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Mizia - Orjahovo - Zimnicea

This morning I was still feeling a bit weak, but thankfully the diarrhoea had improved. However, instead of pain in my sit bones, I was now feeling a burning sensation more in the middle. In Orjahovo, I took the ferry to Romania. On the way, I had to replace an expander that was holding my saddlebag in place. It snapped and tangled itself in my rear wheel. I paid for the ferry by credit card since I didn’t have any Euros or Leva with me. Once in Romania, I started buying bottled water as I had been warned that the tap water might not be safe to drink. Supermarkets here mostly carry white bread and toast, so I ended up needing an entire loaf of bread for lunch.

Later in the day, I encountered my first cyclists traveling in the opposite direction along the Danube cycle route. As I progressed, the landscape gradually improved, and the scenery became more interesting. Along the way, children occasionally waited by the roadside and waved to me in a friendly manner when I drove past. Romania’s countryside is filled with endless one-way villages, many of which had stork nests perched on power pylons. I also spotted lizards sunbathing along the path. However, I noticed that compared to Bulgaria, there are even more watchdogs barking and chasing cyclists. Thankfully, at speeds over 35 km/h, they can’t keep up. Something else that caught my eye was the surprisingly high number of German car brands. In the evening, I set up camp directly beside the road. Unfortunately, I realized I had forgotten some of my tent stakes when packing up in the morning, but I managed to pitch the tent without them. While preparing dinner, I discovered that the automatic igniter of my camping stove had stopped working, so I have to use a lighter from now on. Today also brought a few minor discomforts – blisters formed on my palms, and I had stomach cramps during dinner, probably due to the fact that I had eaten very little the day before and mainly drank electrolytes.

For the first time on this trip, I felt a slight lack of motivation. The region I was driving through didn't particularly attract me. It was similar to the area around Baja with good roads, the occasional smell of dead animals and small, sleepy villages.

Novo Selo - Belgrad

In the morning I was bitten by lots of mosquitoes while preparing to continue my journey. Just as I was getting underway, my trusty GPS device (Garmin Dakota 20) encountered an unexpected issue: a firmware bug (out of memory), which prevented it from booting up. Luckily, I discovered that a simple reset trick – clicking into the upper left corner during the boot process – resolved the problem. I recovered as much data as possible using my tablet and transferred the planned tour back to the GPS device, allowing me to continue navigating along the route. This experience taught me an important lesson: from now on, I'll always archive my track recordings daily to prevent losing them due to lack of memory.

After this brief hiccup, I had a wonderful encounter with a friendly Serbian family who welcomed me with open arms. They kindly offered to refill my water and invited me to join them for a traditional Serbian lunch. Feeling refreshed, I continued on to Novi Sad and eventually Belgrade. Just after I had exceeded
100 km there were a few hills with a rough gravel road and a construction site, which slowed me down a little. On the way my chain once jumped off the smallest cogwheel in the back and was stuck so, that I had to unscrew the carrier a little to get it out again, because the carrier's screws stick out a little. To prevent this in future and to protect my chain from now on I did not use the smallest and the largest rear cogwheel anymore and adjusted the limit stop of the rear derailleur accordingly.

That evening, I was looking forward to resting in Belgrade. My host provided me with valuable tips for exploring the city and once again let me feel the Serbian hospitality, when we cooked together in the evening.

Langer aber gut zu fahrender Anstieg zum Passo San Jorio (Teer, Schotter).
Danach wird der Trail schmaler und bietet entlang dem Grenzgebiet von Schweiz und Italien schöne Aussichten in die umgebende Landschaft.

The trek to Namche Bazar featured numerous suspension bridges and a strenuous climb at the end. Upon reaching our destination, we took a well-deserved acclimatization day to adjust to the altitude and prepare for the journey ahead.