Day 64

20/10/2011 – Day 64

Ion Corvin to Cernavodǎ– 42km

Today we part company with our faithful old friend ‘Eurovel Route 6’. He has been with us since the start in Donaueschingen (2860km to be exact). At this point he makes a dash for the Black Sea at Constanţa, a mere 85km from here, completing his journey from the Atlantic coast in France.

We on the other hand turn north and have another 300km to go as we follow the river to the delta.

During the night we had the first frost of the season. When we woke everything was white and crisp with ice. The only consolation was that the sky was clear and blue.

Breakfast was the standard Romanian fare but in large quantities and the coffee was good. Bidding farewell to our host we set off through the village and turned left when the main road went on its way to Constanţa. As soon as we turned north the road went uphill for the next 4km, a good way to warm up!

The scenery was much the same as yesterday, if you like barren desolate places (which I do) it is stunning at times. You can imagine the scene from a disaster movie where the ‘bomb’ has just gone off and the land is laid waste with just a few gypsies wandering around. There were more tented settlements today and they all looked as if they had been there a long time.

While we were having breakfast the two Germans left, we caught up with them in Rasova, a village right on the banks of the river. As we rode in to the village I could imagine it in the summer full of tourists, and right in the centre were two bars that would not look out of place at any beach resort. We saw the Germans bikes parked outside on of the bars and assumed they were inside, but in fact they were in the other bar sitting in the sun.

By now, (11am) it was hot in the sun, but when you went into the shade where there was a wind you could tell it was autumn. We both still had our waterproofs on for warmth but sitting in the sun was good.

After drinking our coffee we set of again onto a series of steep up and downs. On two of the hills we had to admit defeat and walk they were that steep. Our plan had been to get to Hârşova, about 95km, but these hills were killing out average time. On the flats we were flying as the wind was from behind us but the steep hills did the damage.

We arrived at Cernavodǎ just after 1pm and stopped for lunch, with at least a minimum of 4 hours still to go and no escape route, we decided to stay here for the night. As we walked up the hill to the hotel, who did we see waving at us from the balcony, the two Germans.

We must have passed the magic date when the heating is turned on as this hotel is hot to the point of stifling, we had to open the windows to let some air in.

As we had eaten quite late and this hotel had no restaurant we did some shopping and had the usual picnic dinner in the room. It is a bit messy but better than going out and trying to find somewhere to eat in a town that seems to have no centre.