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!
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