The Mother of All Thunderstorms

Last night we crossed the Bulgarian/Turkish border, however the bureaucratic rigmarole of crossing the border wasn’t the cause of finger clenching moment. Nor was our transit from Nis in Serbia through Bulgaria to the border town called Edirne in Turkey – a distance of 550km. Before I talk about it though I thought I would briefly describe Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria, cattle cross the badly potholed roads in random locations; the police indiscriminately pull you over to ask what you are doing; the traffic disobeys any western driving rules but seems to works well in a chaotic and haphazard way and I have to say that I love because it reminds of Kenya. Added to Bulgaria’s unusual charm is its natural beauty, which is reminiscent of parts of Africa. In particular are the wide valleys that are patched together by golden rectangles of ripening wheat and dark green fields of growing maize crops. All along the roadside all manner of wild flowers grow – everything from poppies to other really nice ones (?), which is a reminder that you actually are still in Eastern Europe. It certainly is a country that I’d like to come back to explore.

Now, I know that the Javens are prone to exaggerate a little but this is no exaggeration. On approaching the Turkish border last night I could seem a looming and threatening dark cloud in the distance, which was probably big enough to blanket the whole of Wales. The nearer we got the larger the cloud became. Eventually, it felt like we were driving into a living grey water colour painting that was being sucked into an expanding black hole which was regurgitating hundreds of bolts of forked lightening that momentarily lit up the darkening night sky. In short, this thunderstorm was the mother of all thunderstorms. When the rain started lashing down it made it virtually impossible to see where we were going and our headlights seemed to have no to little effect of lighting up the road ahead, so it hard to know where the edge of the road started or finished. Added to that it was also so humid inside the van that even the hardiest of Indians in monsoon season would have had to wring out their sweat drenched underpants. After an hour of driving through this Goliath of storms we eventually reached the Turkish border. I never would have thought I’d be so happy to see a border in my life! After crossing the border in record time we pitched up at 11pm at a campsite a few kilometres outside of Edirne – safe and sound.

Posted by Colin