June 18th Ulmeni to Danube ferry after Calarasi

June 18th  Stage 58  Ulmeni  to Danube ferry after Calarasi  69kms

I am hoping that by conserving some energy with another short stage today I will have the strength tomorrow to do all, or most of the remaining 132 kilometres to the finishing post in Constantja. As we had stayed the night at the ferry crossing, having not got as far as I had hoped yesterday, and needed therefore to get back to Ulmeni, I rode, what would normally have been the final 15 kilometres of the day around Calarasi, first thing in the morning whilst I was fresh. This section, I have to say, is dispiriting. The road, dead straight for a number of kilometers, runs alongside an ugly waterway with the gaunt silhouette of Calarasi, its iron towers and its gantries, stark against the skyline. The ubiquitous fishermen and even the shepherds and goatherds did little to mitigate what was essentially for me a very bleak urban landscape.  And then there was a short section of  the main road to Bucharest busy with heavy lorries.  Better to ride this part in the morning, than in the afternoon when I might be tired and more prone to carelessness..

At Ulmeni we took a coffee in the shade outside the magazin mixt, the owner bringing out a couple of stools from his living room for us. I think I could have sat there all day but there was work to be done if this were to be the penultimate (or virtually penultimate) stage of the entire long journey. The day was more or less uneventful. I rode slowly trying to take in as much as possible. I was particularly impressed by the gardens, all of which are cultivated with vegetable plots, and/or orchards, sometimes with vines. Householders take over the space between their front fence and the tarmac to grow potatoes and other vegetables. Flowers abound. Many of the mostly small houses are lovely, neatly cared for. Today appeared to be fence painting day, whole families getting in on the act. Despite the heat which continues unabated I felt fresh at the end of the day when we enjoyed ourselves watching life on the wide river, in particular a huge barge, perhaps the biggest we have seen, literally inching its way upstream against the current, with the grey tower blocks of Silistra, which is both Bulgarian and Romanian, on the far bank of the river, acting as the background.

69kms 534 kms from Tismana, 4599 from Galway.