature reserve here with a large wooded riverside slightly swamp like are there with a thirty five kilometre unpaved cycle track or you cycle on the main road? Marshall Tito had a hunting lodge here the biodiversity would have been great to see, I really wanted to do the woodland track but me and the auld dear were rattled to death already my fingers are still tingling i have lost a fair bit of weight and my arms have become skinny with no fluid layer. a better bike and more time i would defo done it but i opted for the road all the way into my evenings destination

     Osijek is yet another big city i had not heard of before, on the approach to town it was through an industrial wasteland then as if out of nowhere i came across the lovely riverside cycling running and tourist area, i stopped at a cafe in amongst an old plaza and ordered a beer (they had IPA!) but first i had to check i could pay using my card? as i still had no Croatian cash, no problem with the card and i checked on line and discovered what i thought was the ideal lodgings for the night for me, It called itself bobs hostel but by the description and photo it was a hotel not as hostel it appeared to be in a craft brewery ( it wasn't) on line it looked cool £40 for the night i booked it and cycled out,
 

 the cycle through the city in the sun was lovely i loved the trams very colourful bubble like things, the Croatians are huge on the flag and it seemed every second house had the red white and blue Croatian flag flying, even some of the trams had the flag flying front or back, there was lots of beautifull big buildings and a busy shopping area where my hostel was bang at the centre, there was no-one at reception i had to get someone from the attached restaurant so i had soup and a beer while getting someone to get me to my room, the way up was a pass-code security system which i had a code for now the worker should me how to get in gave me my room key and then went back to the restaurant to work, at the now unmanned reception there was a beer tap orange juice and coffee machine!? free beer oh yes i will have some of that my room was good but this wasn't the place i was expecting as what i thought was the craft brewery turned out to be a bottle and cocktail place the busy looking hostel bar turned out to be an attached diner sort of american based restaurant, I ended up having dinner there and a few beers before a short walk around town, then a free beer to bed, i was three floors up i better take two lol

Baja has a train station!

         It was cold when I left the hotel the garden would be fantastic in summer with the goldfish pond- wee swimming area kids play and sun loungers, but that morning it was cold I wanted to give up I felt I had done my time, first stop was the tourist info the girls English was limited there I wanted info on where i could take a train to from there? she didn't know or didn't understand but gave me directions to the train station which is called a  vasutallomas! In this part of the world (don’t ask me to pronounce it)! This was a total waste of two hours once I got to the ancient looking eastern block style post communist station, the staff spoke no English and were unhelpful after much hum and haw they said no bikes allowed and no info as to if it were possible anyway? I don’t think it is after a later conversation I think Hungarian trains stay within Hungary unless leaving from Budapest, (I think)
       

    All this trying to find a train way to get further downstream meant i set of late, the sun was out but it was still cold i circled around town a little lost to end up back passed the duna hotel. then I found my way out of town out through the suburbs over a canal bridge then eventually back onto flood dyke through the countryside it was beautiful, Miles and miles of flat tarmac flood dyke through a nature reserve
                 

 whilst cycling this  section i seen a cycle tourist in the distance you can tell the type, there was front and back panniers slow moving, I caught him reasonably quickly, I cycled up beside him, Hello do you speak English? yes ! he said he had cycled down to here from the nordkap he had family in Belgium, that he had stayed at for a while but the rest of the journey was self supported working where he had to, he mostly slept wild camping living on a budget, he had a solar panel to charge his phone but said that at least every two weeks he had to find someplace to camp with electricity to give the phone a full charge
 

  we got round to discussing hopes dreams desire stuff i mentioned the route from Alaska down to ushua that i sometimes dream of doing, he said he wouldn't be doing that as the Americans and Canadians dont like him because he is Colombian! true enough i suppose, although i did say to him the Canadians dont mind as much,or he could just start the journey in mexico make it a south american journey,
 

 we spoke in a mixture of Spanish and English and it was great for me to get an opportunity to practice my Spanish and i think good for Juan also as he got a few new English words, it was well over twenty mile of traffic free flood dyke, we cycled together chatting before we reached the ferry over to mohacs my destination for the night Juan was cycling on hoping to get to the border, you have to buy your ferry ticket at a kiosk before boarding, we had timed it perfectly the ferry had just arrived, i bought my ticket for me and the bike all down the Danube i had got used to knowing the bike gets a ticket also sometimes more expensive than mine,I then asked the girl for the same again i would pay for Juan as he is obviously on a tight budget and had been good company he was very grateful, it was a quick crossing i got him to take a picture of me, we discussed maps and routes I was interested to see how he was finding his way to Greece as he had no physical map, he was using a web page not an app! opencyclemap.org what a resource this is every cycle map in the world was instantly view-able! I had a look at it and zoomed in on cycle tracks at home awesome web page when i zoomed back out you could see that Holland for example was totally covered in cycle routes,
   

   Juan had Instagram i clicked to follow him and then we said goodbye as i went to tourist info to see if it were possible to get a train from this side of the Danube further downstream, it wasn't possible so i went for a beer and find somewhere to stay for the night it was still early to stop cycling but this was the biggest town near the border with Croatia tomorrow there would be a big days cycling over the border and then on to a town big enough to have a hotel,
        My hotel that night was right next to the shore and a church which rang its bells every half an hour starting at 06:00! I went out for dinner and found a great bar in town for dinner and beers with good rock tunes playing and staff that spoke good English perfect end to the day,