Riding a motorcycle through Romania is not to be taken lightly if you want to get out alive! Especially if you are a pair of grandparents on heavily-laden touring bikes on a mission for a UK children’s charity.
We encountered nine major hazards including: tyre grooves, potholes, slumps, horse poo, slick tar, diesel spills, road signs, stray dogs, and by far the worst “ the standard of driving.
These were challenge enough, but when the storm of the century broke just as we got caught up in the manic city traffic of Bucharest, we both thought we would never make it out alive. Miraculously we survived, reached Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria and spent a couple of days drying out and recovering.
Eventually the flood waters receded enough for us to continue to southern Bulgaria and complete our mission. After more charity visits and an appearance on Bulgarian national television, we allowed ourselves a couple of days R&R on the Black Sea coast before the long ride home. Surely nothing could go wrong now?
Shortly after crossing over the Danube and back into Romania, a second storm brought renewed flooding and misery for those who were washed out of their homes along the route we had to travel. A long day of treacherous riding through mud, rubble and falling rocks left us so exhausted we settled for the only non-flooded guesthouse we could find.
This roadside trucker’s halt was even rougher than the dodgy hotels we’d stayed in elsewhere on the trip, but we were too tired to care. We were thankful for a room, despite live wires protruding from the walls, outrageous plumbing and a bed with no mattress, just a few odd cushions scattered over the springs.
The two young waitresses in the café downstairs made us welcome as we munched our way through the limited menu. We snatched what sleep we could as guests arrived and left at all hours of the night and when we stumbled down for breakfast next morning we were surprised to see the same two girls still on duty. We were 200 miles down the road before the penny dropped and we realised we’d just spent the night in a brothel!
For more details of this ridiculous journey “ hairy, scary and often hilarious “ why not read the book of our travels. It is titled Beyond Bucharest: Motorcycle Adventure Travel’ by Bob Goddard and contains numerous maps plus colour and black & white photos.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, head over to http://www.timbuktu-publishing.co.uk/ to read a full FREE chapter and get my take on lederhosen, dwyle-flonking and the secrets to a successful restaurant!
A short video taster is available at the publisher’s website: http://www.timbuktu-publishing.co.uk/ where you can also read reviews, see photos, learn about other books by this former motorcycle journalist and arrange to have a book sent to you post-free in the UK, or with subsidised airmail postage to worldwide destinations.
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