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<\/a>Only one beer for Jay on his Birthday – a 2.5l bottle of Deep which cost \u00a31, it’s cold and wet and two pints have gone already!<\/p><\/div>\n
We didn’t plan things very well, we should have tried to have a driving-free day to celebrate but alas we were on the side of a mountain in a car park we had to pay for – time to move on. As we made our way back down we realised it was Saturday – a busy day for the chairlift. But while we squeezed past loads of cars and 4×4’s we managed to avoid any coaches on the narrow road – phew! Back in\u00a0Sapareva Banya cars lined the roadside and lots of people were wandering around with baskets and carrier bags, a sure sign of market day!! \u00a0We pulled over to join them but fortunately noticed just before we jumped out to start shopping that they weren’t all off to the market, everyone was going to the local cemetery and there was a priest there among them blessing things – oops! Maybe this happens every Saturday, maybe it’s a special day today, we don’t have a clue, but it was nice to see the community all out together doing something.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Villagers at the graves<\/p><\/div>\n
We’d received an email yesterday from fellow motorhomers Jenny and Ewot (travelbunyip.com<\/a><\/strong>) who are travelling across Bulgaria in the opposite direction and looking at their maps they figured our paths might cross today. As we trundled across the country following signs for\u00a0\u041f\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0434\u0438\u0432 I soon realised that the signs weren’t taking us along the roads I would have chosen – we were heading for the motorway. A quick check on the t’interweb confirmed that the motorways aren’t toll roads (phew) so we went with the flow, resigning ourselves to the fact that we probably wouldn’t pass Jenny and Ewot and their kangaroo-covered motorhome, or if we did, it would be on the opposite carriageway with nowhere to stop and say hello.<\/p>\n Town, grass with cows, road = Bulgaria!<\/p><\/div>\n Working the fields near the Rila Mountains<\/p><\/div>\n Samokov town – wonder if these were built in the communist era?<\/p><\/div>\n The countryside, dotted with small villages of red brick buildings that look in danger of collapse at any moment, was busy with people working the fields and travelling on horse drawn carriages. Then as we turned a corner we spotted a motorhome in a lay-by, a motorhome with a kangaroo on it. We pulled in and were greeted by Ewout and Jenny, and invited in for a brew (it was a bit early for beers and we still had an hour of driving to do). We joined them in their van and chatted about travel adventures. They’ve been touring Europe in their Dutch registered motorhome for a few months every year for the last five years. They also told us the helpful hint that you can get free wifi at the OMV petrol stations here – which is how they got their email to us, that could come in very handy!<\/p>\n Jenny and Ewout with their Kangaroo motorhome!<\/p><\/div>\n Inside, their van is brilliant, covered with photographs of places they have visited (something I’ve been meaning to do for ages), including a shot of Ewout dressed as a koala at the Tour de France cheering on Cadel Evans. As the huge lorries rumbled past shaking the van it was clear that we weren’t going to be able to stop for the night in the lay-by and talk into the wee small hours. So we said farewell, but really hope to meet up with them again one day for a proper natter.<\/p>\n Ewout had warned us that the next stretch of road had a lot of potholes in it, including one that could swallow the motorhome. We’ve been on many pot holey roads but apart from the 30 kilometres stretches of roads in Tunisia where the tarmac had been removed, these were the worst. The shade of the trees covered half the road making it difficult to see them, but the road was pitted with deep holes. Jay led Dave like Anton Du Beke on the dance floor, shimmying around the deepest holes, aiming for the shallow ones that made the cupboard contents shift but wouldn’t snap off a wheel. Spotted the van killer hole, which was fortunately on the other side of the road, but we surmised that we could have possibly parked our smart car in it.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>