June 14th: Cetate to Bechet

June 14^th, Friday,  Stage 54 :  Cetate to Bechet  105 kms.

 

Back early this morning at the long straggling village of Cetate and very quickly covered the first ten kilometers to Maglavit where I saved myself at least 12 kms, not to mention the hassle of riding through Calafat, by taking an excellent short cut which brought me out at the surprisingly lively village of Poiana Mare on the road which eventually would take us to Corabia some 140 kms away. With hindsight maybe we missed something very significant in Calafat because, coincidentally, today was the day, according to the BBC, that the bridge over the Danube to Vidin in Bulgaria was opened after, someone told us in our hotel in the evening, a wait of four years. In fact, he clearly didn’t believe it had been opened today.

The next section of the ride continued in much the same w

 ay as yesterday;  For nearly a hundred kilometers I cycled through quiet villages, greeted everywhere, even by the women or girls whose job, it seemed, was to look after the geese in the narrow space between the front of the house and the road, all day long. Goatherds and shepherds are similarly employed. There are animals everywhere: stray dogs which, thankfully, so far, have been no danger, pigs sometimes wandering in the road, scores of horses tethered by the roadside grazing on the fresh grass which, it seems, has been left particularly for them, and in Bistret, and its two neighbouring smaller villages, for example, close by the lake
Bisteul, we counted at least fifty storks nests on the tops of the electricity poles. Occasionally a newish car would scream past, scaring the wits out of everybody and watched by locals shaking their heads but mostly life in general and traffic in particular was very sedate. Village after village passed with stretches in between which felt remote but weren’t really, and which often gave quite extensive views over pasture to the distant Danube. Eventually, I came to Bechet where traffic was a little heavier and after a long day I decided to load the bike into the car and drive to the well- placed Hotel Sucidava on the very banks of the Danube in Corabia, although not before, a large group of men who, observing me crawling on the ground to look beneath the car, had put my mind at rest by assuring me that what I had thought to be a leak was only the air conditioning. They were
though most helpful. A very satisfying day which brings us even closer to our destination in Constantja.

105 Kms Total from Severin 190. Total from Galway 4355.