Yay!

Right, well since the last blog we have been through 7 different countries so this blog might be a long one.....

We finally managed to leave Estonia (despite being told the morning we were meant to get the parts that they would not be there until that afternoon) and headed down to Riga, Latvia.

It was fairly late when we arrived there so we had a really quick run around (looks like a cool city!) and headed south. camped in Latvia that night in a funny little place out the back of a motel at the grand price of about £4. Latvia seems a very similar country to Estonia (from my brief impression). Very rural with the same wooden slatted houses that we saw so much riding down from Tallin to Parnu.

The next day, we set off fairly early and wizzed straight through Lituania and into Poland. Lithuania we passed through a lot more towns than we did in :Latvia and tried hard to be able to send postcards - we found cards but not stamps (despite my amazing drawings to illustrate what I was asking for, all I had was no no no in a very grumpy voice from everyone I talked to).

My impression - not a friendly country though having ridden through so quickly I couldn't say for certain!

Poland was a very different story. As soon as we crossed the border the landscape changed, from flat to slightly hilly, the road improved (for about a five-mile stretch anyway!) and the people smiled more.

Our first night in Poland we again camped in a motel garden (it seems quite common to have camping in this way) where loads and loads of lorry drivers were parked up.

The next day we headed to Warsaw. Despite an early start and it not being a big distance, we didn't arrive till about 3pm due to heavy roadworks - as I said before the road improved after the border for a short stretch - after that for pretty much the rest of Poland the roads we were on were really rutted with road works going on all over the place.

Warsaw was an amazing place to walk around. We saw the town centre and looked around the Old Town. It is hard to believe that is was all prety much completely destroyed after WW2 and rebuilt in the last few decades. We decided to get ourselves a tasty Polish snack in Warsaw and had dumlpings stuffed with mushroom yum yum (there were loads of people selling HUGE mushrooms on the side of the roads) and another food (which we were told was a traditional Polish cuisine and very tasty) a piece of bread spread with lard/fat with tiny bits of bacon in it and pickled gherkins on top. Can't say we really enjoyed it.

It suddenly started to get dark as we were eating these so we decided to get out of Warsaw and find somewhere to camp - easier said than done! Mike did a great job of navigating out of the city with the help of his trusty friend Sat Nav (though we did end up in the airport once - Flick and I thought maybe he'd had enough and was going to fly home).

We eventually found the righ road, but as on the way into the city, on the way out the outskirts went on and on for ever, with loads of billboards - as Mike said it was a bit like capitalism threw up on Warsaw. We were getting tired and weren't enjoying riding at night (there are a lot of crazy drivers in Eastern Europe - the 'lifesaver' look really earns its name, though to be honest, having eyes in the back of your head would be the only way to properly keep track of what the loons are up to in their sneaky cars) so we pulled over at a motel and got a room. It felt great to collapse into a lovely soft bed!

The next day we carried south again and decided to get off the main roads and see Poland properly. This was a great decision. The traffic disapeared and we started to relax into the riding again. We stopped in a village where there was some sort of fete on had a look around. there were kids throwing HUGE bangers and making everyone jump every two minutes and a church service going on which was so busy that loads of people were outside listening to it on speakers.

We had a bit to eat and carried on but didn't get too far before my bike overheated. We pulled over and quickly realised there was a blockage in the coolng system. Another biker pulled over, Karol. Our hero! He invited us to his house (just around the corner) where he had tools, hosepipe and generally everything we needed to fluch the system out and get my little 'Sparky' running again (we all have names for our bikes now - mine is Sparky, Mike's is Colin and Flick's Cheese).

Anyway, we got to Karol's house; his mum was there and immediately insisted that Flick and I go inside for some tea (she spoke no English but Karol translated for us). We left the boys to do the dirty work and went in.

Maria, as we found out she was called, was a lovely lady. We had a good chat with her (translated with the help of an English-Polish dictionary) and she plied us, not only with tea, but with chicken, gherkins, bread and tomatoes. We were absolutely overwhelmed by how kind both she and Karol were to us.

The bike was sorted, Mike and Karol had some tea and too soon we were having to head off again. At this point, Maria presented us with a bottle of her own, home-made cherry vodka! Thank you so much to both Maria and Karol for their incredible kindness to us!

On a recomendation from Karol we headed to Kazmeirz Dolny and found an amazing campsite there. Again, we were surprised at Polish generosity. The man running the campsite, came up to Mike and I in the morning and gave us three freshly baked rolls for our breakfast. Didn't want anything for them. Just being nice! We went off and explored the town - a really beautiful place with a very moving history and memorials.

We left Kazmierz in the afternoon and stopped in a town in the evening to find somewhere to camp. I asked a lady, in Polish! if there was a campsite and we ended up being invited to camp in the back garden. We took the offer up (apparently there was no campsite anywhere near) and went over. We were setting up the tents when her two nephews (who she had invited over as they spoke some English) called to us to come and have a cup of tea. Again, tea, meant food as well and she plied us with delicious sandwiches and a pickled white fish that was really yummy! I can't imagine asking anyone in Britain where to find a campsite and receiving this kind of hospitality.

In the morning we packed up our tents and went to say goodbye. We found her in the kitchen, with breakfast laid out for us. Breakfast consisted of hard-boiled eggs, her home-made cottage cheese (which was delicious!), salad, ham and bread. When we left the house we went straight to the shop and came back with a big box of chocolates for her. We were so grateful for her kindness.

That day we headed into Slovakia, saying goodbye to beautiful Poland and its lovely people. Slovakia was a very interesting country. More mountainous to begin with, with beautiful willages. As we travelled further south we came accross a few towns. all very ugly, grey square apartment blocks and yellow lamposts with speakers attached that were belching out Slovakian and everyn ow and then a snippet of what sounded like supermarket music.

We stopped in one of the towns, and while Flick and I were in the shop, Mike met a Slovakian lady who spoke good English. He asked her what the speakers were saying. this is what she told him...

7am-9am (when people start work): talks about waking up and being punctual. The benfits of work. How their work was appreciated.

9-1: About employment agencies, where to get jobs, the benefits of having a job.

1-2: Where you could buy your lunch from, talks about not drinking, not drink-driving 2-5: same as 9 - 1.

5-7pm: (when it was finally turned off for the day) - similar to one till two, but the last hour mostly talking about getting to bed early and not drinking so you could be up on time for work the next day.

And these speakers were not quiet. Imagine!

We came out of Slovakia and into Hungary towards evening time so tried to find a campsite fairly quickly. Found one in Mikolc where we greeted at reception by a fat man in a pair of very little pants. Nice!

The next day we headed into Romania and stayed in a motel again as we couldn't find a campsite and didn't want to ride in the dark. It was a very local place, the menu was in Romanian (very hard to read) so we ordered randomly. Flick and I ordered two different things but ended up with exactly the same - a big plate of liver and chips! Gross, I hate liver.

We ended up spending a few days in Romania. It a lovely lovely country. A bit like going back in time (even more so than other countries) with horse and carts everywhere (even on the dual carriageways), people walking cows, geese and sheep through the road. Big haystacks being made by hand (most of the houses have these in their gardens, even if the gardens are only just big enough to hold them.) Lots of gyspies in the old-style horse drawn caravans with wooden sides and domed canvas roof. Very rural. Lots of villages. Amazing. We saw alot of Romania off the beaten path, literally in parts!! We also visited a couple of tourist hot spots including Sighisoara (the birthplace of Dracula with its medieval Old Town and amazind history museum in the clock Tower (which dates from 1648), Bran - the location of Draculas castle - though it is unlikley he was ever there and where the local campsite was called Vampire Camping - yes we did stay there!

We met a Polish guy who recomended a great mountain road to us - built by Ceacescu to rival other roads like this in the world, it winds through the Carpathian mountains, reaching a summit at about 2500m and then drops back down (7C road). It was amazing. Unfortunately as we reached the top we were enclosed by mist so no great views! The mist actually made it pretty scary. The road on one side as it wound up always had a cliff edge, with often no barrier and parts of it were crumbling away. In the mist we could see virtually nothing but the taillight of the car in front. We had got slightly split up riding up (with only one or two cars in between us) but could not see each other. As we approached the summit the car in from of me pulled over. I briefly saw Mikes taillight disappear into the fog and the rain and then...I was alone. Just after the summit the road went into a tunnel. As I came into the tunnel it was so dark and mist was so thick that I literally could not see anything. I could hear car engines, but not from any particular direction - the noise was just echoing around the tunnel. I admit, I was terrified! Crawling forward ( there seemed no choice but to keep on going) the mist eventually cleared in the tunnel and I was able to see again. When I got to the other end Mike had pulled into a little layby and I stopped next to him. After a minute Flick emerged from the mist and we all set off together again into the nothingness, following the light of other cars in from of us. After what seemed like forever, we dropped back below the mist and were able to enjoy the ride again with the hairpin bends and stunning views. The best road in the world!

That pretty much brings us up to date again. We camped one last night in Romania (wild camping this time) where a set of our mess tins and all of our cutlery that we left outside of the tents mysteriously disappeared in the night!

Into Bulgaria yesterday where we headed straight for the Black Sea Coast and are currently camped up in a place called Sozopol, a Bulgarian seaside resort and a very beautiful part of the coast. We decided to have a rest day here and enjoy the place to have spent today swimming, sunbathing and wandering around the town.

Tomorow will (hopefully!) see us into, and back out of Turkey into Greece. Stay tuned - we will turn the GPS on tommorow for some updates. Also, will hopefully be able to get some more photos on when we get to Greece.

Phew, said it would be a long one! This is Sarah, signing off for Team Enduro.