The news filtered through that the Young Team had to bow out – their new front wheel was not up to the task and thus they had to make the rest of the way east on motorised transport. Norman and I polished off the remains of various food ration sachets (including one which was mousse au chocolat at least in theory) as well as the remaining bread and cheese. Thus our bikes were markedly lighter than the day before. We headed eastwards and caught up with Luca and Jozef (or they caught up with us??) in Baneasa where we all had a good long coffee break. The road so far today was hilly and curvy with still a few fairly hefty climbs before we hit the plain leading out to the sea. There was some agricultural traffic including some huge combine harvesters that took virtually the full width of the road. The weather was calm, dry and overcast for the most part.
We stuck together and went onwards through Negruni and Ion Corvin (where there is in fact an actual guest house by the way in case anyone is looking for an alternative stepping stone place to stay en route to Constanta!). Onwards through Crangu, Urluia, Adamclisi, Deleni with a short lunch break at Pietreni.
As the land flattened out before us, the traffic grew and grew. The wind was in our faces too. Indeed on this entire trip it seems that there were only a couple of days when the wind was not against me. We were strung along in a line being passed frequently by large trucks. The noise was incessant and unpleasant. By the time we got to Cobadin we were all nearly done in but there was still a good 35km or so to go. I checked out my options for accommodation and could only come up with something in Eforie Nord which is a suburb to the south of Constanta. The boys were all aiming for the Ibis hotel in Constanta. The upshot of which was that we had to split up at Ciocarlia de Sus as I headed across country to Eforie. I was sorry to see the boys go but we had arranged to meet up for dinner the next day in Constanta. I was not sorry to leave the main road and the traffic behind. Norman told me later on the phone that the traffic just got worse and worse. A note to the @eurovelo people – it might be worth mapping the route away from the main road at Ciocarlia de Sus and across country via Eforie because there is practically zero traffic on the roads there and what there is can be spotted kilometres away across the flat plain. What villages there are, are small, compact and have good road surfaces:
My detour saw me drift through Lanurile, Baraganu, Potamichea, Movilita and Techirghiol before arriving at Eforie shortly after 19h00. A young man let me into the AirBnB appartment. He was all set to start university in the UK in October. He also thought Brexit was a good thing. I wonder if he still considers it a good thing now that he is in the UK as an EU national…….. The end of the trip is nigh. It seems to be a bit of an anti-climax. I still have about 35km to cover tomorrow to get to Constanta….
CYCLING ACROSS EU 