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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.

Baja - Border Hungary/Serbia - Novo Selo

I started in Hungary in the morning. At the EU's outer border soldiers were stationed every 100m to protect it. Unfortunately, I had to realize on my tour that my air pump, which I hadn't used for years, no longer fits tightly enough on the valve and at gas stations like 4 bar are rarely available. Therefore, I used the small traffic jam at the border post to borrow an air pump from Team Nankang-Dynatek, who were waiting behind me and had come home from a competition. I inflated my bike to be able to ride more easily again (front wheel: 9 bar, back wheel: 5 bar). After passing the border, they also offered me a drink from their service vehicle. But unfortunately, I declined because I still had enough.

Shortly after that, another welding seam of my front carrier broke and one bottle was damaged by it and got a leak. So, I had to cook lunch quickly to save as much water as possible. There, I also met a 60-year-old man who also goes on larger bicycle tours sometimes.

All in all, from Serbia onwards the streets were like rag rugs. However, the landscape was very beautiful and the people were also very nice and interested. In the evening while setting up my tent, I was bitten by lots of mosquitoes, whose aggressiveness increases from
Serbia onwards.

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 from Namche Bazar to Tengboche offered breathtaking views of the towering mountains that surrounded us.
In the evening, we watched a prayer ceremony of Buddhist monks at Tengboche Monastery, where we took a moment to appreciate its serene beauty and the spiritual atmosphere that enveloped the area.