A few folks have been asking where I am – not sure the Where Am I bit of blog is that obvious so here’s the link – but I am slowly but surely getting closer to The Black Sea. https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/1dc3-bc6f4c2d-61e5/view
But that doesn’t seem to work – if you click on the 3 lines at top left of blog and the click on where am I now you will hopefully see my map.
Thursday 8th June. Two and a tiny bit days of cycling took me from the campsite at Cavica to the Bicaz Gorge and Lacul Rosu (Red Lake) – approx 113 miles away. Looking forward to seeing the gorge but other than knowing that I was cycling alongside a big lake at some point I didn’t know what I would see in between time – what I got was fantastic cycling in amazing scenery on mostly very quiet roads.
Reading other information online and what some people had told me in person had made me a little apprehensive about cycling in the north of Ronania – and now thinking that my blog and all my moaning about dogs will have the same effect and I apologise for this – I would definitely reccomend coming and visiting all the places I have been to so far – whether that is by car, campervan, motorbike or bicycle – preferably bicycle cause it’s the best way to travel – lots of beautiful and varied scenery to see and just the odd church or 2.
About 11 miles took me back to the busy town of Gura Humorului and a couple more miles of busy road to a town called Frasin and then a left turn onto the 177A and hardly any traffic at all for the rest of the day. There is a long but nice and steady pull up to the highest point, about 3800ft and of course a nice downhill to follow it. Got soaked at the beginning of the uphill – big dark clouds, a few splats of rain and a couple of big rolls of thunder turned to very heavy rain – I did wonder about sheltering at the shop I’d just bought a juice from but decided to keep going – even if I’d waited for rain to stop, there was so much surface water I was going to get wet anyway so was glad I kept going and there was no lightening – about 1/2 hour later rain stopped. Another left turn onto the 17B road and a few miles later found my wee room for the night in at Pensiunea Bradet in a wee village called Brosteni.
The lady who ran the hotel spoke very little English and my Romanian has not improved but she was lovely and showed me where everything was – a wee while later her 14 year old grandson arrived home from school and he spoke brilliant Engish and seemed keen to use it – he told me he had mostly taught himself – and then there is that -ve / that apology that nearly everyone in Europe seems to give for not speaking very good English – he tells me his grammar is not very good – he sounded dam good to me. He was excited to tell me about his recent trip to England. He was impressed by how small by packed up tent was and he told me there was no campsites nearby because of bears – he tells me that they quite often come into the village and try and get into the garbage – one of the motorbikers I’d met about a week ago had seen a bear in the distance but I’ve not seen any yet.
Planned to set off early but the rain came on while I was packing up so hung tight and didn’t set off until nearly 8.45. Weather got better and better and so did the views. No big hills but much more undulating than I was expecting.
Continued on the 17B until the road split and I crossed over this fab bridge to the town of Poiana Largului.
Right turn at the end of the bridge took me onto road 15 and alongside Lacu Izvorul Muntelui (also known as Lacul Bicaz) – Romania’s largest man-made lake.
A wee bit busier in the town of Bicaz but quieter again on the last stretch for my room for the night at Bicaz-Chei.
Much more basic room with shared bathroom but 1/2 the price of previous night and perfect for what I need – also came with good views, a free mug of homemade wine and a very friendly pussy cat.
Today’s plan was to cycle along the Bicaz Gorge to Lacul Rosu (The Red Lake) and back – only 6 miles each way but with 1825ft climb on the way – I was then going to cycle another 50 miles to nearest campsite – however liked my room and opted to stay an extra night and went for a walk round the lake when I got to the top instead of rushing back down. Cycle to the top was fab and not as hard or as steep as I expected to be but still a toughie and glad there wasn’t too much traffic on the road.
Back at the wee hotel I asked if there was a walk to the wee outcrop with the cross that I could see from the balcony. The husband of the couple who run the hotel offered to show me the way up – it’s not very high up but barely a path – it turns out it was the hotel owner who erected the cross – I don’t think many folks go up to it and I would never have found the way. Glad I asked cause the view was fab.
Monday 5th June. Didn’t cycle far to next campsite – although did go a couple of miles passed it – from roadside it wasn’t well advertised and hidden behind trees and Google maps took me up a steep hill beyond it – clicking on the link on the campsite website took me back to the correct place. Tent up, panniers and tent abandoned, and I set off on a circular route to see 2 more painted monasteries.
Not far on saw a very young boy guiding a cow on a rope across the road – guessing the boy was about 6 – no idea how old the cow was. There was a man with them as well keeping an eye on things, which I was glad about and also that I stopped and kept my distance as the cow became very skittish when a van drove passed too quickly. Cow safely up track and I carried on
With or without monasteries, this was a fab route with beautiful scenery. In an anticlockwise direction, it took me from Cacica (famous for it’s salt mine) up to Plesa at 2379 feet – 19% incline at times and I have to confess that even without panniers I had to get off and push Bertie up the last couple of switchbacks. A lovely swoopy downhill to The Monastery at Humorului and then mostly downhill to the busy town of Gura Humorului. A wee there and back to see my last painted Monastery at Voronet and (2nd confession of the day) I have to admit to being too hot, tired and hungry to take it in – it was amazing but didn’t have the same wow factor, not because it was any less stunning but think I was too tired. A wee detour to the tourist info – not sure if it was closed for the day or permanently closed but I found myself in tourist hell – big park with trails for cycling and walking, outdoor climbing wall and tree top assault course and zip wire – all sounds fab but it was absolutely heaving with people and just too too busy so I escaped back to the town and continued with my bike ride. Road busy for a few miles after town but there was enough of a shoulder to ride on for most of it, a nice easy uphill followed by some more fabby downhill and then back to the campsite.
This is a link to the route without the couple of extra wee detours I did. https://romaniatravel.guide/s/cxRKT
Back at the campsite I got help from the owner to plan my route for the next couple of days and later on he gave me a glass of his homemade cherry brandy and a plate of biscuits – I love these wee campsites – you wouldn’t get that at a big site.
Saturday 3rd June. Was it because I was tired from the previous day, or because of less noise or because of the glass of wine and 2 shots of palinka I was given last night but had a fab nights sleep.
Grey and wet to start with – had an “easy” day planned – so took it easy and waited for it to dry up before heading off on the bike. Was doing a there and back from the campsite to painted monastery no 3 – Putna Monastery – approx 22 miles each way – couple of wee hills – felt like more than 22 miles!!!
Villages and towns bigger this way and more traffic on the road. Despite places being bigger very few ATM’s – carrying cash is a must, certainly in the north of Romania – the bigger supermarkets and restaurants take card but all the campsites I’ve stayed at, the smaller restaurants and shops and any museum I’ve been in you need cash. Marginea was a reasonable sized town but the only ATM was out of action – luckily the one in Putna was working.
Still no cycle paths, which I’m not surprised at – most of the villages and towns don’t even have pavements and once you get off the main roads you are often on gravel tracks – some of the places I passed through today were getting nice monoblock pavements though and there was some small modern road side cafes.
Putna Monastery has very little of the exterior paintwork left but still a beautiful building. Very busy though so I escaped to see The Hermit’s (Daniel’s) cave and then walked up the short but steep hill to get the views of the Monastery from above.
Returned back to the campsite the way I came. Found some Romanian cider in the supermarket and had a cracking vegi pizza at a little restaurant – £5.40 for pizza and bottle of coke.
Friday 2nd June – worst sleep last night – lots of dogs barking but nothing close by – no longer worried when I hear them but it still keeps me awake. I do drop off but then waken to a drip drip noise – assume it’s starting to rain but it’s only on one side – try to ignore it, but it’s constant and definitely only on one side – unzip tent door – clear beautiful starry night – it’s definitely not rain I can hear – zip tent up but still can’t sleep. Unzip tent again, standing up with feet in tent and head outside (which isn’t easy) and look to otherside of tent but in the half light still can’t figure out where noise is coming from. Zip tent up again – feck noise has disturbed a much closer dog – I hear it woofing and it’s paws on the gravel outside my tent – it’s woofing draws attention to other dogs – there are least 3 other dogs outside – all have different ‘woofs” at least one circles round the tent, and I have to admit to being a wee bit nervous but then they move towards the road – there’s a lot of doggy toing and froing and there woofing triggers more woofing but they don’t seem to be interested in the tent or it’s contents! I do eventually nod off but keep waking up – one dog stays outside the tent and woofs intermittently – I keep as still as I can, thinking if I’m very quite he might go away but no – I think he might be guarding me – I suspect he is the nice wee labrador from the hotel itself but don’t want to open the tent door to find out as this might increase the barking? Bird dawn chorus starts and less and less noise from dogs and I get some sleep and feel surprisingly awake when I get up at 6am. Transpires that condensation has formed on roof of hotel, this has ran down and been dripping on pannier bag (which is on bike rack) and in turn dripped on side of tent.
I only cycled 20 miles but took me over another pass – The Ciumarna Pass – also known as The Palma Pass. “The “Palm” was erected as symbol of work and strength in commemorating the moment in 1968 when the two teams of road builders who met here coming from opposite directions shook hands to mark the completion of the road and overcoming of the difficulties of this work” – pinched from Wikipedia.
Loving the climbs – I’d done so much flat or very little incline that wasn’t convinced at all that I’d get up them – but I do – puffing and panting and sweating like the proverbial pig but I get there.
Saw one road cyclist yesterday, going the opposite from me – he gave a friendly as he zipped his way down.
Tent up nice and early at the lovely wee Cristal Campsite at Sucevita and then went a wander to see painted monastery no. 2. Again the painting was amazing. There was also lots of embroideries from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries – the detail in the stitch work was incredible and all amazingly preserved – unfortunately, photo taking of the embroideries was not allowed.
Good company from the campsite cat.
Fantastic and very good value meal at the campsite – only a small restaurant and they had 2 big groups in so I was meant to have my meal before them but got in invited to join a lovely Romania family who also shared there home made wine and palinka (local traditional spirit and it is very good) with me.
Two of the ladies made this lovely flower wreath and all the girls had their photo taken with it on.
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