by Jonathan  14 – 04 – 2009

I felt I should add a short blog entry to mark the end of the Eastern European part of the trip. After I left Walter and Marcin shortly after Calafat in Romania I headed north west on a highway that is not yet marked on Google maps but runs along the Danube.

I would post photos here but like I’m having difficulties with an old computer that crashes everytime I try to add any. The latest photos can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/everywherevirtually

The roads in Romania were not as bad as I was expecting. To be honest the roads in Bulgaria were far worse. I was actually quite upbeat about the new highway until I got to the city of Tumu-Severin where they deteriorated rapidly. After Tumu I took the highway through the mountains to Timisoara. This is when things became tiring. It’s about 200km’s but the EU are currently undertaking a vast road rebuilding programme here and so most of the top surface of the road has been removed to leave gravel, grooves, dips, hollows and pot holes. I spent most of the time on my foot pegs and smothered in clouds of dust. It was great adventure riding and the whole reason I was doing the trip.

It was fast dawning on me that I was losing time and I was projected to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere by nightfall. With a couple of grands worth of camera kit and bike gear I didn’t fancy camping out alone. Not for fear of people but wild dogs. On 3 separate occasions I had been chased out of town by packs of wild dogs running lose. Often I would see them foraging in the rubbish that was tipped at the side of the road. The last thing I could afford would be a dog bite.

I pressed on and thought that a stop in Hungary would be the sensible choice. After breezing through the Hungarian customs I had a renewed energy and thought I would check out Budapest. By midnight I was exploring the city. I stopped to refuel and get some food and it was at this point I thought why dont I just continue to my base in Austria.

I have a love of long distance riding and a hankering to do an iron butt challenge. After an excursion into