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The Town of Novaci has little to offer besides a launching spot for the famous road.
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8633/2...a5a1bc5e_b.jpgRomania-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had originally planned to go up the Transalpina and back to Curtea de Arges to the start of the Tranfagarasan so we could go up and back there and then to Bucharest the next day. When we arrived to Novaci there were black storm cloud covering the mountains and it made no sense to attempt the mountain pass today. Plan B was to do two passes in two days, but decided if we awoke to a nice day we would try to do both in one day (340 km , but a 10 hour trip) since the forecast is not that good in the next few days. https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7761/2...65bf86ce_z.jpg The pension we stayed at also ran a bakery and they delivered fresh baked loves to us! https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8034/2...ea453472_b.jpgRomania-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8802/2...d839e3f2_b.jpgRomania by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We got our wish and woke up to a very nice sunny day. Starting out north up the Transalpina there are wide sweeping switchbacks that get tighter as you go higher. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8711/2...78045fe0_z.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-04 at 18.56.23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c6.staticflickr.com/8/7616/2...c2b3351f_b.jpgRomania-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8193/2...b1a19454_b.jpgSara CC-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Above the tree line there are panoramic views.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7490/2...497a9e77_b.jpgRomania-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8881/2...c1eb28b5_b.jpgRomania-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8747/2...e22470dc_b.jpgSara CC-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8614/2...47629a50_b.jpgSara CC-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7310/2...1a8ba720_b.jpgSara CC-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8892/2...480578a2_b.jpgSara CC-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8697/2...e31db09e_b.jpgSara CC-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
When you get even higher you are in the clouds with limited visibility st the summit. There are the usual tourist stalls here, but very treacherous pull off spots and poor bike parking so we did not stop.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7586/2...17c561f7_b.jpgSara CC-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8858/2...a249b344_b.jpgSara CC-25 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
On the descent you come out of the clouds to more spectacular views. The road continues north winding thru the valleys. The road surface is intermittently smooth as silk, patchy, and pot holed where large patches have been removed for repairs. At Obarsia Lotrului there are a few stalls and we managed to find a sticker.
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8644/2...a313b356_b.jpgSara CC-26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr From here you continue to Sebes and then there is a 100 Km stretch on the highway to make some time and get east to the 7C/Transfagarisan highway. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8711/2...78045fe0_z.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-04 at 18.56.23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
You ride across the plain to see the Carpathians rising infront of you. Here we saw a steady stream of bikers, but not as many as we expected.
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8889/2...15f94e25_z.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-04 at 18.58.01 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8422/2...a6cd9d45_b.jpgSara CC-27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The ride starts again with some sweeping switchbacks, which tighten as you rise. There is some traffic including sheep jams. https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8589/2...3fa5f3be_z.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-04 at 18.58.58 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8620/2...5de6f17b_b.jpgSara CC-28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8687/2...38d9f0af_b.jpgSara CC-29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The steepest assent is over a number of switchbacks to quickly rise up the hillside to the summit.
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8676/2...135c3914_b.jpgSara CC-30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8863/2...00e55636_b.jpgSara CC-31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7502/2...ef541375_b.jpgSara CC-32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7504/2...7ffb16d1_b.jpgRomania-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7789/2...86afbb94_b.jpgRomania-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8610/2...b37a6204_b.jpgRomania-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8878/2...dd1c0630_b.jpgRomania-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There are a few stalls here for your sticker acquisition. There is also paid parking lots can you believe it!
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8174/2...0fee2176_b.jpgRomania-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr just after the summit is a 1 km long very narrow dark and wet tunnel to the southern summit view spots. From here is is a quick descent to the valley. https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8747/2...62ac8237_b.jpgRomania-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7633/2...690902ce_b.jpgSara CC-33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8721/2...91f5fd01_b.jpgSara CC-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Most of the rest of the ride south is along the river valley and for a long way to circumnavigate half of the huge lake.
https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8016/2...0a540813_z.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-16 at 20.22.36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We arrived to the Camping Arges about 7 pm and set up camp. This is a nice little private camp spot with great facilities including a full kitchen, a washer and dryer! We camped under the fruit trees and awoke to another nice day. https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7646/2...e4592b0d_b.jpgRomania-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8778/2...85460fb0_b.jpgRomania-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8347/2...06d52684_b.jpgRomania-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had a short 150 km to the capital of Bucharest. We planned to not do much here, but rest for 2 days and relax before the final few weeks this year. We have a month and 5 countries left to go.
https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8838/2...5c9e3583_b.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-04 at 19.03.22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8733/2...c488c133_b.jpgSara CC-35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8666/2...165dc877_b.jpgSara CC-36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8353/2...e7e16011_b.jpgRomania-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8504/2...66c48c92_b.jpgSara CC-37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8052/2...941c0e7f_b.jpgSara CC-39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8784/2...e2789cf5_b.jpgSara CC-38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
To be honest its too hot, Bucharest is not that nice and we are exhausted. So we spent 2 days not doing much besides getting the clothes and suits to the laundry mat, sleeping, and catching up on season 6 of game of Thrones!!
https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8469/2...7a7db5bc_b.jpgBucharest Romania CC by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8654/2...c792ec4b_b.jpgRomania-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8052/2...1872f2b5_b.jpgRomania_-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8835/2...f1a89859_b.jpgRomania_-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/9/8828/2...534f56cd_b.jpgRomania_-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8799/2...3da21b8b_b.jpgRomania_-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It was also very hot so we did not feel the need to venture out until after 6 pm except to get our clothes and very stinky riding shuts to the laundromat. Romania is a bit rough around the edge and does not have a European feel about it. The drivers are impatient, aggressive, and pass in unbelievably dangerous locations especially for ultrapassing a line of cars/trucks. In general we are a bit disappointed in Romania. I think we had built it up to much from all we had heard about how amazing the riding is. Now the Transaalpina and Transfagarisan are nice, but they are not the Gavia, Stelvio, or Grossglockner. Between the interesting bits there is just tons of traffic and not much else over large distances. |
From the capital we wanted to make some tracks back to the north, but did want to stop by to see Bran or Dracula’s castle. We took the “main road”, which is a dual lane road thru many small towns. There was an almost 10 km stretch of cars where the road goes to 1 lane where traffic is essentially stopped. Passing on the right of the right lane was hard as there was little room and a deep ditch as well. Finally we had to pass the left lane on the left in the oncoming lane and cut back in when we could this worked well for a while, but in the end we lost 2 hours to traffic today. Driving thru Bran was also 1 lane and mobbed with Saturday tourists.
https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8561/2...4628b65917.jpgScreen Shot 2016-08-08 at 21.59.18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8653/2...b8e1ed4b_b.jpgBran Romania-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We did a drive by and then headed back on the secondary access, which is partly gravel. https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8180/2...4daf6cdb_b.jpgRomania_-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8504/2...2dbd2d7f_b.jpgRomania_-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c8.staticflickr.com/8/7630/2...00ef467e_b.jpgBran Romania-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From here we had less traffic, but had to wait 20 min at a train crossing as the gates were down long before the train crossed.
https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8304/2...96836aa5_b.jpgBran Romania-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8618/2...dc26f28a_b.jpgBran Romania-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Daniel made another big milestone today as well.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8673/2...074b2059_b.jpgRomania_-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8596/2...f6484dbc_b.jpgRomania_-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Luckily we had the GPS coords of the campground at Sovata and we pulled in there about 630. We had a nice spot under a big apple tree. This spot has pretty good facilities. We were very hot and very thirsty. I saw another camper with beer bottles he was returning and asked if he spoke English. He did not, but when i asked where he got the beer he said he would get us some while he was there. Fantastic we had beer delivery for tent set up! We met Andy and Vanessa traveling in their Yellow WV van and they invited us over to share a bottle of real Champagne! We had a pretty good night with only a few apples dropping on the tent in the night!!
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8765/2...2a6fa37e_b.jpgRomania_-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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