Days 49-51 – Battling Through Romania: Luncavița to Negru Vodă

Days 49-51 – Battling Through Romania: Luncavița to Negru Vodă

Sunday February 22, 2015, 238 km (148 miles) – Total so far: 3,812 km (2,369 miles)

Day 49: Luncavița to Tulcea – 57km

Due to the wind and the angle I had quite a bad night of sleep. The one positive about the location though was the view of the night sky. From where I was camping I could see hundreds of stars and the moon glowing brightly over the wide plain laid out before me. It was a brilliant sight and almost made up for all the hardship going through the mud to get there…almost!

When I had the tent packed up I had the long journey back through the mud to look forward to. I tried carrying my bike most of the way again but pulled something in my bicep trying to do it. The extra kilos of mud now attached to the bike were probably the cause of this. So I had no option but to split the luggage up and do everything in three trips. I obviously didn’t want to leave my luggage or bike sitting my the side of the road so overall I made twelve trips back and forth along the muddy track before finally getting to the road. Here I had to reattach all my luggage and also clean out all the mud which was clogging up the mudguards. When I finally did get going I was setting off into by far the strongest headwind of the trip so far, it was vicious. I could tell today was going to be a fun day!

The morning didn’t start off too bad though, the scenery was pleasant, the sun was out and there were blue skies. I even found a lovely lookout spot over the plains to stop for an early lunch.

After lunch the headwind picked up even more though and it was a real struggle to make any progress. When I was slightly sheltered I could go at 15 km/h but in the open plains when the wind was right in my face I was down to traveling at 12km/h. Whenever I got to a steep hill these speeds were then halved! I needed to be aiming for 100km a day if I wanted to make Istanbul in time but with this ferocious headwind pushing me back this wasn’t going to be achievable today and I knew it.

Of course as I was battling this headwind throughout the day I got the usual chases from dogs. Shouting “Back!” was working for the most part though. However in one case I mistimed things horribly. Two dogs appeared on the opposite side of the road sprinting towards me and barking like crazy. As they came at me I shouted at them. What I hadn’t noticed though was the oncoming BMW which appeared out of nowhere going far too fast for a country road. As I shouted at the dogs they hesitated and the BMW sped right into one of them knocking him under the wheel of the car and killing him instantly. It was kind of shocking to see. Whether he would have cleared the car if I hadn’t shouted I’m not actually sure as it came up so fast but it definitely didn’t help. And so I couldn’t help but feel quite guilty about the incident. The BMW sped off as if nothing had happened and there was no one else around so there was nothing else I could do except just cycle on feeling a bit crap about myself. As vicious as some of the dogs around here are none of them deserve that kind of an end so I vowed to be a lot more careful in future.

I continued on battling the wind for a couple of hours. I was having a horrid time as the wind just wouldn’t die down. If I was back home I probably wouldn’t go out for a cycle when the winds were this strong as it would be too dangerous on the roads but when you’re out here in the countryside of Romania you don’t have any choice but to cycle in it. One big climb in particular took a lot out of me. The wind was so strong here that it actually made me stall a couple of times going up the hill. I couldn’t hear cars coming up behind me due to it either so I would get a fright as they appeared out of nowhere speeding by my left shoulder. I needed a lot of breaks to make it to the top of this climb, by the time I got to the top I just felt numb from the force of the wind hitting me the whole way up.

By the time I had descended back down to sea level I checked the time and realised it was going to be after 4pm when I reached Tulcea. I would have under an hour of daylight if I was to continue south from there. With the crazy wind I knew I wouldn’t make much headway. Either way I just felt completely beaten from fighting the headwind all day so I decided I was going to call it a day in Tulcea. I checked on my phone to see there was a small guesthouse for €15 on the south side of town. So without any hesitation or guilty feeling I booked a spot there before forcing myself to get back on the bike and battle the last 10 kilometres into the headwind.

The last 10 kilometres were extremely frustrating as I was really struggling to make headway against the wind. When I finally did arrive at the southern side of Tulcea I checked my bike computer to see I had averaged 13.5km/h for the day which was no surprise.

I checked into the guesthouse and straight away just collapsed on the bed. I was aiming for 100km today but had instead only covered 57km. I checked the forecast to see that the wind would be against me again tomorrow and would still be pretty strong but not as bad as today. It looked like I had a very tough task on my hands to get to Istanbul in the time I had originally aimed for.

That night I decided to get some proper food into me. Sandwiches with cold meat or nutella just weren’t giving me the energy I needed. I checked out the only restaurant that was anywhere near the guesthouse to find out it was closed for renovations. It turned out a couple of wild dogs had taken up residence in an outbuilding outside it and I ended up getting chased away! So I had no option but to make the long walk into town. I was hoping to find somewhere to get food on the way in but all I passed were banks, this town seemed to be made of nothing but banks. When I did finally find a place I was ignored completely by the people working there so just left. Romania was turning out to be a very friendly country! After some yet more walking I finally found a place. They were only serving pizzas so I just ordered a large one to myself and devoured it.

As I was shamelessly stuffing my face a Romanian guy who noticed I was carrying a bag designed to attach to a touring bike came over. He introduced himself as Christian, a Warmshowers host from a town nearby. He invited me to sit down with himself and an Italian woman he was showing around the region. I sat down with the two of them and got chatting. Christian has a tradition everytime he comes to Tulcea of having a Guinness in one of the bars here. This was a tradition I could get on board with! Guinness is one of my favourite drinks back home and I hadn’t managed to find any on this trip so far, the closest being Murphy’s in an Irish bar in Chisinau.

So when we were finished here, the Italian woman headed back to her hotel and the two of us headed to a nearby bar, one of only two in the entire town that served Guinness. When I walked into the bar they were playing some Offspring followed by some Linkin Park, followed by loads of good punk and classic rock songs, this was my kind of bar. I relaxed here and had two beautiful pints of Guinness with Christian and a friend of his who we met there. It was good to chat to someone in English again as my conversations in English since Lviv had been limited to those I had in Chisinau. After two pints I decided to call it a night early and get back to the hotel. I’d need to be in the full of my health if I wanted to tackle that headwind properly the next day!

Day 50: Tulcea to Sinoe – 71.3km

I really struggled to find the motivation to get out of bed as I knew exactly what kind of headwind lay in store for me once I got on the bike again. Typically it was now raining too which did nothing to improve my mood. I was hoping that Romania would help lift my spirits after the tough effort it had taken to cross Moldova but it looked like I was going to struggle just as much here.

I forced myself to get onto the bike in the end and set off into the headwind. On the bright side it wasn’t as strong as yesterday, so it was only the second strongest headwind I’d had so far on this trip! As you can see I’m really struggling to find positives here! To put the wind in perspective the road turned back on itself at one stage so that I was climbing a reasonably steep hill with the wind behind me. I held 21km/h going up this steep hill with very little effort.

As I was battling this wind I saw a very strange and unfamiliar sight in the distance speeding towards me, another touring cyclist! We stopped by the side of the road when we met each other and had a quick chat. This was the first touring cyclist I had seen on the trip so far, it had taken me 50 days to finally see another one, I didn’t think it’d be possible to go that long without meeting another, especially in Europe but it seems not many (rather wisely!) take on the European winter.

Unfortunately I forgot to take down his name but this dude was a Japanese cyclist who had flown over here for a short cycling trip around the region during his college holidays. He was a very enthusiastic chap and you couldn’t help but be lifted by his happiness. The fact that he had a massive tailwind behind him and had already done 110+km that morning probably had something to do with it though! I meanwhile was sitting on 27 hard fought kilometres! We had a quick chat about what cycling in Romania was like and gave each other tips for the road ahead. He was delighted to hear that there was a cheap guesthouse only 27km along the road. So soon enough we parted ways and I looked on jealously as he accelerated away frighteningly fast into the distance.

After this encounter the rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully. I continued fighting the headwind along a pretty busy road with the rain coming and going all day. Towards the end of the day I reached a turn off which would allow me to follow a quieter road to Constanta. Due to the headwind slowing down my progress all day I didn’t have a hope of reaching Constanta before dark though.

I continued along this quieter road where the mist which had been growing all day got thicker and the rain got heavier. I was soaked through to the skin, fairly cold and inevitably feeling a bit down after failing to get anywhere near my target of 100 kilometres.

As it was getting dark I had to decide what to do for the night. All that surrounded me were saturated muddy fields with very little cover so I checked my phone to see that there was a small family run hotel in one of the villages a bit up the road. It was just about within my budget so considering the weather and the lack of wild camp options I gave in and ended the day here. It ended up being a good call as I was able to get the price down almost halfway by opting out of breakfast.

I had a good hard look at the maps here tonight and reconsidered my options. I was having a tough time cycling through this region so I really just wanted to push on with it and get it over with as quickly as possible. The sooner I got to Istanbul the better. I could still achieve my original target if I could cycle 650km in the next 6 days. It was a challenge, especially considering the constant headwind but I like taking on challenges like this so I set myself the goal and got to bed early aiming for a much bigger day tomorrow.

Day 51: Sinoe to Negru Vodă – 109.5km

When I woke up in the morning it was raining much stronger than the day previously and there was an even heavier mist down. I had my motivation back though, I had a solid goal to aim for and I felt like giving it my all to see if I could achieve it. It was strange but having a clearly set difficult goal like this to tackle made the conditions outside a lot more bearable and I found it nowhere near as difficult to get on the bike as I had over the last few days. I was offered a shot before I left by some of the construction workers that were renovating part of the hotel. It was just that bit too early though so I made the very rare move for me of declining alcohol!

The mist that was down along the road to Constanta was quite heavy, cars would just seemingly appear out of nowhere. The road I was on was very quiet though so it wasn’t much of an issue. Along this road the wind was still in my face at times but was nowhere near as strong as the last few days. Due to this I was able to make some good progress and had 40 kilometres covered along this quiet road in no time at all. I was feeling a lot more full of energy than I had in a few days, the dieing down of the headwind had made things a lot easier on me.

After this stretch of quiet road I reached the busier causeway which led through Mamaia and into the city of Constanta. Although I had the Black Sea on one side of me here and a lake on the other I couldn’t see either through the mist.

Unfortunately for me a large portion of this road was being resurfaced so for a couple of kilometres the road surface turned to dirt, rocks and sticky mud. It was rough going on the bike and due to all the rain that had fallen, myself, the bike and all my luggage got coated in a fine layer of mud. I gritted my teeth and kept going. As I was going along this I got a few chases and lunges from wild dogs which was to be expected around here. Romania was really throwing everything it could at me!

After a few kilometres of mud the tarmac returned and I made my way into the city of Constanta passing eerie half finished resorts and tower blocks which would just appear out of the mist. I was soon out the far side of the city and made my way to the turn off I was looking for which would lead me away from the coast and onto a quieter road inland.

I stocked up on food just before the turn off and then set off again into the hills and the never ending mist. I had already covered over 60 kilometres by this stage so I made sure to keep the effort going and pushed hard as I made my way into the hills. The headwind disappeared as soon as I made this turn off and after half an hour or so the mist finally disappeared and I was left with a clear view ahead. I kept going until it got dark as I needed to make as much headway into my 650km target as I could.

My aim today had been to get within striking distance of the Bulgarian border. As it started getting late in the day I was well within target of that so began looking out for wild camp locations. There wasn’t much around as there were just endless open fields on either side of the road. So I had to get a bit inventive. Along the side of the road I spotted a dry gully which led away into the fields. I wheeled my bike down this and walked a few hundred metres along the base of it until I was out of view of the road. It was probably one of my favourite wild camp locations on the trip so far as it was just such an unusual place to spend the night.

I went to sleep that night feeling a bit better about my goal. I had covered 109.5km and lay only 6km from the Bulgarian border. I had conquered Romania and was all set for Bulgaria. I just needed to keep motivated and try and pull another 5 days like this out of the bag. Maybe it was just the bad weather and headwinds that were dampening my mood (although the dangerous driving was also a big part of it) but this corner of Europe was not making for great cycling so I just wanted to push on and get into Turkey where I knew things should get a bit better.