Twardiza Pass

What I completely forgot to mention yesterday: The roads were excellent. And that was true again today! Last night I had one of those sleepless nights where I kept waking up. So it took me a little longer this morning to get ready. I actually wanted to go to a viewpoint right behind the house, but since it was getting late and the weather wasn't great – it was drizzling on and off – I decided against it.

I set off at 9:30. First, a bit of up and down until I reached the town of Elena. That took longer than I had expected, but I must have just remembered it wrong.

Ab Elena ging die Steigung so richtig los, und zwar Richtung Twardiza Passes (bulg. Twardischki Prochod/Твърдишки проход), der den kürzesten Balkanpass von Nord- nach Südbulgarien darstellt. Verkehrsarm war er auch noch, entsprechend war er perfekt geeignet für mich. Und dass die Strasse gut war erwähnte ich ja schon ;-). Und das Wetter hielt übrigens auch: Die Strassen waren zwar nass und fühlten sich klebrig an, doch ausser ein paar einzelnen kleinen Tröpfchen während dem Aufstieg blieb es trocken.

The pass was rather inconspicuous. First, it climbed relatively steeply to a kind of plateau, then undulated a bit more until the final ascent: a little over 9 km through the forest up to about 1060 meters above sea level. Thankfully, there was no snow, but it was definitely chilly. The long climb was more of a mental challenge than a real physical one. I imagined it would be incredibly long and thought I'd need a break at least halfway through the 9 km. But I pedaled up the road at my comfortable pace, and when I reached the halfway point, I still felt fresh and cheerful, so I continued without stopping all the way to the summit.

Once I reached the top, I quickly changed into warm clothes and immediately started the long descent. It was quite long and included a few short uphill sections. The scenery, however, was interesting.

Arriving in Twardiza, I continued east along the mountain range towards Sliven. Since the wind was blowing from that direction and the road was undulating, I sometimes struggled to make progress. Fortunately, the route was mostly downhill, and it became increasingly clear that, despite the late start for such a long stage, I would still reach my destination by late afternoon.

In Sliven, I turned south at roughly a right angle. With a crosswind now blowing, the ride was much better, although the road was very busy. The Bulgarians were kind to me again today, overtaking with plenty of space, so I felt reasonably comfortable. After a motorway on-ramp, the traffic thinned out considerably, but there was one last climb before Yambol. Since this section of the road was heading slightly east again, I had to exercise patience one last time today, as traffic was almost at a standstill. But this hill, too, was soon behind me, and shortly after 5 p.m., I arrived at my accommodation in Yambol.

Now I'm almost at the Turkish border, and tomorrow I'll be crossing it! It still feels somewhat unreal, and I need to let it sink in for a while. I have all night to do that…