Update
So, here we are, still in Romania, in Isia just East of the Moldovian border where we plan on crossing in the next few hours. I shalll continue where we left off last time.
The lunch i mentioned in the end of the last post turned out to be a little diffferent.
John and Al had chicken and chips, and i hadpig brains and chips. Yup, pig brains, and yes believe it or not they were grey. but fried with a little onion they were actually quite nice. Can't say as they have done anything for my intelligence level mind you.
After leaving that town we headed for the hills here you can see Al poseing for a nice shot,
and then 10 minutes after Al again picking up the pieces after he found a nice lane for off roading. The rock in the forground was the culpret, but he had to find it, it was probably the biggest rock for 100 yards.
To be fair though it doesn't look it was quite a steep downward hill, and it was quite wet, so we shall give him the benefit of the doubt. The worst thing was, after fixing it all back on to his bike, on the way back up the hill he hit the same rock with his other pannier which had him off, but we were there ready to catch him that time.
The result of this was he snapped his frame on the back and had to get it welded, so in the next village we asked for someone who could weld and was pointed in the direction of a farrier, it was like something out of a museum, check out the old mans slippers, and that in the dfoorway believe it or not was the welder.
And the inside was something else
After getting through all of that we made for a small town were we thought we would find a decent campsite. On route, my pannier rack also broke in three of the six mounting points, after trying to find the campsite for about an hour we finally decided to stop at a shop where a bike was outside in bits. It turned out to be Vlad's fathers Romanian antique shop and Vlad was a bit of a fixer (bikewise not in any other way) so after some huffing and puffing and a few bolts we got my bike fixed and back on the road. Here he is after he had finished, out here they dont have many big bikes so he was happy to get his hands on mine and didnt charge me a penny, in fact of the three time we have had things fixed all didn't want paying, they were happy to help. Romanian hospitality at its best., but it got better, Vlad looks a little stoned on the picture though i think it was more tiredness than anything elso, by the time we got finished it was 11pm.
Whilst we were getting the bike fixed we met Vlads friend George who father had a hotel in the town and he offered to put us up for the night free of charge. It was a nice place and he insisted we eat before going to bed so we finally got tucked up at about half 12.
heres the room he gave us for the night with an ensuite bathroom. Our first shower for a few days but we all smell as bad as each other so no complaints really.
Below are the grid references of where we have been sleeping at nights when we have remembered to get them so if you wish you can instal google earth and enter the grid reference to see close up where we have been.
Day 1 50 47.103N 002 49.190E
Day 2 50 36.856N 006 01.257E
Day 3 49 25.347N 011 07.274E
Day 4
Day 5 48 10.352N 015 36.314E
Day 6 47 08.969N 020 12.107E
Day 7 47 43.582N 022 51.988E
So there we have it up to now, we shall be back in touch as soon as we can though we are are entering Moldova today and the Ukraine the day after so not sure what the interent is like there and if we can get online etc.
Any comments you can email me @ peekay69[at]hotmail.co[dot]uk
some more pictures are below
See you soon