Farming Country
Lincoln continues to live on the edge. Last night he set up his tent on the edge of the platform of our covered washing area. However he himself was way inside so there was no chance of his going over the edge. He made it thru the night just fine and probably drier than the rest of us. It rained nonstop all night then let up a few minutes during the pack-up routine. By the time we were heading out on the road at 8:20 it was raining again. We stopped briefly at the camp reception on the way out and Daniel noticed there was a snail sitting on my helmet. I need a bike pet but maybe not a live one so we let it stay.
Road with Daniel this morning. Sheila still getting over her flu road with Jenny to lunch stop and then biked from there. We got soaked right off of course. The temp was not too bad but wet inside and out from sweating inside rain jackets.
Lots of midwest type scenery again - farming country. We did go thru some forested areas and crossed over a river in a valley way down below with forests all around. Not many photos today due to the weather. I took a deep breath last night and formatted, i.e., erased, my second card. Backups on cd and Brian's laptop should be safe.
Chuck and Brian who left later eventually caught us in the only town we passed through. About half an hour later we came up to them loading their bikes on Craig's van. The rain and fog were worse and they decided to quit riding for safety and comfort.
We also decided to put bikes on the truck but their was no room for us so we tried to hitchhike to lunch. That didn't work so Craig picked us up we got a good lunch at the Jenny van. Craig took off to the campsite with C and B and the bikes so we could either wait a couple hours there or find alternate transport. Fortunately a bus came along right away and for 5 leva for two we were on our way on a nice clean slow slightly decrepit old bus to Schoumen
The bus got us to center of Schoumen to the main bus depot where there were many cabs awaiting our command. We (actually Daniel) asked for the campground and we almost flew up there. We arrived just as Craig's van with Joy, Chuck and Brian made it.
We all came up to camp (actually near Schoumen at Madara) and luckily had no rain for an hour while we unloaded stuff, hung up tents and tarps to "dry" and secured possession of the little 2 and 3 bedroom cabins available. (They were available last night too, but only Sandy and David had enough foresight to use them. There is even a hot shower here too, which I got to use sharing with a clean (I hope) floor toilet and the drain from the washing machine. So we have luxury camping tonight. Luxury is how you define it.
After the shower it rained harder than I've seen it rain since the last Arizona monsoon I saw. I'm glad I wasn't out in that. The decision to abandon the bikes turned out OK. We probably would have made it to camp a little later if we had ridden it but maybe before the hard rain.
This appears to be a really scenic area which I may go take a look at if the rain ever stops. There is a big rocky cliff face behind the campsite. On the cliff is sculpted a horse and rider. But you have to do a hike to see it and we were not really in the mood for that today. So I took a picture of the picture. The description of the sculpture indicates some art up there originated in the 8th century.
We're again in a forest at this campsite but indoors is better. Some mosquitoes but fewer, perhaps because nights can get cooler here in the hills. Still some camp pets around as we've had since starting Romania. Tonight we have a couple dogs including a cute little puppy and some chickens.
The owners "restautant" just below our cabins has a stereo with heavy bass blasting away at 9:30 now.
Time for bed anyway. May not be a fun night. Oh well, tomorrow is hotel night.
Enough for this day hope yours is a good one.
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Posted September 15, 2005 by Tour Participant
Bulgaria |
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