In 2007-08, Swindon-born Mark Beaumont
circumnavigated the world by bicycle in 195 days, beginning and ending in
Paris. He had travelled unsupported over
18,000 miles through 20 countries and broken the Guinness world record by 81
days. Having lost the record in 2010, he
regained it in 2017 with a supported circumnavigation which took less than 79
days, a record he still holds.
The
Man Who Cycled the World is an account of his first trip cycling/circling
the world, published in 2009. It
includes a few pages on the leg through eastern Romania (pp. 97-101) on days
16-19 of his journey, crossing the border from Ukraine. Entering Romania was a
process he found easier than getting into and out of Ukraine, a country that
for some reason he thought was not part of Europe. The book is really an amplified logbook with
the emphasis on the bicycle and his physical state rather than the places he passed
through (‘Don’t ask me what Ukraine looks like,’ he says, ‘as I was staring two
metres in front of my wheel all day’).
He seems to have seen more of Romania,
which he found attractive: ‘great roads, beautiful villages and scenic rolling
hills.’ As soon as he arrived, while
studying his map a local shook hands and said ‘welcome to Romania!’ His first stop was Fălticeni and to get there
he cycled along roads shared with horse-drawn carts, shepherds in the
fields. Arriving in town and needing an
hotel, he asked a police officer in a car who said ‘follow me’ and escorted
Beaumont 2km to one (albeit the hotelier was ‘grumpy’). Beaumont says he was ‘impressed’ by Romania.
The riding was generally straightforward
to the town of Roman, though he got lost in Bacău, and he camped in a field
near Adjud. The following day was
through more industrial areas, reaching Buzău in the afternoon. At Râmnicu Sărat he stopped for some supplies
and a man standing next to him at the counter took them from him and paid,
mentioning something about a bicicletă.
He finished the day in a field near Urziceni. The temperature was rising and he was
conscious of saddle sores.
The next day he passed by Slobozia. He was feeling weak, having had a small
breakfast as he had run out of Romanian currency, but he pushed on to the
Bulgarian border. Unfortunately the border
control he arrived at was not open so he was directed to go back up the road
and cross the Danube by ferry. He did
not have the fare, however the attendant waved him on to what was essentially a
floating platform and he crossed free of charge. He was close to the border, and entered
Bulgaria, en route to Turkey and
beyond, in less than a minute.
In the section of photographs there is
one of a horse-drawn cart in Romania with the caption ‘iconic images of a world
I would have loved to explore more, but the clock never stopped.’
