Back in Brasov Emma, Matt and Ben treated me to a trip to a bear hide. We only saw one bear but we were able to watch him for quite a while before he disappeared into the woods again.
Had a fantastic few days in the wee village of Zalanpatac, with Emma, Ben and Matt. Nice walks, very peaceful, beautiful scenery and lots of wild flowers. We soaked our feet in the mineral water pool, we cautiously entered the small “mofetta”, and visited the very small museum. No light pollution and a fantastic view of the stars. We didn’t see any bears but pretty certain we heard one the first evening and definitely saw bear prints the following morning. We did see a little snake. Thank you Emma for introducing me to this lovely wee village.
The mofetta we went in, is tiny compared with the ones in this description – just a couple of steps down and 4 or 5 up turned logs to sit on. We were told not to go in for more than 3 minutes. https://visitharghita.com/en/places/the-miracle-of-mofettas-a-unique-phenomenon-in-the-world-cp3-6lhw6clljw#
Wednesday 21st June. Very glad I’d taken the afternoon off and saved the rest of the uphill for slightly fresher legs. Toasty when I left the campsite but cooler in the shade of the trees as I went up. According to the sign posts hairpins were at 7% – absolutely perfect for me – enough to push me but not kill me altogether and definitely no having to get off to push Bertie. I’m in bear country and although I’d love to see one not sure I want to come across one when I’m slowly going uphill. This is pretty much the route I did – zoom in to see the hairpins. https://www.komoot.com/tour/1180050202?ref=aso&share_token=aPUlwlQ6hdskDJy7h1Gkvqlrst0gXkeuXwgke71xIxSyguxe1j
At the top there is a police presence and some lorries have been pulled over. I’m looking for somewhere I can get off the bike and I’m approached by a policeman and wonder what he wants but he’s just come to point out a picnic table that is hidden from view behind a truck and tells me to take my time before heading down the other side.
Some lovely swoopy sections going down. Some tough wee uphills too – barely an incline but into the wind. The blue of Lacul Tarlung lower down was amazing.
Two days ago when I was struggling in the hills I saw some beautiful houses – someone of which are probably holiday homes – I’ve been told that Romania has a similar problem to the UK and I’m sure it happens right across the world – with incomers buying holiday home and pushing the prices up for everyone else. Here I saw the poorest house I’d seen so far – nothing more than a run down shack with some chickens scratching in the mud outside – it was more in keeping with pictures I’d seen of shanty towns in India. Today on the edge of another town, only a few miles from Brasov, another very poor area and I had to remind myself I was still in Europe
The last few miles into Brasov was hectic – some good sections of cycle path as you got closer to the old town but before this there was a stretch where I had to unload and reload Bertie because of steps – there was a concrete ramp but it was so steep I didn’t use it. Finally at hostel – Bertie has been abandoned at the reception for a few days – I’m scrubbed up and got my clothes washed and time to relax for a few days with my sister, b-in-law and nephew for a few days.
Tuesday 20th June. The last 4 days I’ve been traveling inland towards Brasov. Had thought about getting there today and currently only about 32 miles away but at about 11.50 this morning found a nice restaurant and there was a campsite just a few hundred meters along the road and decided to call it quits for today.
I’m in a wee town called Cheia, in the Ciucas Mountains and it’s beautiful. Tomorrow I’ve got about 10 miles and 2000 feet of climbing to do and then hopefully a nice swoopy downhill 20 miles to Brasov.
Three afternoons ago after a very hot day I asked at the wee shop I’d stopped at if there was any accommodation near by as I couldn’t find anything online. At the end of the village there was rooms – the man there phoned somebody who phoned somebody to confirm there was a spare room – room was basic – no lock on the door, 2 single beds one of which looked as if it had been slept in – communication had been difficult so I didn’t say anything and opted to use the other bed – plenty of hot water in the over the bath shower but no shower curtain and as is often the case nowhere to hang the shower head so you end up having a one handed shower which isn’t easy – the bath rocked with the slightest move I made and it was a very quick shower in case something broke altogether and bath and me went the floor.
Following day was a big day – just short of a 100 miles with a wee rest on the ferry close to the Romanian / Bulgarian border. Nearly all flat and nice easy cycling apart from a few miles of road improvement works – where it was just gravel – wasn’t sure if the gravel was the improvement on what had been there before or if there was more work to be done. In the morning passed miles of vine yards and was very tempted to buy some to try from an old man who was selling it at a stall at the roadside but I had nowhere to put a 2 litre plastic bottle of wine. In the afternoon saw my first sunflowers of this trip. Didn’t pass through many villages and very little traffic which was good, but this was the most isolated I’d felt on the whole of my journey and was glad nothing went wrong with the bike. Not long after being back on tarmac a beastie shot into my left eye – should have had my sunglasses on – it wasn’t just uncomfortable, it stung like anything and I couldn’t see anything for a good few minutes – really needed an eye bath but the only liquid I had was 1/2 grapefruit juice / 1/2 water and that wasn’t going to help – can’t be sure but wondered if it was an ant and it had squirted some acid. Eye settled down, although still very uncomfortable, and wheels turning again and onto a motel for the night – there wasn’t much choice and this was part of the reason for the big day – bed was comfortable and shower was good but it was a toasty hot day and there was underfloor heating in the room and it was roasting – opening the window didn’t help with the heat much and I could smell the bins which were below my window – my least favourite place to stay of the whole trip.
Overcast the next morning with a bit of a breeze and I was glad it was cooler. This was meant to be a much shorter day – flatish for most of it and into the hills later in the day. I had some phonecalls to make so had a few stops and also had an extended lunch – just generally chilled because I thought I had plenty of time! Again not a lot of choice of accomodation but found a campsite on booking com – it was going to be basic but that was fine – water but no electric, peaceful and good views – sounded perfect so started into the hills for “OffCamping” at a wee village called Bobicesti. One of my earlier phonecalls was to Karen back home – rather than cycling all the way home I’ve decided to fly from Bucharest to England and although I could book my flight on my phone I could not get the sports baggage options to come up so I’d phoned Karen so that she could do this for me – but the Wizzair website crashed at the time so we gave up until later. Only 6 miles from the campsite (or so I thought) I found myself pushing Bertie up a very steep hill – which coincided with a huge roll of thunder and the heavens opening – which coincided with Karen phoning – now trying to hold up Bertie Bike up as there was nothing to lean the bike against and hold the phone to my ear I tell Karen I’ll phone her back – but Karen had my flight all sorted and just needed my bank details and I didn’t want to miss the chance of booking it – I’m now shouting out my bank details over the noise of the rain – my phone then pings with a message from the bank requesting my fingerprint so that it can confirm payment but by now as well as trying to hold bike up and hold phone to my ear I am absolutely soaked and because I’m wet and phone is wet it won’t recognise my finger print and much cursing and swearing ensues. Phonecall aborted I get to the top of this steep section and prop Bertie up against a cemetery wall – rain has stopped as quickly as it’s come on and the sun is blazing – dig my towel out and dry off phone and luckily there has not been too much of a time delay and I’m able to complete the booking for my flight and big thank you to Karen for doing all the work in the background – just don’t time it to coincide with a thunderstorm next time – lol. Onwards and upwards – the views were amazing but it was brutal – the most pushing I’ve done the hole trip – I finally get to top of a hill – wave hello to a man with a few cows and drop down the other side a short distance when the tarmac stops and its onto steep downhill dirt track – this was serious 4-wheel drive terrain – not heavily loaded 2-wheel Bertie bike terrain and I retreat. Back down to the man with the cows – not sure I’m pronouncing the village name right and show him the name on my phone and he points me back down the hill I’ve just struggled up. Back in the next wee village on my 3rd attempt a friendly couple call their daughter from the back garden – she does what I should have done in the first place and uses the link to the location on the booking.com website – coping the address into Google maps took you a short distance away as the crow flies but a long way round when it involves going down the hill you have just pushed up and then up another long hill but just not quite so steep – I don’t think I could have sweated mote if I’d tried and didn’t have the tent up until 8pm – not sure I want to cycle this stretch again but the scenery was beautiful.
Generally weary today. Something in my left arm “pinged” about a week ago when I took my rucksack off – it’s not been overly troublesome but was a but achy today – don’t think pushing Bertie uphill helped. My right leg wasn’t too happy either – maybe because of the bad cramp I got in it the previous night. Back downhill to join the main road and then mostly gentle up but into the wind made it hard going. The scenery in Romania has been amazing but this is the best so far. Glad I stopped early and enjoyed a wander through the town, taking in the views and watching the cows who were wandering through the town too.
Friday 16th June
Covered a fair distance since I last posted and now I’m sitting in the sunshine having lunch with very good company, although he doesn’t say a lot.
When I first crossed from Hungary into Romania nearly 4 weeks ago I wondered if I’d given myself too much time for this part of the trip – now I’m wondering where the time has gone to and trying to pack in as many miles as I can.
Had to say goodbye to the very cute and cuddy pussy cat- think he or she may have slept outside my bedroom door at Bicaz-Chei. Retraced my footsteps (or should say tyre tracks) to Bicaz to meet up with Road 15 again. I had 4 days to get to a campsite, that had been recommended, on the Danube Delta – again I didn’t know what to expect in-between.
The 15 had been my friend – not too busy, nice scenery and I could enjoy the ride without having to think about navigation – that would change in the afternoon.
I’ve crossed loads of railway lines in Romania but apart from the steam train I went on I’ve only seen one other train – crossing the railway lines is brutal – the tarmac, if any, is often badly broken up and higgledy piggledy – on the plus side the cars completely stop and they can’t overtake at a railway crossing. Got a friendly wave from the train driver as he passed – bet he doesn’t see many cycle tourers.
Back on lower and much flatter terrain and seeing lots of storks again – the babies are getting much bigger and practising to flap their wings – I’ve seen up to 3 young in a nest.
Stopped in the town of Piatra Meamt because I spotted the cable car – and rode up and down cause it was there – great views from the top, especially looking back the way I had come.
Then road 15 became less friendly – 2 lanes of traffic, each way, through the town but not too busy and then big long stretch of road works and 4 lanes down to one lane – I opted to use the pavement, which had its on hazards when it suddenly narrowed and I got badly scratched on an overhanging bush. Roadworks over – road 15 back to it’s nice quiet self – oh no – much busier this side of town and I was glad to escape the noise on some side roads and this coincided with seeing some stunning cloud formations.
Back onto the 15 – just one lane each way and not so busy now but had to overtake 3 horses and their carts – always a bit wary of overtaking a horse – at home I would slow down, let the rider know I’m there and give them plenty of room – in Romania the horse and cart driver’s don’t seem too phased by the traffic hurtling past them- I suppose they get used to it but there must be accidents at times. Over taking 3 horses and carts at a time and making sure I’m not in the way of cars in either direction involved precision time, going as fast as I could and hoping for the best and we made it.
Stayed at Holland Hostel in Bacau – location was picked because it was on route and was a good price – no idea what was in town – by the time I got there I was too hot and tired to care but can tell you that my twin room, with wee balcony and TV (that I didn’t use), shared bathroom, probably the best kitchen I’ve seen in a hostel and super friendly staff was a bargain at £15 – within a few minutes walk there was also just about every supermarket under the sun.
Next day back on nicer quieter roads. Still lots of people working the land but as well as hoes, scythes and rakes, some folks now have petrol strimmers. Houses that I pass vary hugely in size and style – anything from what appears to just a tiny 4 walls and a roof and not a lot holding it together to modern 2 and 3 storey houses and everything in between – there’s a lot of part finished but obviously lived in houses, stuff done as time and, more importantly, money allows – a lot of people still don’t have running water and regularly see folks collecting water from taps on the street – nowhere that I’ve been seems to have a posh end of town or a less well off end – it’s just a random mix of houses and I like that.
Have seen loads of bikes – most of them very old and a necessity rather than a luxury but saw a few folks out cycling for pleasure and a few newer bikes too. Beautiful weather again.
Cycled past another big lake – Lacul Beresti – unfortunately didn’t see much of the lake until the road crossed over the dam – when I did see it though, the water was so choppy you could have mistaken it for the sea.
On the outskirts of a small town – Ploscuteni I think – I swear a telegraph pole talked to me – slowed down and thought my brain was playing tricks on me and carried on but it happened again a few poles further on and glanced up and there is a video camera and flashing light – in the town there is music and prayers being played through loud speakers from one of the churches and I wonder if that is what I heard earlier – but no as I left the town and all was quite from the church there was definitely a video camera and a loud speaker and a voice – wonder what it said – “everything’s ok now – wee sweaty cyclist from Scotland has left the town??”
I was aiming for a campsite that night, just a few miles off my route – it was on Google maps but when I checked it other than mark on map no other information – no phone number, website, Facebook, reviews, etc and I didn’t want to do an extra few miles out of the way to find out it didn’t exist – nothing left on Booking.com that was in the right area or budget – a room on Airbnb sounded perfect – right place and price but they never got back to me – my blaziness about wild camping had disappeared sometime ago and at 3 in the afternoon decided I’d better have another go at finding somewhere to stay the night – one of the full hotels on booking.com had fab reviews including 2 saying they had been really helpful with finding room for folks, despite them being full – decided it was worth a shot and cycled a couple of miles to find this hotel – no room at the inn but, as per reviews, really helpful and she phoned a hotel round the corner and found me a room!
Next day mostly flat – much more arable farming – big big fields as far as the eye could see. There is a brand new bridge being built across the Danube at Braila and new road infrastructure to go with – a few miles beyond this I was getting on my first Romania ferry – this was a busy crossing with a number of boats tooing and froing and I wonder what will happen to the ferries and cafes beside them when the bridge is open. As I cycled to the ferry noticed some mountain bikes, with race numbers attached, strapped to car roof racks – there had obviously been an event on somewhere – as my ferry crossed over the one coming the opposite direction had more cars with bikes and I spotted a young lad with his Dad as the ferries passed – the lad was wearing a big medal – I gave him a thumbs up and got a wave back – there wasn’t much space between the passing ferries.
Onto my campsite for the night and this one definitely existed – no free wine or palinka but I could help myself to cherries from the trees – cherries for late afternoon snack, pudding and breakfast in the morning – yum.
Early start the next morning – I wanted to get to Camping Delta, at Murighiolin, in plenty of tme as I’d been told that I needed to be up for 5 for the boat trip on the Delta the next morning – as it happened I needed to be up for 4 as sunrise was earlier than when I’d been told about the campsite a few weeks ago.
The litte campsite was perfect – 4 campervans and me in my wee tent and it was full.
The early start was worth it – me and 6 others on the wee boat – saw lots of pelicans, one kingfisher, a European roller, white tailed eagle, different types of heron and a spoonbill. We stopped at the only remaining floating fishing village – the other floating villages have become holiday homes and small hotels. Also stopped at a wee village on land but only accessible by boat – only has a population of about 150 people – briefly towards the end of communism the population rose to about 3000 as a glass factory had been built there and new apartments for the workers – everything was in place except the conveyor belts for the sand and then communism ended and it was decided to protect the sands and the delta rather than dig it out – so the factory and apartments were never used.
Back at campsite by 12 and feeling surprisingly awake I decided to pack up and cycle about 60k to another campsite, gradually getting closer to the Black Sea. Had to be careful when pitching my tent at Jurilovca as there was a lot of baby frogs and I didn’t want to squash them.
Next morning, abandoned tent and panniers and cycled the 5k to see Greek Fortress – I didn’t find the ruins particularly interesting but it was worth going for the good views.
Bike loaded up and on mission to get to the Black Sea. Didn’t get far though when I met Bill from BC, Canada – first cycle tourist I’ve met since crossing into Romania – we blethered for a while and compared notes before he headed to the campsite I’d just come from – hope he looked out for the frogs. And not much later I met a German cyclist – he had cycled the more traditional Eurovelo route and was heading towards the Delta to do a similar boat trip to me. And then like busses – coming in 3’s I met Boris, car insurance man from Austria, of close to retirement age – we stopped and had a drink together – he tells me he used to cycle a lot when much younger – heart problems last year and needing stents encouraged him to improve his life style and start cycling again – he surprises me when he lights up a cigarette but tells me had given up and will give up again when he gets back to Austria. We didn’t cycle together as I was faster but I kept stopping to take photos and got a good video of him – we agreed that we would both stop at first campsite and then I would share video with him but I never saw him again.
Arrived at the big seaside resort of Marniai-Sat and have to admit felt a bit disappointed – I knew it was going to big and not like a wee deserted Scottish beach or a cliff top looking over the sea like where I ended my trip in America but this was huge – one big hotel after another after another. However once I’d got my tent and gone for a short wander and literally crossed the road from the campsite to the beach to dip my feet in the sea I started to like it in a strange sort of way. I stayed the following day there so I could relax and wash my clothes. I got lucky with my timings – not a huge amount of holiday makers there but everywhere busy with preparation for the holiday season proper which would start just a couple of days later – lots of repairing, cleaning and painting of existing buildings and new small buildings being erected for roadside cafés and shops. There was at least a dozen new hotels in the process of being built and I wondered if there would be enough people to fill them. According to the map there should be more campsites but think these have long since gone for the ground to be used as hotels – I wonder if my campsite will be there in a few years time? Advantage of big resort – plenty of restaurants and I had a fab seafood pasta.
Next day onto Constanta to find the lighthouse – I always like to find a new lighthouse but did wonder if I wanted to go to another busy seaside resort and should I just start my inland travel towards Brasov instead. But glad I stuck to my plans and made my way 19k south with a lot of noisy traffic and found the old town and harbour of Constanta.
And some more good food.
