10 May Stage 28 Shumen - Burgas

Dep 1030     Arr 7.30     Dist  29.1 km (bike)     Total  2970.4 km

All went to plan in the morning. I woke early, got partly organised and then went for breakfast which was another self service with two ladies helping me and two businessmen to use the coffee machine. So many staff and so few guests. I had two tiny bowls of cereal and a boiled egg and then toast. or warm bread, with various toppings, cheese, ham and jam. Very nice too. I got a taxi to the bike shop. The taxi drivers are all comedians in this town. The bike was done and ready for the off. I thanked Stanislav and his son Deyan, paid them, rode back to the hotel, got loaded and set off.

I got out of the town ok and made good progress on a poor road surface which was mainly downhill but I couldn't go too fast because of the pot holes and humps and bumps. Occasionally the road surface was good but there were parts where bits of the road had been scarified in patches, ie the top had been taken off, leaving two to three inch differences in level here and there. After about an hour and a half the inevitable happened and I got a rear puncture. I wasn't too bothered because I had made decent time up to now. I took my time and replaced the tube with one I had repaired the other day (and left fully inflated all night to make sure it was sound). I did it all by the book and got going again. I obviously hadn't done it properly and it went again. I was on my last inner tube by this time, another I had repaired. That went as well. I could only locate the problem on one of the damaged tubes and did a meticulous roadside puncture repair. It didn't work and I was very frustrated by this time as you can imagine. I decided to ask for help so stood at the roadside with my thumb out. The road wasn't very busy and I was pumping up one of the tubes, checking for leak locations, when a nice young man, Valentin, in a van, stopped and I explained what had happened. He didn't speak English but we got by. He took me up the road into the really poor little town of Smyodova. The people were all dressed ok but the buildings, roads and general surroundings were horrible. We tried a motor mechanics which wasn't much use but we were directed to a shop that sold everything, even inner tubes, but none the right size. Valentin apologised and told me he had to go so I politely asked him to take me back to the road. I decided to have another go at repairing a tube between waiting for the next car but then realised I had no pump. I must have left it in Valentin's van, or was it by the roadside where he had picked me up? I walked back 400m or so and it wasn't there.

I now had no alternative but to get the thumb out again. After an hour or so a family stopped and I explained I needed a bike shop. Dad said the next big town was Karnobat which was actually my destination for the day, but he wasn't going that far. The car was full of kids and I couldn't have got the bike in anyway. I thanked them and off they went, shrugging. There were dark clouds and rumblings over the hills up ahead but I wasn't far from a roadside truck stop type of place so I knew I wouldn't get too wet if it started to rain. More than an hour later a van stopped with two men in. Again I explained in sign language but they couldn't help. I should asked "how much for you to take me to Karnobat?" Maybe half an hour went by and two lads stopped in an estate car. I said I needed to get to Karnobat and the driver shook his head. "I am only going to the next village" He said, but then added "We have some business there but if you are still here we will see if we can get you to Karnobat somehow" I felt a bit more positive about this chap but didn't see them again because, soon after that, Yuri, the mad Latvian/Russian came along in his big white transit van. This was about 5 o'clock. "Where you going?" he shouted. "I need to get to Karnobat". He jumped out of the van and apologised for the state of the back compartment. We got the bike in and he said he was in a hurry and he would have to drive fast. He was going to Burgas, which was further East than Karnobat but only a little out of the way for me. I decided not to take him out of his way by dropping me in Karnobat, but asked him to take me to Burgas instead, which was a bigger place and would have more hotels and bike shops. Yuri had lived in Dublin for a few years and spoke with a very strong Russian accent with occasional Irish bits. He had been a fisherman off the coast of Africa for a bit at some stage and there were various other bits he described but I couldn't understand him very well and just did the nodding sort of easy way out. The heavens opened and it lashed it down for half an hour in the remotest part of the journey, probably just about where I would have been if the puncture hadn't happened.

So here I am in Burgas, fed and watered. I have the address of a bike shop where I will go in the morning to buy some new tubes and a pump. If all goes well I will be on my way to Elhovo tomorrow, still on schedule. If not, I will have a day off and get this bike sorted once and for all, like I thought I had done yesterday. All in all, a very frustrating day but with a good ending.

Today's track. I broke down at Smyadovo (note the back track) so the remainder of the ride to Burgas was in Yuri's van

http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/ODQ3MjI%3D