Saturday August the 1st
Total distance driven: 4.617 Km
Today’s distance: 294 Km
Walked distance: 6,4 Km

Luckily I needed the Voltaren’s help only once. After riding again with the jacket, everything went back to normal. Tanja, the biker I met in Budapest, told me she has always a warming cream with her and it has helped more than once. I think it would be a good addition to my setup.

Daniela and Alex from the camping were so kind to arrange a 3h boat trip on the Danube Delta. We were ten passengers, all Romanians and myself. Around 8am we set sail directly from the river bank.

And so we began following a labyrinth of canals rich of vegetation, birds and fishes.

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It was indeed a fantastic ride. Time to pack and ride to Constanza but not before saying goodbye to Daniela and Alex. The boat to cross the river had a perfect timing.

From Bucharest I really got the summer feeling. Not just for the sea and the increasing heat but also for the hypnotising sound of the Cicadas.

The coast was very windy, with beautiful hills. I saw a fortress on the top and I had to satisfy my curiosity.

Around lunch time I found a nice taverna called La Navod and had delicious gnocchi with seafood.

While approaching Constanta it was again off-road time with surreal landscapes and smell of water, flowers and sand.

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The idea was to visit the town and then drive further, crossing the border with Bulgaria and arriving in the town of Varna.

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I had plans. I had reached out to a scuba diving center in Varna for a wreck dive. Several submarines, ships and planes from the WWII have sunken in the black sea waters.

In the last couple of days I met very few other motorcycle riders. Just before the border to Bulgaria, I saw one on the side of the road and waved at him, he waved back. That was my first interaction with Alexey, an artist from Ukraine.

Few kilometres later, the border was stuck and it took about 1h to get through. While queuing Alexey walked by the few cars separating our bikes and we began to talk. The car drivers allowed him to join me with his motorcycle: a Suzuki DR 250, a 4-strokes with 1 cylinder engine.

We were in Bulgaria, the first country to ask about a COVID test or vaccine. We had a beer together and the wonderful sunset light, wanted to remind me it was getting late.

Who cares about a plan when the unexpected, the adventure knocks at your door? We rode together and stopped at St. George camping site somewhere on the Bulgarian coast. We talked till 1:30am and drank the whole elixir of joy, that Alex gave me when I was on the Transfagarasan. I met a new good friend.