Setting off (again) biking into Bulgaria

Day 22. 92km (51885kms)
Frustratingly I found my new tyre had dropped in pressure from 80 to 60psi since I installed it 3 days ago. I guess I didn’t properly fix the puncture, or possibly I pinched it slightly with the tyre levers… I’ll pump it daily for now..

I made one final bakery visit, and two final photo stops, before heading north out of Sofia. A very patchy bike lane took me to the edge of the city. It crossed the highway before abruptly stopping leaving me facing head on traffic!

Somehow I’d thought I was in for a gentle ride today, but on belatedly checking the map I discovered I would actually be climbing 1000+ metres. But it was sunny, and the gradient for the most part, was ok. I’d also failed to check for supermarkets on the route and so between a lack of food, and a disinclination to camp up the pass in the snow, I was forced to go much further than I’d initially planned. By the final 200 or so metres, still very out of shape, I was on the last of my energy. Time was running low to summit, descend, find a shop, and a camp.

The top, at 1444metres was still very snowy, though the road had been cleared. The snow continued much further down the northern slopes making the 1100metre descent decidedly chilly.

To my delight I found a supermarket on my road – I had thought I was going to have to divert a couple of kilometres into a nearby town. All stocked up I continued on in the late sun alongside a train track, inspecting a couple of disused signal boxes and stations before settling on an empty farm building for the night.