Tag 20: Negotin - Stanevo

This morning started with rain, which was very unusual for me. I made myself a coffee in the kitchen and Bojan stood in front of me and gave me a piece of breakfast. Such a hospitable person!

At around 9 a.m. I decided to start despite the rain (according to the weather app it should have stopped then). After 12 km I was already at the Bulgarian border. Crossing the border was very relaxed. The rain then stopped and I was able to cycle without a rain jacket again. I cycled through Vidin. On the way out of Vidin I had an unpleasant encounter with 3 wild dogs that chased me. Fortunately they stopped after a few meters. These situations are still unpleasant, even though I have already experienced a few of them. I will try to buy a dog whistle tomorrow, maybe that will help keep the dogs at a distance.

Then I briefly drove along a very busy road with a lot of truck traffic. After 10km I turned onto a less busy road and followed it for about 60m. Again and again through small towns with very dilapidated houses that are nevertheless inhabited. You can really see a stark difference to Serbia. Here in Bulgaria the people are significantly poorer. Sometimes it is really depressing to see the conditions in which people live in Europe.

Shortly before the end of today's stage I came to Lom, a somewhat larger town. There has even been a Lidl here for a few months. A fairly steep road with small cobblestones led out of Lom. Ideal conditions for the end of a stage... but the sun came out and the path then led through a kind of avenue.

The destination of my stage today was the "Stanevo Lodge", a kind of holiday home run by an English couple (Paul and Sue). The house was already rented out but Bojan had arranged for me to camp in the garden. Paul and Sue cooked me dinner! Afterwards we sat around a campfire in the garden and Sue made apricot crumble for dessert. It was wonderful!