Second Day

So the bike was ready and so was I, set off nervously at about 9.00 am, there is a choice of where to go, in fact all directions are possible.  Decided in the end to ride to the north to a town Balabansko and see if I could pick up a track that would take me into the mountains to the right hand side.  In the end I couldn't identify any of the trails off the road, so I carried on to the village of Terzisko, uphill all the way.  

I called at the house of my best man who is an artist and lives with his wife and daughter in a complex old house on a steep hillside overlooking a ravine.   As usual when I arrived they were working on some furniture, they were very surprised to see me Tsvatko said I had come from the sky!

Cup of coffee and then back on the road, which by now was a forest track, used only by the forest workers to collect wood.  Came across a group of about 20 horses, led a young girl.  All the horses had some kind of saddle, but not exactly a saddle, it was used to load wood on the then they would carry it down to the trucks in the valley.  The route basically was a very big up and aery long down, 24 miles, a good start.
 
Came across this big Zil Russian forest truck on the trail, wish I knew where the signpost was pointing, couldn't find those places on the map.

Just as I got to the main road for the last three miles or so I was overtaken by  a group of road cyclists, all dressed the same in full road kit, shaved legs, serious stuff.   I rode immediately behind them and spoke to one of them for a few seconds, they were from Toyan and at the end of the their ride, I think the one I spoke to was a bit surprised, wouldn't speak much.  Anyway I more or less kept up with them with my chunky tyres singing due to the speed before turning off to home.