11 November 2023, Varna, 28.52km
Lider Apartment 40lev [R400]

We are in Varna on the Black Sea coast, but we have yet to see the sea though we are apparently only 700m from the beach.
For reasons unknown to us, our youth hostel host decided to upgrade us from a room-with-shared-bathroom to a large apartment with two bedrooms, our own bathroom, a basic kitchen (kettle, microwave, fridge), a washing machine and a balcony on which to park the bikes. All at the original within-budget price.
We had planned to spend two nights, but may spend three.
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Yet again today we have seen something extraordinary and unique in all the world, a stone forest, the Pobiti Kamani Natural Monument.
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Unesco: "Pobiti Kamani ("upright stones" - fossil forest) are calcareous columns formed by natural forces. The stone columns vary in size - up to 10 m height and up to 2, rarely 6 m diameter. Some of them are solid, when others are hollow. The calcareous material is pale grey sandstone with carbonate content. The desert like environment surrounding the columns possesses specific flora and fauna. From a geological point of view the Pobiti Kamani is a unique phenomenon with global significance. Individually and as assemblages, the stones astonish with their size and number, and together with the semi-desert environment around them create characteristic landscape of exceptional natural beauty. There are dozens of theories about the genesis of the stone columns near Varna. The newest hypothesis proves that these structures are formed around natural methane gas seeps."
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The board outside the ticket office declares the site to be 50 million years old. One couple was departing as we arrived and we had the entire place to ourselves. As we were leaving, a small tour group and a large tourist bus arrived. Pretty good timing!
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We have had to splurge on new brakes for my bike - I seem to have worn mine out, and two new tubes - ours are now so patched they hiccup beneath us making for a less than comfortable ride.
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Sunshine was forecast for this morning and rain for early afternoon, and that is exactly what we got.
We cycled a little under 30km from Devnya, grateful for the cycle path within busy Varna city.
The path was obviously added to an existing wide sidewalk and was somewhat quirky. Sometimes it was two-way, sometimes single-track. On occasion the single track was only 50cm wide, leaving room for pedestrians, but not much for laden bikes. At bus stops, the path pops unexpectedly into the road - watch out for buses pulling in to collect passengers! At underpasses, it deadends at a set of stairs, super dangerous to the distracted or uninitiated. Fun, though, and safer than the main road.