Day 43 – Sestrimo to Plovdiv – 84km 99m

Wood Green!

We had heard multiple accounts of Plovdiv being a beautiful place, so the plan for the day was to bash out the miles as quickly as possible in order to spend some time in the city.

In the event, that was easy to do. The sun shone for the first time in Bulgaria, the tarmac was smooth, the wind at our backs and there appeared to be a constant downhill gradient to our ride. It doesn’t get easier.

Mountains framed our views to the left and right as we left the tiny village of Sestrimo, chugging along a quiet road until Pazardzhik. We had a coffee there, and found a delicious banitza, the chef keen to have a photo.

As we left the town and got the rural roads, moment of the day occurred. A jolly farmer, on seeing us, jumped into the road and flagged us down with a massive grin.

We couldn’t communicate that much until he remembered the words he’d been searching for: “Wood Green!” he kept shouting triumphantly. Clearly he had been there, perhaps twice judging by his gestures.

He spent five fruitless minutes trying to call someone probably in Wood Green and then cursing his intended correspondent good naturedly for being so lazy not to pick up.

Then with a flourish he opened the gates behind him to reveal a crew of workers all bagging and processing mounds of green peppers.

Immediately we were assailed with people stuffing peppers into our pockets, bags, onto our bikes, beseeching us to carry out kilos of them in plastic bags. We took what we could and had to decline the rest, miming the difficulty of carrying all this produce.

What a lovely moment it was – we were all so pleased to see each other, people from different worlds, crossing briefly, with smiles and handshakes and backslaps. Our farmer just kept shouting “Wood Green! Wood Green!” over and over. Classic! There some video below.

We made it to Plovdiv without trouble and went out to explore. Goodness me was it worth it. A Roman stadium and still functioning Roman theatre!

Ottoman and Thracian architecture was everywhere. Ancient orthodox churches and mosques lined steep cobbled streets. And to cap it, a stunning sunset from a neolithic settlement atop a hill in the middle of the city.

Tomorrow we hit the hills again, this time heading due south towards the Greek border.