Silistra - Balchik - 136 kilometres
Bulgaria covers an area of 110,994 square kilometres, roughly the
same size as Malawi - a country that I consider small. Eddie and I
decided to head towards Balchik, a Black Sea coastal town and
seaside resort. We chose this town because of its prime location along
the shores of the Black Sea. Our route took us 136 kilometres
through farmlands, cornfields, and vast fields of sunflowers.
We arrived in Balchik late in the evening, only to find that the town
lacked camping facilities. We had no choice but to cycle another
fifteen kilometres to Kavarna, which had a beautiful campsite on the
lake's shores. The place was idyllic, and we wasted no time
submerging our sweat-soaked bodies in the lukewarm waters of the
Black Sea —a blissful end to a long day of cycling.
Kavarna
The next day, we spent the day at the beach and unexpectedly
reunited with the Baltic Cycle Group from Bucharest. It was a fun
night of drinking and trying to communicate, as almost everyone in
the group spoke Polish, and neither Ed nor I spoke the language.
Initially, I mistook the Black Sea for a lake, only to realize upon
studying a map that it connects to the ocean through the Bosphorus
Strait. The waters of the Black Sea first flow into the Sea of Marmara,
which in turn is connected to the Mediterranean through the Strait of
the Dardanelles. I was surprised to learn that the Black Sea is a vast
body of water, spanning 436,400 square kilometres and reaching a
depth of over 2000 meters in some areas.