Monday 15th September. Day 11.

Day 11. After a couple of days recuperation we now start the long journey home. We got to the lorry compound about 8.45am and loaded our cases onto the back of the wagons. Unfortunately one of the BT wagons had a flat battery and it took a little while to get it started but by 10.15am we were on our way. After a fuel stop to fill all the wagons we headed for the border town of Ruse. It felt a bit strange to be heading in the wrong direction – i.e. east instead of west but the hope is that this route will give us nice new motorway across most of Romania and avoid the problems we had last week.

For the first couple of hours we were following the same route as we had taken to Pleven but in very different weather conditions. On Friday it was Sunny and 34C. Today it was only 14C and lots of low mist and cloud. At one point as we crossed the mountains we were above the clouds which hung below us in the valleys.

Eventually we reached the border at about 5.00pm where we had to queue to pay a 35 Euro per vehicle Bulgarian road tax – you can use the roads as much as you like when you are there but if you want to leave the country then you have to cough up.
As we pulled slowly away to cross the bridge we said goodbye to Carl and Slavin from One Life who had escorted us to the border and who have been outstanding hosts since we arrived in Bulgaria last Thursday.

Once we entered Romania it was 55 kms up to Bucharest on roads which were an improvement on last week albeit still pretty ropey by UK standards. The plan was to hit the Bucharest ring road, travel round it to the North East where we should pick up a new motorway where we hope to find a motel for the night before continuing across Romania tomorrow.
Unfortunately we have been stuck in a 7 km long traffic jam for the last hour, it is now 7.10pm and getting dark so we are not really sure where we will end up tonight. One thing is certain is that by the time we find anywhere and get a bite to eat it will be too late to conclude the blog then so I am going to sign off now and let you know tomorrow how we get on tonight. Will it be the first sleeping bags in the back of the wagon job of the trip? I hope not but I will let you know tomorrow morning!!

Distance covered to date is 3547 kms.

Over and out

P