8 hours of travelling!!

The day started so well!

Colin had a neck massage was which was good for him as he had been suffering from aching shoulders due to all the riding.

As I went to check out the receptionist said the card terminals weren't working and I'd have to pay cash; luckily they just happened to have a cash machine in lobby!!

After our bumpy journey up yesterday we weren't looking forward to coming down even though late afternoon yesterday the road outside our hotel was tarmaced.

Colin found it very strange that the road up to the ski resort, which was 2km further along the road, was so poor and could only assume that it was completely covered in snow from November onwards; however on our return down the mountain we found the correct road which came in from the opposite direction and it was a smooth surface all the way!

As we left the village a number of cars coming towards us were flashing their lights so we assumed there must be Police about and sure enough a little further on we were pulled over by the police. The officer asked Colin if he spoke German, Colin replied in German that he didn't! After a cursory glance at our tyres he waved us on.

Shortly after this we were again pulled over and Colin was fined for crossing a white line as he overtook a lorry! We were flagged down by a man in unifarom and 2 others with binoculars. The officer indicated that colin should accompany him in to the back of his van- which was white and clear of any markings. I had to stay outside. After some discussion with the officer it was clear that some sort of fine needed to be paid. the officer made a phone call and then passed the phone over to colin. The person on the phone siad in broken English that colin needed to pay the fine the officer was asking immediately or he would have to pay a larger fine at a later date. We had been expecting this sort of thing to happen after reading about other riders finding themselves in similar situations. The officer wrote down a sum of money that he required; we had very little Ukrainian currency and had anticipated spending it all by the time we crossed into Romania so Colin shrugged at the officer and offered him he small notes he had with him> The officer said this was not enough and gestured at me and said "wife". Colin was most indignant and said that he was the man and I had no money which made all three of the men laugh- when colin told me this I was just relieved thinking that perhaps they were after keeping me! As colin opened his wallet the officer saw the Euros and whipped a note out, we think the bribe cost about £22 but colin felt it was well worth it as it was the only time he had ever bribed a police officer- and of course it will be a great stroy to tell! Needless to say no receipt was given!!!

After this we turned off the smooth road surfaces and for the next 2 hours rode on roads just like the one we travelled on yesterday potted and no surface- at one point we were following a car who had to go off road as the pot holes were so deep and large, we did wonder if we were on the right roads as it seemed incredible that what to us would be farm track conditions at home was the road through to Romanian. Had it not been that Colin had looked at the route last night and had managed to get the sat nav working we would have thought ourselves lost. I don't know how we'd have got on without the sat nav directing us as we only saw 2 road signs the entire journey on these roads.

We caused quite a stir in every village we passed through, people stopped and stared and children waved! Colin had been told by another biker on Sunday whilst waiting for me to return, that very few Ukranians had motorbikes and even less would have such a big tourer let alone a BMW as they are much too expensive. Passing through the small villages we saw so many horse and carts on the roads being used for all sorts of jobs; carting hay, sand, scrap, people. We had such an insight into presumably how the majority of the population still live. All along the roadsides were people selling fruit and vegetables either outside their front gates or on wide bends we came across groups of people. We only passed through one town during the 2 hours and that had cobbled roads worn completely smooth and shiny.

We passed fields full of people hand harvesting vegetables onto horse drawn carts, so very different from what we've seen so far on our tour. We stopped at a tiny roadside cafe for a coffee. We're sure that one of the other customers texted his friends to come and see the mad English people, as a boy racer screeched up, left his keys in the ignition and the radio blasting! It may be a poor country but still the youngsters sported mobile phones!

When we eventually bumped up on to Tarmac again we discovered ourselves a few 100 metres from the border. We stopped at the petrol station to get some water and crisps; Colin is worried that through our constant dehydration we are losing too much salt so now buys crisps at each stop!

Whilst we had our drinks he chatted to the attendant. As they were chatting 2 Russian cars came for petrol. Now in the Ukraine we have found getting petrol quite complicated. You have to pay up front for however many litres you're having but as we never know how much we're needing it becomes interesting. There is always an attendant who fills up the vehicles, they wait until you've paid before putting in fuel. Well the first time this happened I was sent in to pay, so I waited and waited to be told how much and the cashier and attendant waited and waited for me to say how much I wanted to put in! I did think it was taking along time; eventually the cashier asked "How much?" I just shrugged and pointed out to Colin, the question was asked again and again until he then picked up the walkie talkie and asked the attendant, who asked Colin, who just shrugged because we didn't know! A similar event happened with the Russians but they didn't seem to find it has funny as Colin and I had.

Then a Romanian woman in a big old Mercedes came and what she did was so strange to us but common place according to the attendant. She brought out a huge wooden wedge, placed it behind her rear wheel then reversed her car so that it was at an angle before filling up, being on the slant meant more fuel could be got in the tank, she also filled up containers with petrol before driving on to the border. Colin asked was petrol so much cheaper than in Romania and the attendant said about 20 cents difference, but it was obviously worth filling up in the Ukraine for that woman.

We togged up and went off to cross the border. Along the road a huge line of lorries were parked up, we weren't sure whether to join the back of the line but some drivers beckoned us forward to we passed them and joined the cars waiting to go through. Another first for today was watching a corrupt Ukranian border guard receive money from every Ukranian car driver as he 'checked' their car boots. We wondered if we would be 'fined' for something in order to give him some money. When he got to us a young soldier joined him and checked our documents alongside the guard. I was very relieved as I felt extremely uncomfortable with the Ukranian guard and was worried about what would happen.

We passed through the Ukranian border without a hitch. We then had to go through the Romanian one. This time whilst waiting I went and sat in the shade which gave me a good view of the procedures. A Hungarian car went through and the driver had to unload everything from his boot. This consisted of packs of the large bottles of coke, fanta and sprite and an enormous bag of what sounded like rice when it was put down, he then had to take out his spare wheel and bounce it before being given the all clear to pack it all up. The guards then tapped all of his door panels, checked his wheel arches and scrutinised his paper work before being allowed through. The Romanian cars weren't subjected to the same intense scrutiny but the Ukranian ones were! Then it was the turn of the Russians! The Russians were obviously holidaying together. Both cars had Mum, Dad and 2 children in them, so you can imagine the amount of bags that were stuffed into their boots! When faced with boots so full the border guards did little more than a cursory look and rummage before moving on to the paper work; the paper work for the Russians seemed to take three times as long as for everyone else. Then it was us. We moved forward expecting a rigorous going over but just the opposite happened. The guard took our passports and vehicle document asked me where we were going, then asked if we had friends in Romania, he reported our answers to a plain clothed man who shrugged and waved us away; he seemed disapponited that we were not visiting people. The whole process had taken over an hour; and we still didn't get our passports stamped! We're glad now that we have been through so many open borders.

We rode on with some trepidation as the Ukranian attendant had said that Romanian roads were just as bad as theirs but in fact for the next 6 hours we travelled on normal roads.

Romania has surprised us, we were expecting it to be much less developed than countries such as Estonia and Latvia but in fact it is just the opposite and far more developed in some places.

Colin is surprised though that there aren't more Romanian F1 drivers as almost all the drivers on the road today seemed to want to be racing drivers; they just lack skill, experience and brain cells! Their driving is so atrocious and dangerous. I think that they see a british motorbike and want to prove something. We were even over taken by a fuel tanker towing another tanker!

At one point we passed a warning of an accident hot spot and a soon after we came across a car upside down in a ditch; this could only have been a matter of minutes ahead of us; but even after leaving the accident behind, the car following us was desperate to overtake us on blind bends!

The countryside we have ridden through today has been lovely; with rolling hills. The small villages are the same layout as in all the countries from Estonia onwards but just the materials for the houses and styles have changed. In the Ukraine we thought to begin with that the houses were thatched but in fact they had corrugated metal or concrete tiles, which had mottled over the years and from a distance looked the colour of thatch!

As we've travelled here we have already seen 5 of the must see sights in Romania. There are 8 wooden churches some of them dating back to 14th century, Colin wondered how many times the wood has been replaced and does that make them ancient?

As we arrived outside the hotel a little old man jumped up and ran over to ask if we were staying at the Hotel Central, when I nodded he gestured for us to wait there and scuttled off down the street. He popped out of an alleyway and gestured for us to come down to him, our parking space is right outside of the hotel reception!

We were very disappointed to have arrived so late in the day that we wouldn't have time to explore but after walking around to find somewhere to eat we both said how disappointed with Cluj Napoca itself; especially with the dirt and graffiti everywhere, a total contrast to all of the other places we've visited. Also so many people smoke and it is allowed inside as well, something we're no longer used to.

We're actually looking forward to moving on from here which is the first place we've felt like this about.