Gwilym's Adventure Blog

What a difference a day makes! (And 2 countries and 400 odd km) Couldn't wait to leave a wet and miserable Bulgaria this morning with a 6am start and a 3 hour drive to the North Macedonian border.  By rights this should have taken far longer than 20mins  but it was this easy. Show Passport and V5 to get out of Bulgaria Show Passport and V5 to get into Macedonia. As I didn't have a green card for insurance I had to walk 50m to a booth, pay €50 for a month and then walk back to show the guard and collect my passport. Super easy. Hope the other countries I don't have insurance for are this easy though I suspect that may not be the case. The mountain roads in Macedonia were quiet and although not the best tarmac, the views more than made up for it. Lots of storks on lampposts, it was the same in Romania and Bulgaria. A very nice chap with excellent English working in the petrol station told me about the 2 lakes which were the ...

Things have not quite gone to plan today. Firstly I was woken up around midnight last night by the mother of all thunderstorms. The wind was horrendous as well as the rain and lightening and for the best part of an hour I was lying in my tent wishing I was somewhere else. Anyway, this morning I got away at 6.30am after riding my bike off a waterlogged pitch. No hanging about as it was a 3hour ride to the ferry across the Danube which at only €3 seemed a bargain. Especially a only me and 1 truck on it. A quick passport check on docking and I was in Bulgaria heading south. There was a bureau exchange at the border control but it doesn't open on a Monday so I still have some Romainia Leu and Euros but no Bulgarian currency. A low cloud just hung around keeping the temperature down initially before it started climbing rapidly to low 30s. A great little road (162 and 16) bending and winding through the hills before I dropped down to use the Sofia ri...