Ormenio (GR) to Harmanli (Bul)

Well I wasn't in Greece long before the route took me back into Bulgaria and its confusing signs.

Another suspicious border check as the customs officer found my story of cycling to Istanbul and back hard to believe, at least this one wasn’t as thorough and time consuming as the last one.

A nice thing happened out on the road today. As I was cycling down the 8 in Bulgaria a young man on a scooter with his girlfriend riding pillion signalled for me to pull in to the side of the road. I pulled in at the next widening of the road and he reached into his bag and gave me a freshly picked water melon from his collection. A few kilometres further on I came to an abandoned building where I pulled in and made short work of the large fruit.

After crossing the border today I made my way onto the 8 and passed through “Lyubimets” before pushing on to “Harmanli” where just beyond I found a nice wood to make camp..

The road I now find myself on is a narrow and busy road and quite stressful to cycle. It looks like this is going to be the case for a few days as there is no alternative.

Crossing into Bulgaria