mannheim - ganchovets

Waking with a good morning shout from Cameron it was nearing ten AM, his couch was comfy, due to the black out blinds and air con along with a late night out on beers, all added up to mean a longer than I should have done lie in, I suppose it was inevitable! I had a long drive to go and should have been up with the larks, Cammy made us a very tasty breakfast, this pleased me for lots of reasons but mostly I was proud that my son could make his dad a healthy hearty breakfast, he is his own man now no longer my child, well; of course he is still my child to me, but this was me seeing him as an adult in the real world, not the parenting world I was used to while he was growing up, he helped me set up the old Garmin sat nav to the window of the insignia (he is way better than me at all that tech stuff) I had lost faith in the cars sat nav, I was also feeling my phone would be a faff without a passenger, the old Garmin had served me well previously

It was by then nearly eleven when I set off with Vienna put into the Garmin as my next destination, there would have been previously (pre Brexit & pre covid days) quicker routes across Europe to Bulgaria, I was trying to avoid as many hard borders as possible, from previous experience driving and cycling across Europe the border between Germany and Austria is virtually inexistent, on this occasion I was stuck in a huge traffic jam for hours trying to get over the border, this was a twofold problem firstly they had placed some border guards simply checking random cars about the pandemic, by the time I passed their station they were just waving folk through, this slowing of the traffic caused the second problem, in order to drive through many countries in Europe you need to pay a sort of road tax most countries call it a vignette, Karen had already paid the tempera road tax for Bulgaria and Romania on line, (none required for Holland Luxemburg and Germany that I had already passed through) Austria has no capability of buying on line, you need to stop at the border service stations and buy it from a counter, the traffic in and out of these service stations, was horrendous: partially due yet again with the pandemic as Austria was insisting that transit traffic could only stop at certain rest stops serviced and Un`serviced, I had purchased mine before reaching the busiest of these, which I can only presume had caused this traffic jam that had brought a motorway to a standstill for hours! The traffic also gets funnelled through cameras that scan your windscreen for the vignette

Originally I had hoped to spend a night in Vienna or Budapest, I was really looking forward to it, BUT; with the traffic jam and the transit only stopping places; I was made to change this plan as I approached Vienna it was pitch dark not good driving conditions, I decided to use a rest stop layby for a snooze, these big rest areas used by trucks cars and vans of all sizes are basic but free you could tell the people that use them often, some siting with other truckers around a supper table others in bivvy bags lying on the grass, I stupidly parked too near the toilet block but still managed five hours snooze with the seat back my hoody back to front on my face and ear plugs in, when I woke it was bright daylight I wasted no time in setting off, time for some driving catch up on my now very tight schedule,

I was heading to cross into Hungary next passing by Vienna, whilst driving over bridges that crossed the Danube along this route, it made me smile with happy memories of my cycle journey down the Danube, there was also all the motorway signs for the cities I stayed in on that great cycle holiday a beautiful part of the world, passing by Budapest once in Hungary I had to work out where to put into the sat nav to head to next? With no passenger to help with the navigation and stupidly not brought a physical map! I just chose a random city in Romania that I could avoid crossing into any other hard borders, this was a mistake I was away from motorways to arrive at a smaller less efficient hard border crossing I had tried all the different sat navs trying to find the best place to cross into Romania, Karen had been texting me to put in a place called Ostrov? I couldn’t find that on my phone neither could both the car sat navs, I was following a road called the E60 which had signs that said to – Romania: I went with it! I would worry about how to get to Vidin (where I hoped to cross into Bulgaria) once I was in Romania, I crossed into Romania at a town called Oradea, this was a small border crossing; the guard took my passport then asked for the car documents, he took all my documents then told me to go park up and come back in five minutes I watched him take all my documents to another kiosk, then I parked up and waited five mins as instructed, I took the opportunity to do some stretching while worrying about delays, I had to get into Bulgaria before midnight! at midnight people from the UK would be on Bulgaria’s code red list IE not allowed in! it was 13:20 by then, I had been driving for over eight hours since my snooze, after five mins I went over expecting a car search and questions? But no, a straight here you go have a good day, While I was at the border crossing, I sat next to a van/half truck with two engines tied to the back of it, it left the border the same time as me

There was an Aldi in town I parked in its car park and seriously considered doing a quick shop, BUT; time was important, I wanted to get to that border: once over I could shop, zooming in and out of my telephones google maps page, isn’t easy when trying to work out a route plan right across a country the size of Romania, the sat Navs (all three of them) failed me with this, I am sure on leaving town I overtook the half truck, then I drove all afternoon on back roads (the signs were like route 66 style). Stopping to check where this scenic route? the sat nav was taking me was going, I opted to follow my instinct and follow a road away from the scenic route, before long I found I was on a stretch of motorway! Where I overtook the half truck again, I hadn’t stopped and yet I overtook this truck again while on the motorway doing ninety, this was a sign to me he had a better initial route than me and I was correct to use my instinct, the motorway came to an end with a sign that said to the border, I stopped for fuel snacks and a pee here, then set off again, I was back on country roads that lead into the mountains, this area is called Mehedinți County, it is a county of Romania on the border with Serbia and Bulgaria. It is mostly located in the historical province of Oltenia, its extremely scenic driving through this area where the Carpathian Mountains cross down to the Danube. Its southern border with Bulgaria where I was heading towards, I was feeling my border crossing can’t be long now! While driving through the large scenic port city of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, I passed the half truck with engines on the outskirts once again! (How was this possible) It was then a scenic mountain road that I was following south towards my intended border crossing, time was marching on, it was half past eight at night, the sun was starting to set, A beautiful drive in that light through that scenery with even some pleasant to drive wood lined switchback roads, BUT; I wanted to get over that border before midnight, no time to enjoy the view The sky got dark! Not just because it was night time the clouds were heavy, the traffic slowed due to trucks, who I guessed correctly would be heading for the border bridge also, then the rain started then soon after that impressive flash lightning burst the sky. It lit the whole sky horizon to horizon, then that changed to powerful fork lightning! It was a scary drive, I overtook a slow-moving car which I could only guess that the driver was terrified a truck had overtaken him before me, he was going that slow, the truck driver wasn’t scared and kept a good pace through the rain and lightning I decided to tail him! If the lightning hit anyone of us surely it would be him, the same theory held true for any flash flood puddles, I would see the truck hit these first then drive accordingly! This worked out perfectly,

The truck pulled in behind another truck on the outskirts of a town, guessing correctly this was the start of the que over the border I pulled out and passed it, Karen had text me earlier saying do not que behind the trucks! cars have a separate route which is much quicker, from what I witnessed it must be days quicker, I must admit I felt bad overtaking my helpful truck (he will never know how big a favour he done me) it’s a normal two lane road at this area I drove along the middle of it in pouring rain past miles of queuing trucks, it must take them days to cross the border, The border crossing is on the Romanian side of the Danube at a town called Dolj, there are two gates for trucks two for cars and one for buses that cars were also using, the traffic was narrowed down firstly into just two lanes trucks to the right cars and vans left, as the cars got closer a border guard with a poncho on for the heavy rain and a torch signalled for me to join a third lane behind some vans, it was half past ten at night when I joined this que, this was like a scene from a scooby doo cartoon, the rain lashing down lightning both fork and flash illuminating the horizon and the sound of thunder, I had one and a half hours to get through this border post before they shut it to UK nationals, all traffic was moving at a snails pace I envisioned some super thorough border guard saying no entry to me! I chose the lane for non-EU passports as we have to now and yep it was the slowest, the van with the two engines passed me again, I made a count we had passed each other six times now on the same journey across Romania,

ten minutes before midnight I at last approached the window of the border crossing, being a left-hand drive, I rolled down the passenger window and stretched across, being hard of hearing short sighted and short on time I was stressed to the max! I handed over my passport and the cars V5 document this had by then became standard procedure, a young lady guard took my documents she looked at them and handed them through to the next window; signalling for me to also move to the next window, the next guard looked at my passport photo and looked at me where are you going? I said to my sister’s house in Bulgaria she lives in Ganchovets, he shrugged his shoulders is this in Bulgaria are you staying in Bulgaria? Yes, I said; you have PCR test? Yes, I said; he put his hand out the window for documental proof! I handed him my now way out of date tests from the ferry terminal at Newcastle along with my Edinburgh airport test result, he grabbed this paperwork and bundled it with my passport and vehicle documents, he then opened the door of his guardhouse and marched across to another guardhouse where I could see him chat with another guard, I was guessing/hoping their English reading wasn’t so good for the test paperwork! I was fully expecting to be told to drive over there and switch of engine, but NO! he came back to the window sat down stamped my passport wrote the entry date next to the wee car symbol and waved me on! I was in almost bang on midnight!

Next there is a booth for the toll over the Danube bridge I had my seven euros ready, it was so dark and the rain so heavy I couldn’t see the Danube as I crossed the bridge, but I was happy I had made it to the town of Vidin in Bulgaria which I had been driving hard to get to since leaving Cammy now more than a days driving previously, stress over ( I thought) when I got over into Bulgaria at Vidin the rain was still lashing down there was flash floods on the roads the sort of big puddles you can’t avoid, I considered having a sleep waiting until daylight to complete the journey in the morning, the sat nav gave an ETA at Dryanovo (it wouldn’t accept Ganchovets) of 05:00, I doubted this as I had driven to a bridge over the Danube from Ganchovets before and was certain it was only a couple of hours (different bridge DOH), I had never driven for twenty four hours non stop before! I kind of guessed I would like to tick that box and went for it,

Kazza had text to say head towards a place called Montana first, I put this town into the sat nav, the drive there was over some mountains, with my short sightedness the lack of street lights and the flash floods it wasn’t the easiest of driving, it was 01:40 when I arrived at the outskirts of Montana, I put Karen’s address into the sat nav, it said I would arrive at 05:30 I could not believe it another four hours of driving! I felt the only option was to keep going what would be the point of a snooze now? With me thinking the worst of the driving was done? I was thinking I would soon be on the motorway section between Sofia and Valiko Tarnivo (VT), I coulda/shoulda really have guessed the script had I truly sat down and thought about what was likely to happen. I have absolutely no idea where that sat nav took me? I was up and down mountains through villages and cities of all shapes and sizes roads in all kinds of disrepair, eventually after hours of me looking for familiar signs or roads, I came to an area I recognised (roughly at a guess) stopping for a pee and hoping to see a good light pollution free sky (it was overcast and a poor night sky) I smiled thinking nearly there now, it felt great to be on a road I recognised

I was approaching a town with a petrol station that I recognised, my brain said straight away why should I need to remember this petrol station? My brother points it out every airport run drive I remembered, speed camera here you fella he would say every trip! I slowed down sure enough there it was! I did actually laugh out loud as it’s a hidden one; I woulda been caught for sure had I not known, I came up behind another motorist who slowed at the next garage I hadn’t remembered this speed trap but the other driver knew and now I knew to be cautious, I had forgotten there was so many speeds traps

There was one last sat nav error just to make the drive a wee bit more entertaining right up to the last mile! The post code I had punched in for Dryanovo not Ganchovets as it wouldn’t accept that, I felt sure I would find my way easy enough, I was wrong of course I came through the large town of Dryanovo taking a turning at the end for the village of Ganchovets (my destination) at a junction the sat nav took me left, had I went right I woulda been only two miles drive on roads I would have recognised, I went left with the sat nav! and after a country drive ended up back on the main road I had left a distance back, then I was at a driveway for a house that the sat nav said was my destination! I switched it of drove the main road and on a Wim took a right turn at a sign which turned out to be the correct road, It was after six am when I parked up outside Karen &Allan’s house, the lights were all on Karen was up and watching for me, smiles all round as I entered the house, I know it’s only six am to you sis but; I have been driving non stop now for well over twenty-four hours I deserve a beer, it had also been well over two thousand miles of driving from my house, Allen got out of bed and I sat chatting drinking beers for two hours before going for a well-deserved sleep,