Coming to Sofia

Music Credit: Toybox (Adobe Premiere Sample Music)
Video Made using Strava, Relive and Adobe Clip

We committed to cycling from Plovdiv to Sofia in one day and achieved it under 10 hours. It was a long but rewarding day. We passed through many villages and took some snaps on the way to include in our Relive video.

🚴Cycle Lane Traffic

It is awesome to see cycle lanes and many people using it. The feeling on the road compared to cycle lanes are completely different - it is much safer being on a cycle only lane. Occasionally pedestrian can't notice us but a simple bell ring get their attention. The worse country using cycle lanes was Turkey: people didn't respect the cyclists and walk casually when we're trying to ride on it. When we ring the bell they panic and walk into our path! Hopefully as more cycle lanes are provided people start respecting the shared space.

🏞️Healthy Green Forest

We passed through some forest following a river upstream and saw some really healthy green forest. It is absolutely beautiful and something we've missed a lot. There's a major difference in temperature cycling amongst the trees - it is much cooler and shaded. We remember leaving Ankara and it was sunny and not a tree in sight.

🕊️ Massive Stalk Nest

It's the second time we've seen this. They built really big nests on power pole and I'm shocked by how big they are. In one nest we saw two chicks sitting with their mum. Amazingly they can survive the heat under the summer sun.

🌄Sunset over Sofia

The sunset was beautiful, casting bright pink over the city. We still had 30 km to go so the last hour was cycling in the night.

😌Finally arrived

It took us a bit of searching to find the sign - but finally we got our photo opportunity. The road coming into the cities are always multi-lane and spacious for cycling. The only danger is the exit and entrance road coming in. We always got to be careful and watchful of moving traffics.

Woohoo we did it: 160 km over 9:34 hr and climbed up 1174 metres

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