Szeged (Hungary) to Timisoara (Romania)

June 30th
121km (301m vertical)

Long, hot ride today. It was the first time on this trip that I have felt tired during the ride.

Started with a short ferry crossing out of Szeged, and then rode through fields of brilliant yellow sunflowers to the Romanian border. It was the first time I've had to show my passport since I arrived in Paris. The border is in the middle of no where. One low building with a few booths on each side. Got my passport stamped, put it away, rode 1m up the road, and then had it stamped again. Apparently the first is an exit stamp from Hungary and the second is an entry stamp to Romania...but they were at different windows in the same booth.

My passport only has 3 blank pages in it, which it need for my Turkey, Turkmenistan and China visas. I put little “No stamp” notes on these blank pages, and asked the immigration officers to stamp pages that were not blank. Always a bit nerve wracking, but it worked out fine.

Everyone picked up small sticks and rocks to carry on their bikes in Romania. There are stories of wild rabid dogs chasing cyclists, so we all armed ourselves. No problem dogs yet though. Just sleepy ones lying in shade.

At the lunch truck, Fred lost a tooth and everyone was on hands and knees looking for it in the tall grass. Actually, it was a tooth cap that came off while he was eating. He picked it out of his mouth thinking it was a small bone or stone, and threw it into the grass. No one was able to find it, but George is a dentist, so I think he'll try to put together a stop-gap solution.

Immediately after lunch is when I felt really hot and tired, but managed to keep up a steady pace by drafting off of others. The scenery was pretty bland in the afternoon. We could almost see the heat, but that was about it. Plenty of roadkill I suppose as well. A roadkill zoo. Birds, dogs, cats, ferrets, frogs, and others that I opted not to look at too closely.

A few cyclists almost joined the roadkill today, as Carl, Rita and Phil all came off their bikes on loose gravel. It was a rare mistake for Carl, who is one of the most careful and experienced riders in the group. He used to race bikes, and now has his wife (Rita) on the back of his tandem as an extra incentive not to crash. They all got a bit of road rash, but were fine. Group ride into the city again, quick dinner and then early to bed.