Day 32- Travel to Belgrade by bus then Kovin to Moldova - 95.3 kms

29 Jun

After a big night of sleep....I was in bed by 7.30 pm and woke up to have a brief chat to the passport guys back in Oz at 1.00am. The guys in Canberra we reassuring that my temporary passport would be issued today.... but you never know!

I was awak at about 7.00am feeling very apprehensive about the day because if I did not get the passport today I would not get it until after the weekend....if this were the case then my ride would be over for this trip and I would have to leave Chris and find my way to Bucharest

So we had breakfast in the local bakery in Kovin and caught the bus in to Belgrade

After reaching Belgrade I rang Biba at the Embassy and she informed me that the approval from the Australian authorities had come through and the passport could be issued....hoooooraaaay!!!!

We made our way to the Embassy by foot and had an orange juice and saw my dear friend Biba who issued me with my new temporary passport..... yehhh!!

We then took a taxi back to Kovin which is about 50kms from Belgrade with a cost of 72 Euros.... very cheap and quick compared to the bus

We then quickly packed and were on the road by 1.15 pm...

Great to be on the bikes again after 3 days in suspense whilst the passport issue was resolved

The ride that Chris had mapped out whilst I was sorting out my passport was to Moldova in Rumania

The first few kms were interesting in that I had to get used to the new tyres which are bigger than normal road bike tyres and somewhat slower with big treads

Anyway it was great to be back on the bike again ... we agreed that with busy roads we would do 5 km alternate leads as a way of making the ride a little more interesting. We also agreed to have some distance between us as the traffic was heavy and there were big trucks on the road.

About 25 kms in to the ride with me leading it was Chris’s turn to take the lead and I could not see him so I waited... and waited....and waited and he was not there. I then back tracked about 1.5 kms and there was Chris on the side of the road with a flat tyre. After fixing the tyre to the bike.... it went flat again .... so we changed tubes again... and blow me down if it went flat again. Luckily we had another tube so Gaya very good check of the tyre we replaced the tube successfully.... whew we had no spare tubes if it went flat again!

So on we went...

The next big challenge was the border in to Romania which required checkpoints from Serbia and in to Romania. I was told by the Embassy to present both my old and new passport at the Serbian checkpoint which worked thankfully. For the Romanian checkpoint I only needed to present my new passport which worked like a charm .... I must say I was relieved that it all worked as the Embassy advised.... thanks Biba!!!

Shortly after crossing the border there was a relobig climb of about 7 kms.... much like the 1:20 back home. The ride down the other side was excellent with good speed being achieved on good roads

We arrived at Moldova at about 8.00 pm ( note there was a time shift of one hour when we crossed the border) and as the hotel we are staying at is out of town...we went a local supermarket to get some dinner.

Arriving at the “ big fish” hotel was a relief as a 95 km ride in 4 hours 30 minutes was a fairly fast ride after a break of a few days

Today was a good day with much achievement

Now for the photos...

Selfie with a rider from Morocco

Interesting guy who won an ultra marathon and was a representative at the Sydney Olympics