Day 55

11/10/2011 – Day 55

Calafat to Corabia – 139km

We were woken up by someone trying to open the door to the room. This is not the first time it has happened and it is lucky we always lock the door.

Breakfast was in the same hotel restaurant that had no food last night and was the standard choice of omelettes, cheese, ham, jams, etc. plus sausages or toast. At least the coffee was good this morning.

 The plan for today was to get to Bechet, but the hotel that the guide tells us is there does not appear on Google map which is a bit of a worry. Neither the guide nor Google are infallible but it is still worth having a plan B.

Autumn has definitely arrived as although the sun is out it is still a bit chilly. The sky is bright blue and not a cloud to be seen. Leaving Calafat is not easy as there are no signs for the route at all. There have been no signs since we entered Romania at all so the guide has become vital. The good news for today is that the wind is right behind us all the way. By the time we stopped for second coffee we had done 11km in just 30 minutes.

After the coffee we headed out again and were travelling fast, the traffic was very light and road conditions were good. Then the disaster of the day happened, one of the bolts holding M’s rack to the back of his bike sheared off resulting in the rack dropping to one side and rubbing against his tyre.

This has to be sorted as soon as we can so we stop at the one place where we will always find information, the local bar. And sure enough the woman knew that the man next door was a handy man. He came out and had a look at the damage and said he could not fix it but he could get us back on the road. By the time we had finished our drinks he had put a new bolt onto it but the rack was still leaning to one side.

We had bought food earlier and planned to have a picnic lunch roughly half way to our objective. This meant stopping at Bistrel hopefully at a bar. When we arrived the town seemed to be full of gypsies who have a reputation of stealing everything they can. We had already had a run in with some kids where they tried to grab stuff off the back of the bike as we cycled past so we were very cautious about stopping. But strangely enough the kids and adults as well (even one of the old ladies dressed in black) were waving and trying to ‘high five’ as we passed. A lot of them would shout ‘hello’ or ‘hola’ and some would ask ‘what is your name’.

When we did stop for lunch we thought it was a bar where we could at least get a coffee, but it turned out to be a shop. The inside of the shop was totally enclosed, there was an area for the customers, a wooden framed wall with windows and a hatch separating you from the shop itself. To buy something you had to ask for it and pay for it before it was passed through the hatch to you. The only other place I had seen this was in Liverpool.

After lunch we carried on towards Bechet, out average speed at this point was 24.6km/h which is outstanding. As we were leaving the shop M stopped to throw his rubbish in a bin and a cart load of gypsies applauded and cheered, ‘that is how it should be done’ they called. When you look around at the piles of rubbish in the street and the bags dumped at the side of the road you wonder if they are the only people in the whole country who want the place to be clean!

 Just before the village of Gighera we hit a large hill and the speed and distance started to tell, at this time we had done about 70km. Our first standby stop was just outside the next village, Zǎval, where there is a campsite. We stopped here for a coffee only to find it closed for the winter. The only things living there now are the feral dogs we see everywhere.

Back on the road we finally reach Bechet after 91km. It is only 3pm when we stop for a coffee and ask for directions to the hotel and a bike shop to get the repair on M’s bike checked. Coincidently, just before we stopped the damage to the back wheel on M’s bike from a few days ago and the rack now leaning to one side meant that the tyre has started to rub on the rack.

The bike shop we were directed to was in fact a builder’s merchant which happened to sell some bikes. But, once the problem was shown to them they took the bike away and drilled out the broken section, replacing it with a new nut and bolt. Now the rack was in the correct position again the rubbing wheel stopped.

We cycled on to the hotel that is supposed to be here and missed it as we thought it was a derelict. The paint was peeling, there were broken windows and the front door was locked. Looking round we found a side door open and asked if they had a room. The room we were shown had no bathroom, in fact the only bathroom in the hotel was downstairs and we had to share it with the family. The whole place was dirty and you could imagine the rats running around inside. It took us seconds to decide we could make it to Corabia before it got dark and declined the offer.

Our plan B was another 41km away or 2 hours at our current speed. We were both feeling OK at this point but soon the distance covered so far started to tell.

Our average speed now dropped to less than 20km/h, but we had at least 3 hours before it gets dark and stopped after 10km for a rest. The wind had dropped now and we had lost the benefit of it pushing it. Stopping again after 20km we got our second wind and did the last 20km in one go.

The hotel we were looking for was just before the town and we found the sign for it on the main road, it pointed us down one of the dirty tracks that most villages are made up of. Dodging the pothole we found the hotel without problems. The place looks brand new and we feared it might be closed but we were welcomed and show a room. It has not had many people in here recently as the room was freezing cold, so cold you could keep meat in it!

After 139km, average speed of 23.1km/h we had a well-deserved dinner and fell asleep early.