Hello - this is the final blog post as we have made it to Dobrich in Bulgaria - writing this from an office in the college (one of the places I used to work!)

We left Negotin on the 18th June and began a 2 day cycle through steep hills to reach the farm. Having said that I had thought various other cyclists were being over the top about dogs, I started to become afraid of the dogs too and started carrying a big stick on my bike (although never actually hit any!) because sometimes when you cycle through a village a few dogs start chasing you, barking and snapping at your heels! So we normally just cycle as fast as we can until they give up but it definitely makes your heart pound!

To get from Negotin to Zajecar we were following the signs for Euro velo 13 which is a new route called the 'Iron Curtain trail' which goes from the top of Finland to Bulgaria. The Serbian signs have lovely little messages and sayings on each euro velo sign like 'Dream on a bicycle but always with your eyes wide open'. It is nice to stop and read them as you go along.

On the day we left Negotin, we went past a sign for some waterfalls and decided to have a look. So we left the bikes and walked through the forest to get to the waterfall. It was beautiful and we swam there. Then we carried on and that night camped in a forest where a wild boar came towards our tent but got scared when it saw us and ran away! The next day we continued up and down the hills to reach Zajecar (a town in the east of Serbia only about 15km from the Bulgarian border). From there we carried on to the village of Planinica which is where the woofing farm (eco village) was. We started going up the steep track to reach the farm and then we met Sinisa and Banyan who were coming up in the car so they kindly took our paniers so we could cycle up to the eco village. We were definitely ready to have a break from cycling as we both had pain in our knees.

We arrived and then also met Sinisa's father who was staying for a few days. Banyan is Sinisa and Ivana's son and he is 8 years old. Sinisa and Banyan showed us around the farm - first they showed us the bees and Sinisa explained how the bee societies work and how he gives special sweet tea to the young bees which they love. Then they showed us the goats (they have 13 goats all together - 7 adults and 6 babies) and the 2 donkeys - Mara and Sivko. Mara is pregnant and they thought the baby might come around the beginning of July so we hoped we might get to see it before we left! Later that day we met Ivana who arrived back from Belgrade. She speaks fluent English and French as well as German and of course Serbian.

The next day was the longest day of the year so we all woke up at 5 and walked up the hill to watch the sunrise, also their dog Lika came with us too. That was an amazing start to our time there! Then Sinisa showed me how to water the vegetable garden and Vianney helped with milking the goats and putting the donkeys out in the field. Our daily routine was generally waking up at 7am, watering the garden, putting the donkeys out, cleaning the donkey stable, helping with milking and then we would all have breakfast together with the family. They are vegetarian (yay!) so we ate lots of delicious grains, vegetables from the garden, home-made goats cheese and fruit. After breakfast, one of us would go goat herding for 2 and a half hours. When you take the goats out, you take Anna (the boss) on a lead and then the others all follow. But then after a while you let Anna off too and try to direct them by saying 'heidi cozi' (come on goats). The goats are so funny and all have very individual personalities. While one of us was goat herding the other one would help Ivana to prepare a cooked meal for lunch. It was really interesting chatting to Ivana about many things including history, politics, buddhism and all about their eco village and how it came to be. We learned how to make goats cheese and also how to make Serbian dishes. Then we'd all have lunch together and then normally have a break for a few hours. Then in the evening we would either take the goats out again for 2 hours or put them in the field and watch them to make sure they don't get out through the fence! We were staying in a caravan and there was a compost toilet and solar shower outside - it was great to learn about this eco-friendly living.

One day we went down the hill to meet Banyan who was coming back from karate which he does at the school in the village. Ivana has said that we could all pick some dudeenya (a fruit but we didn't know what it was at that point) so when we met Banyan we said to him 'dudeenya?' and he showed us the dudeenya tree and Vianney lifted Banyan and I up into the tree and we all picked loads of dudeenya - we had never eaten them before but we have since discovered that they are mulberries in English.

We also met their friend Alex who was staying for a while. He taught us how to massage our knees after cycling as he is a chiropractor. He also showed us a didgeridoo which he had made and played us some songs on it. We had a go too - Vianney was good at it but I didn't manage to make a good sound. Vianney is now planning to make his own didgeridoo.

One day we went on a day trip with Sinisa, Alex and Banyan to some caves. We climbed up through beautiful mountains and then found that they had padlocked a metal gate across the entrance to the cave. But Vianney and Sinisa managed to lift it so we could all crawl underneath! It was incredible - beautiful rock formations and huge caverns. There were steps and walkways as it used to be officially open to the public. It was freezing cold inside - a big contrast to the heat outside. Then on the way back from the caves we went for a swim in a lake and all ate watermelon -it was a lovely day.

Towards the end of our time at the farm the afternoon temperatures started to reach 50°C! In the last few days Vianney went with Sinisa and a man from the village to collect hay from the fields and put them into bails in the traditional way. They would load the trailer of the tractor and then they came back to the barn and the four of us transferred hay from the tractor into the barn and stacked them up.

On our final night there, Banyan organised a musical evening and we all played music (they had a piano, a lyre which Ivana played and lots of percussion, and Alex played the didgeridoo) which was really nice. The next morning we did the morning tasks and then said goodbye to the animals. Then we had breakfast with the family and said goodbye. It was a great experience being there and meeting such a nice and interesting family.

We cycled to Zajecar and arrived at around midday. It was already so hot! From Zajecar it was really hilly on the way to the Bulgarian border - it was quite unbearable in the heat and I didn't think I could make it! But of course we had to carry on so we did. We got to the border and the Serbian border police decided they needed to go through all our paniers (not sure what they were checking for) - a funny moment was when he found an old dried up forgotten about plum in Vianney's bag and he sniffed it very suspiciously!

So then we arrived in Bulgaria yay! It felt good that the end of the cycling was in sight! We had a delicious packed lunch of bread and goats cheese from the farm. It was good that we could communicate a bit with people (even with our limited Bulgarian) as for a long time we had only really known thank you and hello in the languages of the countries we were in - actually Ivana taught us some Serbian which was good but then we left Serbia straight after we left the farm - we'll have to go back one day to practise.

That night we camped on top of a hill and it was really windy. The next day we cycled through lots of villages and it was quite hilly. We had just cycled down a big hill but then Vianney realised he had lost one of his shoes which had been hanging from his panier! So I put the tent up by the river whilst he cycled back to look for it. Luckily he found it! Really heavy rain started and carried on into the morning. We had meant to leave early but we stayed in the tent for ages with the heavy rain. Eventually we decided we needed to go so we packed up wet tent and set off in the rain. That day we cycled to Lom and then got the train to Sofia as we were visiting our friend Viktoria for a few days (no cheating on the route though - we would get the train back to Lom!) We heaved the bikes onto the very high trains and put them into the back of the train but then people told us we needed to change - so it was quite stressful getting the bikes and all the stuff off and onto trains but luckily some people helped us. We got to Sofia and the rain was even worse! We cycled to Viktoria's appartment and got lost. Eventually after asking lots of people we found it. We were soaking wet! It was lovely to see Viktoria. It was great to spend a few days catching up with her, relaxing and visiting Sofia.

After that we got a morning train back to Lom (after a stressful time running around Sofia station and carrying the bikes up and down sets of stairs as no-one would tell us which platform the train was going from!) and then carried on cycling. That night we wild camped by lots of fruit trees. We alway find plums, dudeenya and apricots along the route.

The next day we cycled and then got the ferry across the Danube into Romania. It was possible to either cycle on the Bulgarian side or Romanian side of the Danube - we wanted to visit Romania too so we decided to cross (and we had heard that the Romanian side was flatter!) It was amazing cycling through villages in Romania as everyone was so friendly and waved at us as we went past. Also a few times little boys would race us on their bikes until the end of the village! We went through a part of Romania on the first day famous for it's production of melons, so there were lots of people selling melons on the street. We wanted to buy one but we didn't have any Romanian lei and couldn't find an exchange office. Then later we found some discarded watermelons by the road which had probably fallen off a cart. Some were smashed but we found one which was whole but very hot from the sun. Vianney decided to carry it in his panier which made his bike so heavy! So that evening we cooled the watermelon in the danube near where we were camping and ate the entire thing that evening and the next morning.

For the next 3 days, we cycled along the route recmomended in our book (not next to the Danube but through villages north of the Danube). We were planning to camp near the route but it was all villages and farming land so it was difficult to find anywhere. So each evening we ended up cycling about 10km extra down bumpy, dusty farm tracks to reach the Danube to camp. On about the 3rd night we found the best wild camping spot of the whole trip - under the shade of trees, right next to river and very beautiful. Every evening we would swim in the Danube, cook and then go to sleep. As soon as it started to get dark the mosquitoes would attack so we would end up eating inside the tent even though it was so hot! It was funny when we were cycling down small tracks or through villages off the route as people would always stop us and ask us if we were lost or needed help. One morning when we were trying to get back to the route along a flood dyke, so many people in the village before stopped us and told us in romanian that the beach (of the Danube I guess) was the other way so we kept repeating the name of the village we were trying to get to. It was really nice how everyone was so helpful. At some point in Romania we reached the 4000km point in a village.

On our second to last night in Romania we stayed in a guest house in Oltenitsa which was a nice treat. The next morning (well midday as we couldn't convince ourselves to leave guest house any earlier!), we met 3 french retired people who are cycling from Nice in France to Constanta (the black sea in Romania) - it had been a while since we had seen any cycle tourers. They get up early and cycle until lunchtime which is the sensible thing to do but we definitely don't do that!

We had one more night of camping by the Danube and by that point the Danube really did seem quite dirty - so swimming/washing in it probably wasn't ideal! The next morning we decided to cycle along the flood dyke to the ferry port rather than cycling back 10km to rejoin route, but it was terrible and muddy with thick spiky vegetation - so we had a bit of a nightmare getting through and ended up all scratched up and muddy! But we made it to the ferry port and crossed (for free!) to Silistra in Bulgaria. We spent some time in Silistra (washing the mud off ourselves in the water fountain!) and saying goodbye to Danny (the Danube). Then we got 2 ice creams and we chatted to the lady in Bulgarian - she asked us about our trip. Then she wouldn't accept any money for the ice creams! We tried to give her some but she said it was a present! So nice.

From Silistra we started seeing signs for Dobrich!! So that was really exciting! We followed them and had to cycle on a busy road uphill with cars whizzing past. We were singing as we cycled along! People were quite surprised to see us - don't think many cycle tourers pass that way! There were lots of wild apricot trees by the side of the road so Vianney lifted me into the tree and I picked loads so we filled one bag with them. That night we camped by the edge of a forest (no Danube to swim in for the first time in ages) and we couldn't believe that we would arrive in Dobrich the next day!

So the next day we started cycling (still following the main road) and later we decided to leave the main road and take a route that was more hilly but at least not so many cars. We cycled through some villages and past lovely fields of sunflowers and lavender. Eventually in the early afternoon we could see Dobrich below from the top of a hill. We couldn't believe it! We cycled down the hill and then took photos with the Dobrich sign! As we came into Dobrich, it took a while for me to recognise where we were - but Vianney found the way to the centre and then suddenly there we were! We felt amazed and surprised that we were there in the place that we lived 3/4 years ago. We went straight to the accommodation where we used to live as we had arranged to stay there. The people working there were different to before but we chatted to them and some students and they couldn't believe that we had cycled from France! We showered and then went to meet Vianney's old colleauges in his office. We went for drinks with Ralitsa and Nikoleta (and 2 of their daughters) in Dobrich park and I saw two students from one of the schools I worked in working in the restaurant! The next day Ralitsa took us to the beach with her little daughter which was great - first trip to the Black sea since we lived here! Over the last few days we have been catching up with our friends and colleauges in Dobrich. It is really lovely to see them again and to be here. An extra special thing is that our friend Petya's daughter Lora remembered us -she was only 4 when we lived here and now she is 7!

We have also visited places we used to go - like the amazing zoo (which is a really nice zoo with huge enclosures and mainly farm animals in) which I used to go to a lot. Also today we went to visit the lovely lady who runs the traditional pottery shop in the old town which we always used to go to and (just like old times) she gave us rakia and lokum.

We are going to Istanbul on Sunday to see our friend Mesut and then my brother and cousins are coming to meet us in Varna for a week before we head home.

I don't know if we have quite realised that we have come to the end of our trip - lots of people here ask us where we are cycling to next! We are going to cycle from Dobrich to the Black Sea sometime next to complete the step. At some points on the trip I have definitely thought 'never again' about cycle touring e.g. when it is really hot and hilly - but overall it has been an amazing experience and we have now started talking about a tour along the North sea (Finland, Poland etc) so maybe at some point we will do that!

Here's some stats from our trip!

We cycled:

4388km

20,058 m of climb

76 days

270 hours

Thank you for reading my blog :) See you soon!

If you'd like to sponsor us in raising money for medecines sans frontieres, the link is: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=VianneyHannah&faId=820381&isTeam=false