Relaxing like locals,White Lagoon,Balchik

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We were not particularly active today but that was by design and also there wasn't a lot of other places to go from our location without travelling some distance.

We did find a packet in the supermarket chiller that looked more like bacon than we have come across in our attempts to satisfy our tastebuds and we put it to the test this morning with a poached egg with much better success than previously although the bacon still doesn't have that smoky flavour we get back home.

The day had dawned an absolute cracker with the distant haze of yesterday gone and we could see right across the gulf from our apartment balcony.

One thing that hasn't been apparent which we thought might be,is that we haven't seen any passing ships that sail up and down the Black Sea.It might have been the haze that has been on the horizon out to sea since we arrived on the coast or it might be that the ships that are out there are travelling between ports further north or south of where we have been and therefore they would be further out into the Black Sea when they are passing our location.

Balchik, to the south of us has a small port and there is a small freighter waiting off the port probably for a cargo.Just what arrives and leaves the port is a bit of a mystery.

Locakls started arriving for the small beach about 20 metres from the apartment complex not long after we had finished breakfast and we sat on the terrace people watching and guessing what nationality they were and where they might have come from.

The beach is fairly small in size and about 60% of it 'belongs' to the next hotel along from us that doesn't actually have its own beach.They put out the umbrellas and deckchairs for their guests and then others can rent them for the day.Their space was the front 10 metres of the beach to the water line and behind that was free to do what you want on.So if you wanted to be in the free area and you wanted to take a dip you had to walk through the rented area.The sea is free for all.A weird arrangement to us Kiwis!

Before lunch we thought we had better get some exercise for the day and work up an appetite for lunch so we headed off for a wlk along the beach front only to find that apart from the small beach in front of the apartment there wasn't anywhere else to walk or at least not from where we were.

We walked up the road and took another road in the direction of the beach only to find that the road ended at a resort where it didn't look like they invited the general public through.So we tried the access road we had arrived in from Balchik but after a couple of kilometres it was clear that it was going to be a lot further.if at all,before the road descended to the beach.There was one small track from the road down the cliff face to the beach but that went through grass and Gretchen wasn't too keen to tackle if after the number of grass snakes we had seen already just around the apartment complex.

We returned back for lunch and sat out on the balcony.The parking area below our balcony had become congested and as an older model car tried to do a turn to get out of the space it was in it hit a 4 wheel drive in the front mudguard.The noise of the bump was quite loud but the owner of the hit 4 wheel drive was not around and the driver of the older car simply drove off.There was a young woman putting her child into a push chair but she didn't do anything to stop the car from driving off rather just recorded the cars rego in the dust on her own cars window and went off down to the beach.

We were now interested to see what the damage to the 4 wheel drive was but couldn't see it because it was on the side of the car we couldn't see.So we watched and waited for the owner to come back.

As the sun started to go off the beach people started to leave and it must have been the last people to leave that owned the car.The driver didn't notice the damage and got in with his passengers.When he turned the hit side for us to see we noticed a reasonable size dent however there was nothing we could do and the woman who had written the other rego on her dusty window had already left the area.

We had taken some respite from the sun on the balcony to watch a bit of the French tennis open but the game was too one sided to hold much interest for us.

As we were sitting down to dinner Gretchen noticed a small crowd of people down on the concrete jetty watching dolphins close by frolicking in the sea close to the end of the jetty.We watched them until they moved off out to sea and the gathered people all went back to which ever hotel they had come out from.The Black Sea has a sub species of the common bottlenose dolphin found in most tropical or temperate oceans.

The days are noticeably getting longer now and darkness is not arriving until well after 9pm and of course will stretch out even longer as we head further north over the coming couple of weeks as the northern solstice nears.

Tomorrow its farewell to Bulgaria and hello to Romania.

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Comments

[KJ]

Romania flag time
Didn't have a Bulgarian flag to fly but it is quite a boring looking one by the look of it. However will now hoist the Romanian one which we have from Rugby World Cup days-red, yellow and blue from memory! Grey weather and dark by 5pm here though not so cold. It is lovely to see sunshine and read about the tropical temperatures and drawn out evenings...

[Whiskers]

Yes,the flag is a bit ordinary and didn't see it flying in many places although the Romanian is very obvious and even have a photo coming up.We do feel very fortunate to have a summer that never ends.Another warm one today around 30C while we suss out a trip on the Danube Delta,floods haven't got this far yet.Off to Bucharest tomorrow with the second highest road in Romania on the cards early next week as long as there is no fog!90km of twist and turns,hairpins but a dotted line down the middle and crash barriers too !