Top Gear – Transfagaran Pass

The following day was the Transfagaran pass. A drive that all Top Gear fans will remember as their favourite driving road in Europe. The little blue van made it up and down in one piece although not quite rally style with the tail out on every corner and slick over taking manoeuvres. Off the south side of the Fagaras, avoiding the bolts of lightning, child sized potholes and flooded roads we started to loop back round to head north. We planned a scenic drive back towards Alba Iulia with the hope of getting a climbing book and climbing in the Turzii gorge. No luck in this town, no sports shops or bookshops let alone a gear shop. Still the town had a cool walled centre with some huge monasteries and old government buildings. On towards the gorge anyway with the hope of finding some climbers or asking at the chata at the start of the gorge if there are some easy routes to find or topos we could borrow for the day.

The camping area at the gorge was a let down. It had been described nicely but was dirty and had turned into a huge family gathering area who blasted out music until 2am and started again at 6.45 the next morning. After parking up and realising that our information point at the chata had been closed for 2 years we headed into the gorge with minimal kit in case we spotted some easy routes to play on. In the gorge on the first crag we bumped into a few climbers and asked them if they had a guide book we could look at and take a few photos of. One guy said he had one back at the chata and ran back to get it for us. When he came back he explained that we could keep the book as we would never have found it as it was a limited print of 500 and not sold!

After chatting to the guy it turns out he wrote the guide book and was giving us this copy to keep. A nice souvenir from a truly honest and super helpful local climber. He told us where to head for some easier routes and that he was off to climb on the other side and his 2 friends were off further up the gorge too, all part of the local mountain rescue team.

We headed off and a few bridges and a river crossing later we found the route called Lisa that we had been looking for and it happened to be one of the easiest routes in the book anyway which we needed after such a long time out of climbing. The route looked a little difficult as far as route finding and a mixture of old and new bolts and pegs. A couple of American climbers came past and showed us the other 2 routes along side it so we decided to give Lisa a try, 40 minutes of faffing later I had to abandon the route as I just could not find a way across a smooth slab to what looked like a muddy crack line. Not what we wanted to be climbing to get our confidence back up. As I rappelled back down, Lisa who had belayed me from below had spotted Nicolae, the guide author, aid climbing an 80m wall on the opposite side of the gorge. He had mentioned that he was writing an updated book so we guessed he was checking routes or looking for new lines but he was flying up and down his fixed lines. Sadly “the lets get stuck into some climbing day” had been a let down as far as the climbing, to really enjoy the area you needed to be climbing 7’s and 8’s in sport and trad, with us unable to complete the easiest routes we were disappointed but now more motivated to get back into it all and start training and climbing together to be able to get the most out of next years Canadian adventures.

So this drew a close to Romania. The weather had been a little unkind to us, the roads even worse making the distances we travelled a little stressful and twice as long as expected but a great country, well worth exploring with a little more time and super friendly people always trying to help. We headed back to Oradea, which was out entry point knowing we could get Lisa stamped back out of the country. After a less than thorough search at the border by Romanian customs which consisted of them poking in a few bags and asking us if we had alcohol or cigarettes we got stamped out and headed on to Hungary. Farewell Romania, and we hope to come back one day.

Fagaras Mountains – A long and winding ridge

Finally, the weather appeared to be clearing so next we headed on towards the Fagaras mountain range after a few rainy driving days. We had founds ourselves a nice 3 day ridge route (shortened route due to logistics of leaving the van and getting back to it) and also somehow found the only free campsite in the world that allows you to shower, wash up and park up for 4 days and not pay a cent.

The Touristca Sambata is also home to a working monastery, while waiting out the rain we had look around. We had just finished saying how peaceful and relaxing the surroundings felt when disaster struck. They had builders on the roof retiling it and we noticed them all suddenly running, I looked over at a man on the ground who appeared to be yelping in pain and another guy trying to lift a fully laden cart up then twigged. I nudged Lee and said his leg is stuck, quick go and help. This young builder guy must have been standing near the cart completely filled with tiles when it collapsed trapping his leg. Lee and the guy tried to lift it not even budging it an inch, then another 5 guys arrived from the roof and together they all lifted it just enough for the guy to begin to slide his leg out, then it fell again this time landing on his foot with a shriek of pain, quickly everyone lifted again and he pulled his leg clear. In obvious shock he didn’t cry or look that distressed, but as Lee told me later his leg was completely shattered and then his foot would be too. A really unfortunate accident, but considering the standard of safety measures out here, probably not that uncommon.

Finally time to head back into the mountains. We felt happier leaving the van there rather than a trailhead car park and being free was a bonus. We headed up the trail with the aim of getting up onto the ridge by mid afternoon. The paths had been completely destroyed by rainfall and melt-water so much improvisation was required although the way marking was still great. Whilst under soviet communism rule, hiking was promoted but they didn’t want the common folk to have any maps so they way marked everything in time, not distance allowing hut to hut travel in relative safety without navigation. Dangerous in some senses due to not knowing where you are until you reach a hut of a sign but safe for them as no-one had detailed maps.

Anyway, we had an exciting route up to the ridge. Firstly, shortly after crossing the river we heard a rumble and looking over the river, 2 huge trees slid down the side of the valley and came crashing down to the river. Had we been on the other side of the river there would have been a French crepe and Aussie pancake instead of Lee and Lisa. Being in bear country and not seeing another single hiker we suddenly felt rather alone, out came the cries “Hello bear” before venturing around any blind corners and lots of sing alongs to keep the bears entertained and hopefully safely away from us.

Later, the path up the gulley was snow filled with very hard compacted snow which we could not see until we got there and there was so little snow visible from afar that we did not take any snow gear. A little rope work, scrambling, snow traversing and bag hauling later we were on the ridge although it cost us a good few hours. We’d both made comments how we hadn’t been climbing at all this trip, so here we were forced to! We did a first ascent; improvised style, much to my (Lisa’s) horror and I was truly scared.

We carried on with moderate visibility and made it to a nice lake to set up camp for the night. A small storm blew through over night but nothing drastic, just a lot or rain to make for packing up a wet tent in the morning. The next day we set off in poor visibility and headed towards the target of Moldoveanu, Romania’s highest peak. On the way we bumped into a couple who had been hiking the ridge for a week and had had poor visibility every day and were planning their way off the ridge as they were fed up of being up high but not seeing anything.

We carried on and reached Moldoveanu’s summit at about half 10 in the morning with less than 2m visibility we had no views on the top. As we continued walking we were lucky when the sun would pop out occasionally and provide even the briefest of views, making the walking all that more memorable. We carried on the ridge and dropped off for the second nights wild camping. Just at the turn off point we were confronted by 2 shepherds, 6 dogs and 1 mobile phone. We had been warned in books that more dangerous than the animals were shepherd’s dogs so we had rocks in hand to deter them if needed, but thankfully one shepherd came and rounded them up as we walked past explaining in Romanian they were there to use the telephone. Times have changed, even shepherds out in the middle of no where are able to keep in contact with the world even if it means hiking from deep in the valley to the high point of a ridge to get the only signal. A classic moment.

Down off the ridge, past a few lovely lakes and we found a small sheltered valley and set up the tent on a nice grass meadow, overlooking Jurassic style mountains and thick forest in the valley below. We freshened up in the ice cold stream and set up for the night. That night a huge storm blew through. Most of the night was spent holding the tent upright from inside and hoping that everything would be in one piece in the morning. The storm blew through and eventually settled at dawn. We survived and so did the tent apart from one bent pole. The walk out was very tedious, 4 hours down logging routes with mud and puddles before walking down along a road for 7km we both absolutely detest road walking to finally get into Victoria. Still there was one funny moment on the way down when all we could see was this tree being shaken violently just off the road. Knowing this region was home to many different types of wild animals we slowly walked backwards away keeping an eye out, when it didn’t seem to move we started to make more noise hoping to scare it away. Then a flash and through the bush we could see a human, sigh of relief and a giggle it wasn’t a bear it was just someone randomly foraging off the road.

When we eventually made it to Victoria where the map showed a train station where we had planned to get a taxi back to the van. We were greeted with a sleepy town. It started to rain so we headed straight for the train station, but couldn’t find it, asked a local who spoke German/Romania and through broken communication she informed us no train station and no taxis, we needed to hitch hike. Hmmm what to do now!!! It started to rain and we got ourselves to the roundabout to consider hitching, otherwise we were literally stuck. It was here we met a really lovely man who spoke broken French/Romania and thankfully with Lee’s fluent French we found out that we needed to hitch our way back. He was so kind and told us where to stand and then flagged people down for us. We were picked up by a young couple who took us to a more central town though actually going past their destination to make sure we got as close as possible to where we needed to get to. Then it was still another 10km along a road to the van which we started to walk but remembered the drive in on a narrow road and decided to try hitch hiking again. 3 tries later another young couple stopped and took us 9 of the 10km’s, with a final walk back we were relieved to see all was well at the campsite, van safe and a wedding going on. Time to move on one thinks.

With lots of wet kit it was time for a campsite and sunshine to dry it all up. We headed to the North West part of the Fagaras and stayed just outside Sibiu in a nice little campsite where we got a super washing line rigged up and 3 wash loads later had the campsite giggling at the amount of washing we had accumulated. A stroll around Sibiu later that afternoon and then back to do some planning and reading.

Romania – I’m a gypsy

So, sat here swinging in the hammock after a nice relaxing day by the pool in the hotel complex next to the campsite in Eger in the Hungarian wine growing country. However, the past 10 days has been spent in Romania so more about that.

We crossed over the border early in the morning to beat the truck rush hour. Lis needed to get a border control stamp on her passport as we were leaving the schengen zone. No problems getting this, just a few car documents to be checked and a bemused look about an Australian crossing over into Romania in a British van.

Our first impressions of Romania were a rural looking land not all that different from what we had seen over the past few weeks in Poland and the Baltic states. A few hours into the day long drive however and things quickly changed. All of a sudden we were plunged into what felt like a 3^rd world country. Not in a derogatory sense but shanty town type villages, poverty, people begging and horse and carts as the main form of transport for the country folk. High gates secured the houses from prying eyes but then each person had a bench out the front they would sit on and watch the world go by and catch up on local gossip. Even earning enough money to get by is a struggle here, most seem to work selling produce foraged from the near by forests and home produced goods, selling them by the side of the road. Theses included melons, onions, mushrooms, wild strawberries and cheese to mention but a few.

The roads got progressively worse with, as lonely planet describes so well, “child sized potholes” scattered about on all roads and around blind corners. The poor van was going to take a big hit, hoping the suspension would hold up and tires not be too hammered. The other issue thrown into the mix here was the appalling standard of the driving. Overtaking on blind corners, at 80kmh through 50kmh villages. Car trucks, tankers, they were all at it. This made for some super stressful driving when you also add in the horse and carts, drunk cyclists, families strolling 2 by 2 down the highway and transport police around every corner, not looking for speeders or dangerous drivers but in fact weighing the axles of the lorries and commercial vehicles. Surely it is only a matter of time before we get stopped…

We headed into central Romania through Transylvania and on to Sighisoara to see a few Dracula sights. Sighsaora’s old town is home to one of the many claimed places that Vlad Dracul lived around the area but a fantastic walled citadel even without the fairy tales added in. We had both commented that we didn’t expect to see any British travellers but then promptly bumped into our first British tribe that we had seen for a while at the campsite. They were a young family of 5 who had been on the road since February. 3 kids in a camper with one aged 6 months travelling for 7 months is quite some undertaking but being freelance and taking extended maternity leave allows that I guess. They had come up from Bulgaria after driving up form Greece and told us that Romania was pretty much 1^st world compared to Bulgaria. The roads were worse, the driving worse, more poverty and not all that much to see. It was nice to get some honest advice as we had been contemplating how far East we should head and due to time remaining and bad roads whether we should continue on to Bulgaria. We made the decision not to carry on Eastwards as although there were many mountains and things we wanted to see in Bulgaria the time it was taking us to travel in Romania could have meant us driving for a week to get further East and then having to head back immediately to get home in time. Instead, we opted to enjoy the countries we could see on the way home and add those 2 weeks of driving onto the time we had in the Alps and through Hungary.

On to Brasov and then Sinia to visit Peles Castle which will remain a trip highlight. Still in perfectly habitable condition and lavishly decorated it was the old king’s summer residence for many years. Halfway round the castle visit the power went out. We were informed that being Romania, the problem could be fixed in a few hours or a few days. We continued the tour escorted by a giant flashlight and it gave the castle a more eerie feeling. The power came back on a little while later so we went on to revisit some of the darker room and the hall of mirrors, which were more impressive when lit up.

Open'er festival and farewell Poland

From Warsaw we headed North to Gdynia where we had tickets for the opening day of the Heineken Open'er Festival. A horrific 7 hour slog along some of Poland's finest police, camera, action style driving saw us finding a makeshift campsite next to the festival site in someone front yard. After a late lunch we headed over and spent the rest of the evening enjoying waffles and pizzas, and a little musical entertainment courtesy of Laki Lan, Ben Harper and Pearl Jam. We got to enjoy a few other smaller Polish acts getting their first chance on the bigger stages too. A well orgainsed festival if not a little over policed and strict but well worth the travelling and reccomended to anyone who loves their music and wants a cheap 4 day weekend.

There comes a time in a long travelling trip where you have to make some choices. Limited by 90 day visa requirements we were faced with the really tough choice of going back into the Tatra Mountains (Poland/Slovakia) for an extra week and do the mountain peaks and some climbing which we had both been super keen to do or leave that for hopefully in the future and spend time in new countries and new mountain ranges. After lots of thought we both agreed, time to head to Romania and live like gypsy's for a month.

The following day we had planned on making it all the way south to Slovakia but a lazy morning, an hour on the beach at Sopot and some mild underestimating of the time required to travel on these hellish roads meant that we only made it halfway down the country. Saturday was another long driving day which saw us make it to Slovakia's Dunajec Gorge and hop onto the last traditional flossfarht raft of the evening which floated us downstream for just over an hour. Due to yet more language barriers issues and also forgetting to really ask the question of how to return to the start of the raft trip, we ended up getting a rollercoaster shuttle bus back to the van, avoiding the 9km walk back up the gorge in flip flops (aka-Thongs)

One last visit to be made whilst in Slovakia was the Slovenski Raj national park. We managed to work out a little mapless 4 hour route which included a gorge scramble up and then a forest trail back down. The heavy rains from earlier in the trip had taken their toll of the gorge and many new ladders and paths have had to be arranged but well done to the rangers, the trail is great fun.

Later that day we made it to within a few km's from the Romainian border ready for an early border crossing in morning. Another night spent at a trucky road side stop.

Warsaw and then 3 becomes 2

Time to try a new campsite, wondering why the heck we chose this one! We rocked up to what seemed to be a huuge Irish takeover in the campsite. Caravans scattered all over meaning that only a few more people could park up or pitch tents, filthy washing areas, howling children and running riot as the parents watched on but took no responsibility for them. How we put up with 2 days there we will never know. We would certainly think twice about setting up camp anywhere like that again where a tribe has literally taken control of an entire campsite.

Having been to Warsaw a week before, I became the tour guide for Lee and Nicole.
Wandering through the old town, they visited the castle and went up the tower for a high view.
Before we knew it, it was time for Nicole to fly out to continue her solo trip onto Vienna and further and for us to drive north to Gdynia.

I'd like to thank Nicole for putting up with a few (well heaps) of unwelcome mosquitoes, camping in the van and putting up with the fun and banter that comes along with a road trip in a small van, 3 people and Eastern European countries. It was a really special time I'll never forget getting to travel with my cousin.