Student cycles across Bulgaria

Congratulations to Lower Sixth student Victor who completed an incredible personal challenge over the summer by cycling more than 750km across the northern border of Bulgaria. This was a test of endurance as a group of 16 teenagers, with various levels of cycling experience, cycled every day for two weeks, often in temperatures reaching 40 degrees! 

Victor says, “I’ve been going camps like this for three years. Usually, we cycle for a few days to a campsite and do circular routes around a large lake. This year, the team that organises the camps decided to set us a challenge called the Dunav Ultra, which is a route of almost 800km, starting at a village called Kudelin, and arriving at the village of Durankulak on the black sea.  

The idea of the challenge was suggested to me, and as I was in Bulgaria at the time, I decided ‘why not?’. Luckily a friend had a spare bike and helmet! There were about 20 of us that started the ride, with only a handful that I knew, and 15 of us finished. By the end, we had all become good friends, and are planning to do something similar next year. 

Other than the previous camps, I had never really cycled more than 15km in one ride. Although I play different sports at school, and was grateful that doing some weights as part of that, kept me fit enough to finish. 

There were definite highs and lows along the way. The heat was an issue, as around midday it peaked at 46 degrees. To combat this, we would leave around 7.00am, and then when it got too hot, we’d go swimming in the river or sleep.  

The most challenging day was the third, as we decided to cycle 110km in one day, which was flat for the first half, and uphill for the second part. Overall morale dipped around halfway through the challenge when some people dropped out. But other than that, morale was high, we were blasting music on various speakers, and enjoying it.  

My highlights were mingling with the village population, seeing a completely different way of living and chatting with them. We were already three days ahead of schedule, and on the last day we decided to cycle 80km in the morning, sleep under the stars, and cycle the last downhill part at night. The low light pollution meant we could see a tonne of shooting stars. And arriving at the beach was always going to be nice. We spent the next few days cliff jumping into the black sea which was very fun. As I opened my GCSE results on the day we arrived at the beach, we threw a little party which made it extra special.”