Day 63 - Mahmudia to Mamaia-Sat (93 miles)

I set off early today with the aim of getting some miles in before the heat of the sun started to wear me down. As it turned out the haze of the morning was present for a large part of the day so with that and the relatively flat, smooth and quiet roads I made good progress. My morning route traced a long and variable course around the large bays that lie between the Danube delta and the Black Sea and although I saw a lot of golden wheat, pasture and neat, well kept villages I saw little of the water, which lay some distance away.

I passed the 12th century Byzantine medieval fortress of Heracleea on a hill overlooking the Danube delta and shortly after, approaching the half way point to Constanta, I arrived at the village of Jurilovca where I stopped briefly.  It has an interesting history: about 40% of the inhabitants are Russian 'Old Believers' who fled Russia in the early 1800s to avoid religious persecution and they still speak archaic Russian.

I continued my journey through countryside and villages but it was not to last: from a high point on the landscape I could see ten miles distant the beginnings of a more developed part of the Black Sea that would eventually take me to Constanta: the towers, pipes and storage facilities of the massive oil refinery at Nǎvodari and beyond that the long, grey blur of the Black Sea holiday strip. By the time I reached Nǎvodari everything had changed; I was amid the noise and smells of industry, alongside a major road and surrounded by traffic. I was now close enough to Constanta that I could have finished my journey today and it had crossed my mind to do so. But after nine hours cycling, now in a busier and more urban environment, I decided I needed to stop so sat down and found accommodation in the resort of Mamaia-Sat three miles further ahead. 

A glimpse of the Black Sea

Nǎvodari in the distance 

Mamaia-Sat is an extensive holiday town of side-by-side low rise holiday flats and hotels. It is one of those places where from the beach back almost every bit of useable space has been built upon and those small patches that have not are fenced off in readiness to do so. The streets are crammed with cars and the beach is crammed with people; it is a busy place, compounded by today being the weekend and apparently the first day of the holidays here in Romania. 

I walked the promenade by the white sand beach with its forest of parasols, rows of plastic sun beds, children's play areas and bars before heading away from the seafront and towards my accommodation, more intent on a shower than working my way through the crowds to dip a toe in the sea. Suitably refreshed I returned to the beachfront to eat, the whole area still busy with people enjoying the last of the sun. Tomorrow I have only 13 miles to reach Constanta and the end of my journey.